Cost per dozen for May 2016

I'm pretty sure I say this every month, but how is it June already? I feel like I have a million and a half things to get done before next week. Oh well, so it goes.

May was a pretty good laying month, a really good selling month, almost no left over eggs to speak of and almost everyone is paid up. Sounds good to me!
Someone who shall remain nameless is broody. Again. She is cracking eggs. Again. And covered in egg gunk. again. she really needs a bath on of these days. I'm not thrilled about it, but at least no one was eaten. No eagle attacks, no predator attacks of any kind.

The girls laid 214 eggs, (17.83 dozen) I sold $57, spent $55.76 and made a whole $1.24 for my troubles. I'm not complaining, the girls pay for our eggs and their feed.

They have been making their way into the garden, which means I need to finish putting up the fence and they're traveling to the neighbors yards. I should just build them a run and call it a day but I like them roaming around and eating whatever they'd like.

Cost per dozen for April

Oh boy, I'm a bit late on this one! April (and now half of May!) flew by, the girls were trouble makers as per usual. No one was broody, eaten or injured, so that's a good month. Truckee (The Rooster) continues to do his job of protecting the ladies. We have had a few eagle scares. This seems to be becoming a weekly event, but Truckee groans and the girls hide. If he isn't near them he will come running to protect them. He is a good rooster.

We had 217 eggs, 18.08 dozen. My cost for feed and straw was  $19.38, I sold $24 of eggs making $4.62 profit. Hurray! Months like these the girls are earning their keep. I can't complain about that.

They have been making a mess of the garden and now traveling into the other neighbor's yard (but they don't mind). We'll be adding a garden fence this year, I'm not sure if that should factor into the cost per dozen.

At some point in June I will be doing a deep clean of the coop and deworming the flock, that will definitely have a higher cost per dozen but you've got to do what you've got to do.

Cost per dozen eggs for March

March was a doozy, let me tell you. That wind storm threw our regular cost per dozen out the window. I had to buy fencing to make a temporary pen for the chickens in the barn, bedding, waterer, and a snack to keep the girls busy. Other then that and replacing the damaged bits, getting some shavings and feed, thats a high cost.

It was a good laying month, but also a lot of unexpected expenses, 3 times that of a normal month.We had a few wonky eggs, everything seems to have corrected itself. I'm not concerned about it.


The girls laid 237 eggs, 19.75 dozen.
My cost was $101.01 and sold $27, making my cost per dozen $3.75 not terrible but not great either.

In other chicken news, we have a new Rooster. Mr. Lovebug has named him Truckee. Our Faux-Roo wasn't doing too well and we decided that it would be best for him to put him out of his misery. There will be a whole lot more on that another day.

So back to Truckee. I met a woman buying chicks (she was, not me) and we got to chit-chatting, she had mentioned that she had a few too many roos. I offered to buy one after telling her about our flock, the space they have, blah blah blah. She wanted to make sure he wasn't going to the soup pot. I was supposed to go and get him the day or the wind storm, well obviously that wasn't going to happen. After calling and calling I couldn't get a hold of her (her power had been knocked out). I felt terrible for not going to get him when I said I would and couldn't get a hold of a her. Luckily enough I saw her again and made arrangements to go pick him up.

Going to get him, oh boy that was an adventure. First, the GPS took me all over as always. You'd think I would have learned by now not to trust it. Nope! Then we took some back roads that were filled with farm construction. Nope, back to the highway. Finally we get halfway up the mountain and I can't find the place. Adventure indeed. We go there, the kids mostly had a good time. If you've never driven with a crowing rooster in the back of your car....

So that's the story of Truckee. He has earned his keep so far. We had an eagle attack, everyone survived no worse for wear. Feathers everywhere but no missing or hurt chickens. The girls come when he calls (mostly growls). No attacking or even following the kids. He's a good boy. We're very grateful that he's joined our flock.

Thats a bit more than just a cost per dozen update, but that's what has been going on with the chickens.

Oh yeah, our Buff Orpington, Crazy-Legs is broody. She's trying to sit on eggs but keeps cracking them. Great maternal skills. Broody is when a hen wants to sit on eggs and hatch 'em. They'll sit there all day and night, pull out their feathers so the egg is against their skin and they get crazy. I've heard to described as PMS and Menopause all in one. They will sit even with nothing under them, yell and growl when disturbed or even peck and bite. They neglect their own nutritional needs for phantom eggs. I'm working on breaking her of this.

High winds indeed.

We have high winds pretty often in the winter. Thursday was by far the worst we've seen. Mr. lovebug woke up because the wind woke him. Alright, it's loud, good reason to get up kid. And he didn't go back to sleep, I can't really blame him. The wind woke me up at 3 and I was up for the day.
Looking out the windows I could see that the swings on the swing set have been straight out, yup thats windy! The cover was blown off the hot tub, the clips are now broken. There wasn't even a point in trying until the winds died down, around dusk.When it hit the ground, the cover made a big dent in the grass.

And the coop was knocked over, the egg door opened and chickens were out in the dark at 5am. Thankfully it happened while I was awake and able run out to catch them. It's not easy catching chickens that are rarely handled, in the dark, in sustained 30mph winds. I went a bought some fencing, made a temporary pen in the barn and caught them all. Set them up in the barn and then we had a neighbor, some co-workers and a tractor lift the coop back up and move it to another spot. Surprisingly, very little damage. The poop-deck basically broke off. The hinges were destroyed, bent in half the wrong way.
The water-er leaked everywhere, mixed with the food and straw and made a giant mess. I will say Scribs built a damn strong coop!

The windows were visibly distorting and flexing with the wind. The car was shaking.

The dog was freaking out, I was pacing like a crazy person for a few hours. If ever there was a time for a profanity laden post this would be it. We has sustained 30+ mph and gusts I'm told up to 85 mph.

You know, now that it is over everything I wrote during the storm seems a bit over dramatic. People are dealing with way worse things and I shouldn't complain. By 4pm I was ready for bed.

And we get to do it all again tomorrow. High winds, again.

Cost per dozen eggs for February

Holy Moly, I don't know what happened to February! It was a busy month, we were very productive, and so were the girls. They laid 185 eggs! No one did anything stupid like get hurtting or eaten, there's a plus! They spent a lot of time outside and we are now getting nearly 12 hours of day light.  The longer days and bugs to eat outside is definitely helping with egg production.The girls have been digging around the garden and have finally figured out that rainy days means the driveway is covered with worms.

This month I spent $23.85 on feed. Thanks to a 10% off sale, I bought enough for the month. I will have to get more in the next day or two. I've been using straw in the coop instead of shavings. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, I think it'll decompose faster in the composter then the wood shavings. We shall see.

I made a whooping $37 in egg sales. Hello in the green for the first time! Everyone paid their tab by the of the month.

So here we go, each dozen eggs made $0.84, that's a first for us!


And now to decided more chicks or not...

Eggs in January

It was a good month for eggs, certainly not as good as summer, but the best we've had an a while. We had a 5 and a 6 egg day! Lots of little first-eggs-in-a-while eggs, maybe half a dozen cracked eggs that were fed to the chickens.
Faux-Roo is still a bald mess, I've been giving him eggs when everyone else is doing other things. I'm starting to think he's not going to make it. He's a mess. One chicken broke a toe nail. And one didn't make it into the coop. So it goes

Here's the break down  107 eggs, 8.92 dozen, Spent $36 made $17 Cost $19 Cost per dozen $2.13 pretty good way to start the year!

This month we no extras, I didn't need to buy shavings, I only needed feed. Not too shabby! The first week of February, feed will be on sale, I'll be buying enough for the month, maybe for 6 weeks. I haven't decided yet. It's only a dollar off, so we'll see.

I'm going to try using straw in the coop instead of shavings, my thought process is it will break down in the compost much faster then the wood shavings and straw is much cheaper, not that cost really a big deal. We shall see how it works out.

It's also that time of year to think about getting more chickens. Last year we lost 2 pullets and 2 cockerels. Do we need more? No. Do I want more? Some times. I'd like to have a few colorful eggs just for the novelty. There is always a minimum chick order number and here you have to buy 6. I don't really want 6 chicks. I would like a few turkeys for thanksgiving though. We'll see.

Cost for Eggs October through December

The girls were having a rough molt this fall. There were many days when the chickens did lay at all. Good thing the Ducks were pulling their own weight. I'm going to guess that they we got 3 eggs every other day for November. I really didn't keep track, I picked it up again for December. On a good day we'd get 3 eggs. The girls are still a bunch of messes. Half feathers everywhere! I spent the usual feed and shavings.

During November I'm guessing had 4 dozen eggs, I'm guessing we spend about $5 per dozen.
December we got 56 (4.7 dozen) eggs, I didn't go to the usual feed store instead I picked up some shavings and feed at my local tractor supply for $20. We added some vents to the coop and spent $52 for vents and hole saws.

I'm guessing we got the same amount in November, the cost being about $5 per dozen.
Cost per dozen for December $15.42

This year, not including the costs before the girls started laying, we ended up paying about $5.70 Per dozen, not great but not terrible either. I'm hoping the girls will start laying again since more of them have feathers again. Once I have more than a few eggs kicking around I can sell some more, I've had some people asking!

Come on January!

Getting back to normal

I've been home for a week, our guests left this morning and the water is gone from the yard. There is still a bit of the lake in the field but that's in the ghost river. I'm not worrying about it. We're starting to get back to normal after the week that would cause some to throw a toaster in the bath tub. We're all still sick, various antibiotics are running their course but it's exhausting.
I accomplished nothing in the last two weeks, I had big plans but then life happened. No painting, no finishing the garden. It was underwater after all. Our hose exploded - trying to find a 100 plus hose in November isn't working, Amazon to the rescue.

I haven't been keeping good of track of the egg count for the past two months, we've decided not to force light into the coop to keep up the girls laying and most are having a hard molt. I think we're lucky if we're getting 5 eggs a day, thats down from almost a dozen. The costs have been about the same 2 bags of feed and shavings a month.

The other day, in an attempt to return to the normal routine of things, I emptied the fridge and made turkey soup. It took all day but it was delicious. And bread, I made bread. That's obviously all gone now. I could bake bread all day, everyday, and eat it all resulting in me weighing 7000 lbs.

This week I'm working on a mountain of laundry, dirty house and deck that looks like a hoarder lives here. And it's raining. Hopefully the rain will wash away some of the 4 foot high water line, but I'm not counting on it. Or counting on it not coming back.

This week at A.'s school, they're having a mitten tree. There is a tree in the class room and I assume they kids are going to fill it with mittens that will be donated to kids without. I would have loved to have knit a pair or seven but realistically I won't get them done in time. So again, Amazon to the rescue.

So that's most of what's going on around here.

Scribs Farm one year later

We've officially been on the farm for a year. I'm a bit late, are you surprised? It seemed to have both flown by and taken forever. We've learned a lot, had some pretty stressful times (Hello flooded field!) and learned exactly what is important. The kids are so much happier here. If I let Nature Baby be in charge, she'd never come in the house. I foresee more animals in our future! We've seen the progress we've been making and it's so satisfying. Google maps updated their maps (this happens every 3-4 years) I can see the difference from above. Our garden is in there, and the compost we've built, no coop or removal of garbage hill.

Highs
Chickens (The coop and eggs!)
Garden (July,  June, and May)
Living room redo I still can't believe it's the same room in the same house.
Wild life (and here)
Finding the Elephant Hawk Moth I still haven't seen any signs of another.

Lows
Flood
Garbage hill
Living next to a berry field, the sound machine. My goodness, I'm not looking forward to it again next year.


To Dos this year
Paint kid's rooms
Fence both for the yard and field
Paint hall way and back entry
Screen door for backdoor
Play set for the kids
Switch Septic field to a wild flower mix.

Next 5 years
Reside the barn
Landscaping - I want big trees!
Patio with a pergola
Re-insulate, new windows, basically get this house warm in the winter
Paint the kitchen cabinets

This year, I don't think my hands have ever been clean and I've never worked so hard in my life and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm excited for the future, for myself, the kids and the farm. We have a plan for the direction we'd like to head and some ideas on how to get there. I have finally gotten my knitting mojo back and now I'm starting to consider sheep. We'll see what the future brings.

Being here, I've found a sense of calm. I wake up happy. I'm no-longer as cynical, hating everything and everyone. Maybe that comes with age or maybe that comes with finding and being somewhere that feels right. People in the Pacific North-West, in my experience, are happier because they want to be here. The first thing we noticed upon moving from California is that people here are nice, they are friendly, they're willing to tell you about cool new things to do and see. We spend time outside, exploring! It's green, the wildlife isn't trying to kill you and you can be outside without worrying about extreme heat and the ground moving.

For the first time in a really long time, maybe ever, I'm still and I'm happy.

Cost per dozen September.

The girls still haven't reached their laying peak. They've definitely laid more eggs this month than last. Both ducks are now laying pretty consistently too. Duck eggs are larger than chicken and taste pretty much the same. I do have a suspected egg eater on my hands. I'm not sure if she's been eating ones that are cracked or if she's pecking them. Who am I kidding? She's pecking them and it's one of the Rhode Island Reds. I caught her with egg on her face. Literally.

Right at the beginning of September we needed feed and shavings and again a week ago, bringing out total chicken costs $98.54. We have 2 bags of shavings (that'll last 6 weeks) and a bag and a half of feed ( should last 2 weeks depending how much they're outside and we have one less chicken.) I'm trying to figure out why Ragnar died and how to make sure the rest of the girls are healthy. I picked up some grit ($8.49) and some stuff for mites ($5.98), either of those won't hurt. The girls need some grit on the days they stay in the coop.

Here's the break down
Eggs 306 (that's 72 more eggs this month)
25.5 dozen
that's an average of 10.2 eggs per day
Cost of supplies $98.54
Cost per dozen $3.39

I also sold 4 dozen, that covers a bag of shavings. I've just started to sell my eggs for $3 per dozen.

The kids are still enjoying having a ton of eggs, hopefully this will keep up.
Our costs were a bit high this month as we had a few unexpected purchases, but we're still on track with the grocery store.

During October we're going to need to do some weather proofing for the coop, hopefully we can still keep our cost under $4 a dozen.

Here's my August recap

As it turns out, I've developed a sensitivity to eggs. Meaning I can't digest them much like an intolerance to lactose. The only solution is to avoid eating eggs. Great. I've been starting to test exactly how much I can eat without feeling like I ate a brick made of glass. Last week, I made a dutch baby for dinner using 6 eggs. I ate maybe a quarter. That was too much egg. The experiments will continue.

Chickens at 20ish weeks

The girls are just about ready to start laying starting to lay! I have a feeling it's going to be a daily egg hunt! Almost all the girls spend most of the day outside. As soon as their door is opened they all jump out often before their ramp is up. I've learned not to fill their feeder and water before I want them out. Lesson learned! So far only 1 egg has been found on the ground. I think found is the operative word.

They officially are everywhere. First thing in the morning and right before bed is when they are at their most rascally. They've been on the road (there's about 10 cars a day in our road, 8 of which are people going to and coming home from work), in the neighbors' front, back yard and have been stuck in the neighbors barn. They've wandered into the garden, up onto the decks and into the barn. They spend most of their time under the our front deck. That's fine by me until Nature Baby wants to visit and crawls under with them. 

Ragnar and Faux-Roo continue to get along. Faux-roo is starting to crow, he sounds like a dying crow. Ragnar crows, but no one listens. From what I can tell he's crowing to call the girls, not to alert them of danger. Maybe they'll learn to listen. Maybe not. Ragnar is... frisky. If you know what I mean. I think he has hopped on each of the girls by now. Some don't seem to mind, others not so much.

Peepers is getting to be a bit more adventurous. She was just staying around the coop, now she comes by the house and was even hanging out with Cuckoo Chanel. Barred Simpson on the other hand is a homebody. She doesn't stray far from the coop, maybe she'll be a bit braver as she gets older. cautious  adventurer. She is also by far the most friendly. She walks right up to me, lets me pet her unlike her skittish flock mates. I'm starting to think there is something wrong with her. She has one cloudy eye. I could be a lot of things, she has no other symptoms so I'm not terribly worried. Maybe cataracts or Marek's. Who knows. She's mostly fine and I'll add some vitamins to their water.

I think I'm going to need to build the girls a run, not because of predators but because of the poop! Good gravy, it's everywhere. I'm sick to dealing with it already. If we had rain it wouldn't bother me so much but with our drought it's been too much. We had rain for the first time in 2 months and it did wonders for the poop! Maybe we will get some more. 

They are doing a great job of eating the weeds in the flower beds and digging up the plants while dust bathing.

The flock as met the neighbors dogs and cat. They had no fear of their dogs, the dogs had no aggression toward the chickens. Then the cat came over, the whole flock went running at her. She was terrified! Thats the end of the cat visits.

Honey went barreling through the door after the chickens, she didn't get any and hopefully put the fear of dog in 'em. We've been slowly introducing Honey to the chickens, she usually just watches them. Needless to say she pouted after that one.

The Chickens are 16 weeks!

A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks. The Girls have been busy. Yes, I know there are two boys in the group. I still called the flock 'The Girls'.  

The berry field next to us has decided to use sound machines to keep birds from eating their berries. It started as a combination of alien abductions and birds dying. Well, that was just great for 17 hours a day. A week later they added more dying birds and raptor calls. There is now noise... constantly for 17 hours a day.  I get it, birds eat 30% of your crops. Do what you've gotta do, but do it properly. Playing it constantly for 17 hours a day isn't doing anything. Only using sounds without bird netting, scare crows and scare tape doesn't work. The chickens got over the noise in about 2 days, so did the starlings and crows that I watch FLOCK to the berries everyday. That's the down side to rural living, we are zoned for agriculture and "farm noise" is exempt from noise laws. 

We took down their temporary fence, now they have free reign. There is about an acre for them to explore and they, of course, choose the one place I don't want them. They spend a lot of time on the driveway near the barn, and near the house. There is poop everywhere. EVERY WHERE! I put up a bit of chicken fence to keep them from roaming to the neighbors yards, they don't care. 

Fence? What fence? You can't contain us!

One of the Rhode Island Reds is a tiny one. She is about 2/3rds the size of the other RIR girls. I suspect that she is Droopy but I can't tell anymore. I wonder if she'll lay teeny-tiny jellybean eggs. We'll see, hopefully these girls start pulling their weight soon. 

The ducks have decided that they are not runners. They are flyers. They fly from the coop to their chosen foraging spot. Fine by me! They fly about 50 feet, 5 or 6 feet high. I had a dream they flew to the river to be free! We'll see if that happens.

Ragnar has been crowing. Full on Cock-a-doodle-doo-ing. He's got the whole weird stance and everything. He has yet to do the "danger is near" cries. Those will come. He needs to protect his ladies. If I'm too slow in the morning to let them out, he lets me know. 

Faux Roo is an actual Roo. He some how hurt his leg and has been hobbling around a bit. I haven't been able to catch him to inspect without him running away. I don't want him running, I'll have to bribe him with treats and take a good look. I hope it isn't anything serious and he just fell off the roost. He isn't usually standing like that.

We lost one of our Buff Orpingtons, we suspect it was an eagle. All that was left was two piles of feathers right by the field. We've been on high alert since. We're thinking about fencing them in, but thats not really what we want. We're looking at different methods of keep them out of the grasp of predators. The eagles have been out in force. I suspect it has been teach the young

Crazy Legs is our remaining Buff Orpington, her legs stay straight every time I pick her up.

Nancy Drew has lost her tail feathers. A few jerks ducks pulled them out. Those ducks... She's embarrassed.

In the last few days we've seen coyotes in the day time, and they are starting to get closer to the house and The Girls. A few evenings ago, a coyote was hopping around in the field have some mice tapas, and (I suspect) heard or saw the chickens. He scampered closer and closer and Scribs went out to protect The Girls. The coyote skulked around and watched the girls. Scribs skulked around and watched the coyote. The coyote either lost interest or smelled Scribs and lost interest. The kids were still awake, that means it was before 8 p.m. the kids were up. We've been on high alert since, especially since it's been around in the day time, when the kids are out. 

It was back this morning around noon while I was out with Nature Baby. It was in the field, but I wasn't willing to let it get any closer. We watched with binoculars and waited. Lucky for him, he went into the bushes. If he comes after The Girls we will take action. 

You can see Faux-Roo is getting his iridescent tail feathers and he's MUCH bigger than the girls. 

...I've rewritten this 3 times, every time Nature Baby some how erases it. First time was much wittier, I swear! I'm going to do the chicken updates every other week. At this point, until they start laying, there isn't too much going on. I have a ton going on, but they're just kind of doing their own thing.