I had this picture on the computer, we haven’t updated our website yet. Just switched servers a couple of months ago and it is painful to catch back up. Annmarie is very busy and I don’t know how to do it. I installed our drop in ceiling in a couple of weeks at the beginning of the year. It turned out great!!! We are very happy with it. It makes the place looks a lot better, now if we only had window trim…
Month: April 2010
Chicken Spreadsheet
The fabulous chicken spreadsheet results!!! I tried to get a copy cut and pasted here, but it was so small you would not have been able to read it. So I will summarize. I have taken some liberties with how I calculate some of the values. Meaning, when I have baby chicks and for the 6 months it takes them to start laying, I include that feed cost with the laying hens feed. This throws off my feed/egg calculation, but it is in reality how much I am feeding the chicks. I don’t count the chicks as productive until they start laying. So drum roll please…
For January 2010, I had 9 hens laying, collected 3.2 eggs/day for a 36% productivity. They consumed 1 pound of food for every egg collected and it cost me $0.27/egg or $3.24/doz to produce (now I only charge $2.50/doz). for a loss of $8.38 for the month.
For February 2010, I had 11 hens laying, collected 4.7 eggs/day for a 50% productivity. They consumed 1.15 pounds of food for every egg collected and it cost me $0.32/egg or $3.84/doz to produce (now I only charge $2.50/doz). for a loss of $16.97 for the month.
For March 2010, I had 22 hens laying, collected 8.5 eggs/day for a 39% productivity. They consumed 0.76 pounds of food for every egg collected and it cost me $0.15/egg or $1.80/doz to produce (now I only charge $2.50/doz). for a loss of $72.49 for the month, I purchased 24 babies and bought them 50# food and a heat lamp bulb, so it drove me more negative for the month.
This month should start to pan out on the income side. The chickens are free ranging on the bugs and greens. My feed costs should drop dramatically and my production should jump. I have 33 hens laying now. Now if I can only keep the predators away. I have been losing about 1/3 of my chickens every year to predators. I refuse to keep them locked up, which causes other problems, but really lowers the quality of the egg. Not to mention our bugs just get out of control in the house. The chickens control the bugs, the cats control the mice and hopefully the sheep will start controlling the weeds (once I get all the fence built…).
I will be sure and give a month end report every month.
Adventures in Plumbing
This is from my Live Journal posting dated 12-10-09:
Some things are very predictable in life. The sun will rise each day. The seasons turn. And the water in the hoses will freeze up here in December. Unless, of course, you’re my husband. Then, hope springs eternal in your life that you can continue to use the self-filling waterer (whose supply hose is stretched across the yard) all through the year. As usual, that hope has been dashed. Yes, the water in the waterer as well as the supply hose are frozen solid. That’s should not be surprising given our recent temperatures, but yet Steve still seemed to be not only shocked, but insulted that such a thing would happen to him.
This if from the same Live Journal dated the next day:
Remember the frozen water? Well, it turns out that galvanized metal is not a match for expanding ice. I had hoped that since there was an open path, we would have escaped the pipe-breaking portion of the program. But, today when it warmed up enough, Sarah discovered a nice little fountain spurting from the side of the stand-pipe on the frost-free spigot. The good news is that her logic circuits have developed to the point where she turned the spigot off before she came to get us. The other good news is that since it is a frost-free spigot, the valve at the base of the stand-pipe is intact and is sufficient as a shut-off until spring. The bad news is that Steve gets to replace the spigot this spring after ground thaws. While he’s at it, he’s going to put water directly to the chicken yard to we won’t have to string hoses across the ground all year long. Aaaah, the wonders of farm life. And yes, this entry is to document this occurrence for future reference. I’ll need it next winter.
The photo is of Steve standing in the almost-hip deep hole that he had to dig in order to get to the supply line so he could replace the frost-free water spigots that are a necessity in this part of the world. If you look carefully at where he is pointing, you’ll see the split in the pipe. He replaced two of these and a shut-off on another spigot that day. Of course, it was raining. But we now need the water supply to the coop, so sacrifices had to be made. Wonder of wonders, everything worked the first time. Only one extra trip to the hardware store was required, ’cause the first store gave Steve the wrong size adapter. That is actually very impressive. Plumbing is not usually that successful around here.
Hopefully this will not be a recurring theme.
woo hoo tools are here!!
I went and picked up the planer and edger today and got them loaded into a trailer. I showed up and the man asked if I brought any help. I hadn’t, everyone I know works for a living or is ill. So the two of us loaded up a 500# planer and a 400# edger into the trailer. I pulled up onto the curb right next to the front door and he had a ramp and a furniture dolly. It was enough to allow us to load them up!!! Of course the weather was lovely, rainy and the wind was blowing. It stopped just long enough for us to get the tools loaded and covered with a tarp. I backed the trailer up in our yard to the old house porch. Now, I just gotta get some help to unload them. Need to make a vertical lift of 18 inches to get them out of the trailer and into the old house… NOT going to be easy!!! I am real excited about them, already making plans. My parents are also cutting down another maple tree, so we are going to have the trunk custom cut into lumber. I just learned that I was supposed to paint the edges of the fresh cut lumber so it doesn’t split! Who knew. The last stuff I just stickered as I stacked it.
The sheep and chickens are actually staying inside due to the nasty weather. We are finally starting to get some eggs again, up to a dozen a day. Need to get to 2 dozen/day to meet all the commitments I have for people wanting them. We are going to get a business license soon. We have already picked out a name, we just need to fill out the online application. Going to turn the farm into a legitimate farm/business!!! We are excited about doing this. Hoping this helps us turn the place around and get things fixed up sooner. Which means I need to get the barn dug out so I can fix it so the sheep can sleep in it at night and hopefully we won’t lose any more babies.
My mother-in-law, Donnna, told me that if I swapped the sheep’s feeding habits and fed at night then the sheep would have their babies during the day. At this point I am thinking this sounds like a great idea!!!! Only time I really need this is during the winter and it is totally doable. I just need a light so they can see to eat. Need to do more research on this.
Gotta Love Spring
Spring in northeast Oregon can be an interesting proposition, and this year is no exception. True to form, we have storms for Easter. This year, it’s cold and blustery. We’re actually under a winter weather advisory at the moment, and snow is a possibility. It’s a good day to stay inside and curl up with a good book. Even the chickens have hunkered down in their coop. Stay warm everyone. ~AnnMarie
Stewart Creek Somethings 