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…
Author: Steve Hardin
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.
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.
Peeping Chickens
We free-range the chickens, in part because it cuts down on their feed consumption, and in part because it’s better for them and the eggs are just that much more scrumptious. But really, the only reason I’m willing to put up with their mess in the yard (and on the porches) is because the bug population in the house drops dramatically when they are allowed in the yard. When you live in the middle of a farm, some things are unavoidable, and the occasional 6- or 8-legged house guest is one of those things. My grandmother managed to keep ahead of them, but I’ve decided that she cleaned house all day every day in order to do so, and I have to work at least a little bit.
Anyway, back to the point of the photo. When we first moved in, Steve built a lovely and sturdy trellis for the very old trumpet vine that grows outside the dining room window. This trellis extends the entire width of the house, and the eventual plan is to plant additional trumpet vines to cover it. So far that hasn’t been successful, but we keep hoping. In the meantime, the chickens are pretty sure that this trellis was put in place just for them, and they have developed the habit of peaking in the windows. I’m not sure it they are hoping that we’ll come out and give them a treat, or just trying to figure out why they can’t come in. Either way, it’s occasionally a bit startling. I guess that’s the price I pay for bug control and great eggs. All in all, I think it’s a pretty decent bargain.
PS – Steve is off working, so this was posted by Ann Marie. Steve occasionally refers to himself as Raisin, a nickname from when he was in the Navy, but I just can’t bring myself to call him a dried up grape.
digging the barn
This is going to be an ongoing theme. I moved some feeders around and tossed a bunch of broken wood out of the barn so I could dig some more. Annmarie’s father always told us that if I dug the barn out the animals would fall through the floor. I have found two different floors and some beam that sticks up four inches from the floor!! Not sure what it is there for. The stink is something awful!! The barn crap never composted because it was under cover and dried out. So now the front part is wet because the roof blew off. It stinks to high heaven!!! Nasty smelling. I did get some more crap done (yep). I have to work the next two days at my paying job so it will have to wait. I did not go get my planer and jointer today. It was pouring down rain most of the day and I didn’t want them to get wet. I have the old house all ready. I cleaned a spot in the middle of the room!!!!! They will sit there nice and pretty for a while.
raisin
