Farm

2013 Annual chicken financial summary.

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 So here is the 2013 annual chicken production summary:  I only lost $96 for the year (not positive but if we purchased eggs at the market we would have spent more than that)  My annual income was $384 (almost $250 less than last year, all due to predators and me not starting chicks in the fall.),  My annual expenses $480.   I purchased 1350# of chicken feed for the year (200 more than last year all due to freeloaders).  My average laying hens for the year were 18.6 hens (currently only have 17 hens).  I collected on average 5.9 eggs/day (3 eggs/day less than last year) for a hen productivity of 31% for the year (9% less than last year).  The hens consumed 0.63 lbs of feed/egg produced (1/4 lb/egg more than last year!).   It cost me $0.20/egg in feed only (or $2.40/doz).  My actual cost per dozen with all expenses added is $3.30.  I charged $3/doz for eggs all year long. 


 I had to purchase another 2 batches of pullets, one in spring and another in fall.  I think I will use that model for a while, just buy fewer chicks at a time.  If I could just keep the automatic chicken door working all year I could virtually stem all the chicken killing by predators I had to send the door for repair once.  The chicken door guy sent me some spare parts so I am ready for another motor failure now.  I have 17 producing hens and 5 pullets that will be laying by April, and one rooster.  I will only get 8 babies this spring.  I will have to cull my two leghorns by fall.  The sheep got trapped in the chicken enclosure a couple of times last year.  They leap at the fence and bounce off.  I have a couple of sheep sized holes to repair.  Annmarie is still not a fan of the chickens but she has become a fresh egg snob when it comes to eating them and cooking with them!   She still won’t eat a fried egg.  Everyone always asks if the eggs are safe.  I tell them my wife eats one raw every morning in her fruit/yogurt smoothie and she has never been ill.  She is in charge of quality control.  

Who would of thunk?

Steve HardinLeave a comment

 It’s a new year but I am still going to be plagued by last years assumptions.  I didn’t sit down and calculate the amount of hay needed to get through the winter.  I just assumed we had enough.  I especially did not account for three extra cows and another 20 sheep.  There is a nice formula 3% of animal body weight per day per cow and five sheep count as one cow.  I did this a couple of years ago and it works great.  I did not do it last year and we are going to run out.  To further complicate things no one is selling their hay.  I have been asking around but it is hard to find. 

On the plus side I noticed our bred heifers were getting skinny in the hips.  The bull and calves look great.  While talking with my neighbor about hay, he didn’t have any, I mentioned the skinny heifers and he said our calves might still be nursing.  They are 6-8 months old now but I was not sure if they were still nursing.  I had seen the heifers pushing them off last month. This morning I watched one nurse!  So now we are going to have to separate the weanlings.  Now we just need to decide who gets to live in the orchard and who out by vehicles?  I would like the bull and heifers to live in orchard.  The heifers should give birth in April. 

So after getting off a long night shift yesterday I hunted for hay.  I talked to a few more people and started searching Craigslist.   I found hay from $165-$225/ton depending on type and quantity purchased.   We need 5 ton and fuel costs to pull the trailer are going to run around $150 plus another $50 to get help unloading.  I found some barn stored grass hay that will be delivered and help stacked for $210/ton.  This allows us to not have to add in the other costs which saves us money.  The hay comes tomorrow afternoon.  I have spent a couple of hours restacking all the hay in the barn to make room for the new.  

I had already planned on installing one more fence just past the old hand dug well so the sheep and cows can use part of the upper pasture.  I need to fix a quarter mile of external fence that is falling over also.  But a thought just occurred to me, if I fenced off a portion of the lower pasture we could let the cows have access to it in the winter also.  This would give us three cow pastures that the sheep can be locked out.  I would install a connecting gate that would let us mix cows and sheep during summer.  The fence would be easy to install, all metal posts except for a single gate.  I will have to think about it.  

Year end musings.

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Zeke is not a happy camper.  Not only is he confined to the house again but he has to wear a t-shirt so he doesn’t lick the steri strips off his belly.  He looks like a chick from the early eighties with his t-shirt all tied in a knot to make it shorter.  He is not impressed.  After another two weeks he should be okay.  By day 6 he starts bolting for the door in an attempt to get out and run around the house.  He misses chasing the cats.  
The weather was perfect yesterday.  The sun was shining it was warm and I ran around in a long sleeve shirt all day.  Today, it is a dreary December day.  The clouds are low and drizzling rain, the wind is blowing a nice biting cold and there is no sun.  It is hard to believe they are consecutive days.  Lee, the contractor is out working on the third side of the machine shop.  He is putting more brown tin up.  He should be done in a few days.  It is looking very nice.  Afterwards it will just leave the front and it needs a few new beams to replace the broken ones.  After that the shop will stand for another 50 years.  

I worked on the rock wall the other day.  I really wanted to drive the tractor up on the hillside and move some dirt behind the wall.  I am about 18-24 inches in the air and need to backfill before I can go any higher.  It was so not going to happen, the mud was so slick I thought I was standing on an inch of ice.  So instead I used the wheelbarrow to bring up more rocks and continue the wall.  I will eek out a few days this summer to move dirt and give myself some room to continue going up.  I think the wall will only be 4-5 feet tall.  I am going to get the first wall completed before I start the second one!  The main sheep compost pile that used to be in the barn is starting to break down nicely.  It is going to give me most of the needed dirt to backfill the first wall.  

The wheat that was planted this fall is just starting to pop up down by our driveway.  I noticed thin little strands of green today.  If I took a picture I am not sure you would even notice the green amongst all that dirt.  

Cow feeder moved.

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The cow feeder area was starting to get ankle deep in muck.  When we started to feed this fall the area was flat and level, now it is a mud pit.  Our new plan is to set up all four panels in a square out on the area by the grain bins and move the feeding panels every 2 weeks.  This means loading the feeding area with lots of hay.  It took me 7 bales to line the inside of the feeder with a hollow square in the middle.  If we need to, we are prepared to fill the hollow with something to keep the hay were the cows can reach it.  I may be able to use old tires stacked in the hollow space.  Who knows, we will just have to wait a week and see how it turns out.  I did get to use the trusty tractor too move the panels.  They are very heavy and hard to drag along the ground.  I will drag out the mud pit later when it dries up some.  I did drag out part of the floor of the old lambing shed where the tractor is stored.  The old sheep shit is drying into these huge clumps that attempt to turn your ankle when walking inside the shed.  I need to pull out the mower and mule to get the rest but it will have to wait.  

  

I had scraped the dirt first in an attempt to move some of the cow patties.  During this movement I had to keep the gate open and the cows got out into the upper pasture with the horses.  So Zeke and I went out to get them.  I rode out on the tractor and Zeke followed along.  On the way up I noticed that the entire upper bottom had been mowed.  We had agreed to let the upper pasture be put into hay but the line was not all the way to the current fence.  I am going to run another fence in the spring up the bottom so we can have another pasture for the animals.  I can run 2-3 more fences and create a few more pastures.  
So the cows ran up on the hillside and I sent Zeke up to get them, but no cows came down.  So I had to get off the tractor and supervise the dog closer.  This worked to push the cows to the end of the fence but he didn’t want to push them toward the creek.  The evil horses kept trying to chase the dog and the cows.  There was much swearing and waving of arms.  I was not sure who to swear at at one point, cows, horses or dog? The dog ran through the upper fence to get in the CRP so the horses could not get him and then I had to call him back.  We eventually got the cows into the correct area and I lured the horses back in with some grain.  I had to give both dogs baths because they smelled like sheep or cow poop.  After everyone was clean, Sarah noticed Zeke had blood on his belly.  Yep the moron cut himself again!  He had a four inch gash in his abdomen from the old barb wire fence.  We clipped then shaved his belly and steri stripped the wound closed.  We had to order more glue and steri strips from Amazon last night as we are running out!  To add insult to injury Zeke has to wear a T-shirt now to prevent him from licking his chest.  He is not a happy camper.  He still has a cut on both feet and we are talking about getting him some shoes so he doesn’t cut himself so much.  

3rd Quarter Chicken financials

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On average I had 17.7 laying hens giving me 5.2 eggs/day, for a productivity rate of 27% (this is horrible, in the last quarter I have only gained 2%).  I am feeding on average 127# chicken feed/month for a grand total of 1000# this year already.  This is good as I did not feed much during the third quarter but it is not helping.  With the price of feed going up every month my monthly feed bill is $41.12/month (a drop of $2.35/month).  On average just feed costs are $3.87/dozen eggs (an increase of 21 cents/doz, meaning I am now loosing $0.87 every time I sell a dozen eggs).  I have only collected 1437 eggs to date.  Total feed costs are $329, supply expenses are $376 and baby chicks for the year are $60.  I have lost $238 for the year (only lost $12 this quarter).  There is no way the chickens are going to be in the black this year.  I did thin out the nonproductive hens which is why my productivity increased but I should have done it sooner.  Plus, loosing half my new babies this year to self suffocation cut into my production.  I will need to start some new chicks first thing this spring to bring my numbers around.  My six little naked neck turkens should start laying by March and that will help dramatically.  I only have two free loaders left and they are laying more than 25% so they get to stay.  I need to get brown egg layers in the spring so I can tell who is who.  


Don came over at the beginning of the week and we killed the last two whethers.  He helped me tag all the babies and we let them back in with the main herd and turned all the jug momma and babies into the baby area after they got tags.  Only the oldest boy was ready to be banded at 1 month old and I still had to fish around to make sure I had both testicles.  I think two months old is a better age for finding testicles.  Since then we have had two more ewes give birth.  We have had three still born babies all from mothers having multiple offspring.  
Gannon and I had to go out and fix gate and fencing behind the grain bins.  The cows were pushing over the long equipment gate and going out to eat.  We found them about two miles from the house headed up the gravel road to Rocky Ridge.  We anchored the ends, installed braces and cross pieces and then ended up restapling and tightening fence.  We restapled all the way to the corner post.  I will need to tighten the barb wire strands in the spring time.  But for now, the cows can no longer get out of the pasture.