Egg Count 3

I just wanted to give an update on the current egg count, as well as some cumulative data I've begun to gather. As a reminder, these numbers refer to 143 chickens (139 hens and 4 roosters).

As of last week, the average daily egg count is 8.5 dozen. Just a month ago, it was 6.5 a day.

The total egg count for January was 1,909, or 159 dozen. Eating an average of 51.6 pounds of feed per day, or .36 pounds per hen, it took roughly 9.96 pounds of grain per dozen, or .83 pounds per egg. Each hen ate 11.16 pounds of feed over the course of the month, and laid an average of 13.25 eggs. This is so high, of course, because there was so little forage in the pasture to supplement their diet. After all, quite a bit of the last two months looked like this:

But even though we had the coldest February since 1979, with the creeping daylight the average daily collection steadily rose, and the total egg count for the month was 2,275, or 190 dozen. Eating an average of 50 pounds per day, this increase in eggs brought the grain per dozen down to 7.38 pounds, or .62 pounds per egg. So as the average monthly total per hen rose to 16.37 eggs, their individual feed consumption dropped to 9.79 pounds each.