2020 Egg Production - By The Numbers

Usually in January each year, we compile all of our data that we've recorded daily for the previous year and post it.  Tonight we'll look at egg production and on other days we'll look at rainfall data as well as milk production.  We are a very small homestead farm, operating on a five acre tract of land with 3-4 acres agricultural as opposed to residential.  We aren't making money doing any of this.  Our primary goal is to produce healthy, nutritious food.  It is a fulfilling thing to sit down at the table to eat meals that were produced right off your land.  It is definitely labor, but it is a labor of love.  If I could make a living doing this, this is what I'd be doing.

So, eggs...  First, before we look at the numbers, I'll preface by saying that our flock is OLD.  In years past, we had a practice of raising 25 pullets each year from day-old chicks to replace the ones that died during the previous year - either by predators or old age.  We haven't done that for the last two years.  Our flock has dwindled to less than half of what we had in the past.  We have 45 hens at year end.  Here is the chart of 2020 Egg Production by Month:

As you can see, springtime is the best time for eggs.  Comfortable weather, lengthening days, lots of fresh forage in the pasture result in beaucoup egg production, even for our small flock.  As the days get hotter and the grass less nutritious, and the days shorter, egg production falls off considerably.

A hen on our flock lays about 130 eggs per year, roughly an egg every 3 days.  As a whole we pick up, on average almost a dozen and a half eggs each day.  This allows us to NEVER have to purchase eggs at the store.  We also are able to bless friends and family with eggs and also sell some.  This helps to offset some of the feed cost.  Two bags of hen scratch will last 10 days or so. A bag of feed costs $11.

The hens do a good job of spreading out cow poop to fertilize the pasture.  As soon as the cows lift their tails to poop, the hens are there faster than, well, a chicken on a June Bug and they scratch through it in search of tasty morsels.  In so doing, they spread out the poop.  Consequently, that fertilizes the grass.  And the cycle continues.  Chicken poop fertilizes the pasture as well, but they also poop beneath the roosts in the henhouse.  I'll let that compost and then will use that as fertilizer in the garden.

We've keep records since 2013, so we have production totals below for 8 years:

Over the 8 year period, April is, on average, the best month for eggs.  In 2020, March was actually the best.  Over the 8 year period and in 2020, December was the worst month.  It is interesting to note that in 8 years, our birds have laid 70,266 eggs or 5,856 dozen.  That's a lot of omelets!

That's the end of our "egg-siting" year of egg production.