Is anybody using a chicken egg and expenses system to help manage their flock?

[gtaus]

I myself don't see the "value" of a spreadsheet just for a few birds.

Thanks for the response. I did a spreadsheet for a few years and basically discovered that my chickens are paying for themselves. We eat some of our fresh eggs, and the excess eggs are sold to buy chicken feed. That covers all of my out of pocket costs and I guess I'm OK with that.

Most of the dollar value I get from my chickens is in the chicken run compost that I use in my food garden raised beds. I used to buy compost at the big box stores and now I don't. Every year, I harvest a couple hundred of dollars equivalent in store bought compost.

I mostly just enjoy having a backyard flock, and I don't think that value can be captured in a spreadsheet.

 

[raizin]

When I got my first backyard flock, over 4 years ago, I found a software spreadsheet on the internet that helped me log all my egg collecting and expenses. It was pretty good with a number of graphs and such that you could view. I think it helped me in those first years to get an idea of how much it cost me to have a backyard flock versus how much it would cost me just to buy eggs at the big store.

The software was free, but the person posting the spreadsheet seems to have lost interest in having chickens and stopped updating their software spreadsheet a few years ago. Or, maybe they just did not have a need to track egg collection and expenses any longer. In any case, once the spreadsheets were no longer updated for the current year, I, too, stopped logging my eggs and expenses.

In my case, it would have been less expensive to purchase eggs at the big box stores. I suspect that would be the case for most people with a small backyard flock. Especially in those first years when you invest all that money into building a coop and run. That really skews the cost per egg stats at the start.

I also suspect that most people know that there are many other benefits to having a backyard flock that might not be captured by a simple egg collecting and expense software system. At least, the spreadsheet I was using had no way to capture the value of eggs sold and eaten at home. I forced the system to recognize some of those incomes by entering them as negative expenses - essentially a revenue - and that worked to some degree.

But how do you capture the value of enjoyment of getting fresh eggs from your chickens? What value should I put on all the chicken run compost I harvest every year from my run? What cost should I put on having to care for a flock everyday, which does not allow me to take days of vacation away from home?

Does anyone use a chicken management system that works for them? Computer based, or not? If so, please let me know what you are using and what you like about it. Or, maybe you find that trying to manage your small backyard flock like that is just not worth the time and effort, or maybe even misses the point of having a backyard flock. Part of me thinks I should keep better track of my chicken finances, and part of me does not care all that much. But maybe that is because the spreadsheet I was using was limited in many respects and I need to use a better system?

 

[raizin]

My wife, darling that she is, challenged my assertion that we would get rich from our flock of 30 hens and created the Chicken Tracker. Spoiler, we didn't get rich, but now I can set my cost per dozen to at least almost break even. We share it with anyone who wants it. You can download it from our blog: https://stewartcreeksomethings.com/chicken-tracker/

 

[Loving my girls]

Wow that’s very impressive!

 

[Loving my girls]

This is mine using Apple numbers, some of it is automatically calculated (the faded out figures)

 

[gtaus]

My wife, darling that she is, challenged my assertion that we would get rich from our flock of 30 hens and created the Chicken Tracker. Spoiler, we didn't get rich, but now I can set my cost per dozen to at least almost break even. We share it with anyone who wants it. You can download it from our blog: https://stewartcreeksomethings.com/chicken-tracker/

That sure is a lot of work. Very nice.

Getting rich from a small backyard flock of chickens...

Yeah, I tracked my expenses and income from excess egg sales for the first few years. I came out a little ahead of the feed costs, which was enough for me.

The real value I get from my chickens is the compost they make that I no longer have to buy at the big box stores. I harvest hundreds of dollars' worth of chicken run compost every year for my raised beds.

It's harder to put a value on the increased productivity of my gardens due to the chicken run compost, but my plants are growing so much better now than when I did not use chicken run compost in the beds.

There also is value in the enjoyment of having fresh eggs from a backyard flock, as well as just enjoying having chickens in general.

My only point is that there are many things with a backyard flock of chickens that are pretty darned hard to capture on a spreadsheet. But your work is very nice and I hope others will try it out.

 

[Loving my girls]

That sure is a lot of work. Very nice.

Getting rich from a small backyard flock of chickens...

Yeah, I tracked my expenses and income from excess egg sales for the first few years. I came out a little ahead of the feed costs, which was enough for me.

The real value I get from my chickens is the compost they make that I no longer have to buy at the big box stores. I harvest hundreds of dollars' worth of chicken run compost every year for my raised beds.

It's harder to put a value on the increased productivity of my gardens due to the chicken run compost, but my plants are growing so much better now than when I did not use chicken run compost in the beds.

There also is value in the enjoyment of having fresh eggs from a backyard flock, as well as just enjoying having chickens in general.

My only point is that there are many things with a backyard flock of chickens that are pretty darned hard to capture on a spreadsheet. But your work is very nice and I hope others will try it out.

I couldn’t agree more, but I’m Scottish so I like to see where the money goes

 

[raizin]

The software spreadsheet I was using was not from the BYC forums.

Frankly, I am wondering if it even makes sense to track the expenses, since the backyard flock is more of a hobby. What value do you find in tracking your stats with your spreadsheet?

We have been providing free updated annually tracking spreadsheet. “

Excel spreadsheet for tracking expenses and income from chickens​

Search the forums. It helps if you are selling eggs to ensure you are at least covering costs. It also helps you track the slackers.