Day 331 of 365
Today, the chickens didn’t get driveway time for the first time in months. They do not need it anymore. The snow is mostly melted, and they have their 3/4 acre of fenced area back. I told them yesterday it was the last day in the driveway, and I think they mostly understood because, this afternoon, only a few of them were waiting to get out into the driveway. One was Faure. It made me sad to tell her no, but they are safer in the fence. I now just have my few driveway usuals to keep track of–Kate, Juliet, sometimes Bianca, and, of course, Ruby.
Kate is still laying her eggs somewhere where I can’t find them. I have to keep hunting, but it’s a task. I tried to watch her pretty carefully today, and she was in the fence with everyone else most of the day. Still, no egg from Kate again today, and I know she’s laying. I’ll have to keep looking.
And I added up our totals for egg sales and feed costs for March, as I am determined to keep good records this year. It was a good month., Here are our totals:
Feed cost for organic feed: $165.55
Egg sales: 24 dozen @ $5.00 per dozen = $120.00:
Eggs eaten by our family: 8 dozen @ 9.89 per dozen (for comparable eggs at the store) = 79.12
That means those girls made a profit this month. I wish I knew how to make raising chickens in the way I raise them more profitable. It’s not that I need them to be profitable for us because they are my good friends, but I wish for it to be possible for chickens to be treated better in our food system. They are abused beyond all reason, but people are used to fairly cheap eggs. There are some companies that are doing some pretty good work, but most people I know do not buy humanely-raised eggs when they buy them at the store. They cost quite a bit more, and times are hard.
Still, I wish we could figure out a way to do better.
Farmer-ish 