I begin the New Year tallying up the past year’s egg production. I keep this chart posted in my kitchen:
Here’s a link to a PDF so that you can keep track of your flock’s egg count. Feel free to share.
I started 2015 with 16 hens and ended with 14. Nancy Drew and Opal both died, likely from liver disease. This number of hens was enough to keep my family in eggs through most of the year, and even to provide a few dozen to friends. But, by “real farmer” standards, these hens are old – some are in their fourth year – and in the winter I had to resort to purchasing eggs.
The Girls laid 1826 eggs, about 600 less than in 2014. That averages to only 130 eggs per hen. Modern commercial hens can lay upwards of 300 per year, and even productive backyard birds lay over 200 per year in their prime. Of course, “real farmers” don’t keep chickens of these breeds, either. That cochin? I think I collected 25 eggs from Pearl all year.
When I do sell excess eggs, I charge $4.00 a dozen. If I’d sold all of the eggs, I’d have made just over $600. Enough to keep them in chicken feed and bedding. Barely. Luckily for my hens, I’m not trying to make money or to be 100% sustainable. Some might avoid keeping records to avoid the truth, but I like seeing the patterns that the tallies reveal. Over the years, I’ve learned that the peak egg month is May (this year that month brought 310 eggs.) The tally also has taught me to look forward to February, which is a bleak month weather-wise, but the Girls let me know that spring is on the way. February is when the molting hens gear back up to lay. In 2015 they went from laying 57 eggs in January to 114 in February.
Lastly, the record chart made me appreciate this chicken:
Twiggy was the only hen to lay in the last two months of 2015. She took a 13-day rest at the end of November, but still cranked out 26 eggs over those two months. Each of those eggs were greatly appreciated by me at breakfast.
Here’s to a healthy and egg-filled New Year!
Thanks Terry! 3rd year for using your chart!
Tell us your tally!
1,486 that’s also with 14 hens- a lot less then you! But, I also had 266 quail eggs-with only 3 females and only having them since June.
Curiosity question! What is the difference in flavor chicken vs quail?
Love getting numbers! So 14 chickens of various ages gets you roughly 5 eggs a day over the year. And roughly $600 a year for upkeep. But chickens don’t lay exactly 5 eggs a day. So a chef question for you – does freezing the eggs screw too much with their flavor and cook-ability? I was told by someone that they freeze extra eggs (they don’t have chickens, they buy bulk when eggs are on sale) and they’re fine for scrambling and baking. Agree or disagree?
I’ve written a FAQ about that: http://hencam.com/faq/handling-and-storing-eggs/
Thanks
Used your chart first time this year. 882 usable eggs from 6 girls, but my Welsummer only laid 60 of those eggs she has always been a looker but a poor producer, my 2 Magpies have laid constantly but slowed slightly in December. The Girls were all born in May 2013. I got 78 eggs in January and 43 in December. My best month for eggs was March, could this be because we have a milder winter ??….:)
Happy New Terry, to you and your family!
Total eggs here in 2015 from 6 hens: 1093.
May was also our best month for eggs (144). Worst month was February (34), closely followed by December (42).
Of my 6 hens, two are going on 5 and 6 years old. One is a Silkie – a serial broody, and one is a production breed – Black Star equivalent. These two, plus my Ameraucana hen who was hatched July 2014, are my best layers. The three other hens that were hatched in 2014 went into a moult in September/October, and have not gone back to laying.
Oops – forgot to add individual stats for my best layers: Gracie (5 yr old Silkie with 2+ broody periods in 2015) 165; Twyla (4 yr old BSL – went into her annual moult in mid-December) 242; and Memphis (1.5 yr old Ameraucana – went into her annual moult in late December) 195.
1476 eggs for me over 9 months (started keeping record in late March). Only problem is I have a fair number of old birds that were given to us, so less production per bird than I normally would allow. Got a new chart up and already keeping count.
How many birds do you have, JP?
Average around 20. For awhile I had almost 30. A handful of them I’ve never seen in a nesting box at all.
262 from 4 five year old buckeye’s not to bad
Hi Terry!
My girls laid 1652 eggs. That averages only 83 eggs per hen. But on their defense I can say that most of them are very old, including one of 8 years old (but she still lays a few eggs). Another thing is that they go broody A LOT. Right now I have 5 broodies (I remove all the eggs, but they still think they are going to have babies).
On June, I got 40 ISA Brown hens to use on my PhD project. The idea was to sell them after the experiment was over, but I couldn´t. I fell in love with them. So, I think next year my backyard´s average is going to rise considerably. They lay 600 eggs/month (their chart are separated from my older hens)!
I love your chart, but I don´t use it for a single reason: I keep track of each hen that laid eggs, so I can see which of them lay more!
This year I´m going to travel to the US for the first time. I hope the dates match and I can do some of your courses!
I wish you and your girls a great 2016!
I look forward to meeting you when you come to the States!
I’ve really enjoyed using this egg chart, and I’ve just started my fourth year. My initial flock was hatched in May of 2011 so they are getting older. I’ve lost a few along the way, but I’ve also tried to add at least 3 pullets each year. So here are my numbers starting with 2013. I collected 1479 eggs that year. 2014 yielded 1428 eggs with the addition of three RI Reds. Finally, 2015 yielded 1619 eggs with Broody Beryl raising 3 lovely Auracanas for me. It’s so interesting to see the ebb and flow of egg production and note molting, broodiness, temperature fluctuations etc.
It is my 3rd year of tallies, and last year was really good! The best year yet, I believe it was so good because of my 4 young birds, 3 Delawares and 1 Leghorn. My Leghorn laid the best, she laid for almost 18 months straight and is now resting, her molt wasn’t anything to speak of but she still has not started laying yet and it has been 5 weeks. I didn’t keep personal totals, but am thinking that I will this year…We were up 105 eggs, but down on the amount of hens, I had only 5 or 6 layers at any given time. With the setting epidemic and hot weather we still had enough eggs and some to share with family and friends…I am getting a couple more Leghorns this spring…I might try brown Leghorns…we will see:) I so enjoyed your blog today, p.s. I started my weedless alfalfa hay for the hens today,, they seemed ready to eat it, especially my Leghorn, she was first to gobble up the yumminess!
P.S.S. My peak month has always been April for some reason….?
Who knows? It might be the angle of light coming into the coop. It might be when your hens hatched so long ago and their lifecycle.
I can’t seem to remember everything….We had a total of 1388 eggs…..My hens all vary in ages, Leghorn, and Delawares will be 2 this spring…I have one Plymouth Barred Rock, and a Buff Orpington will be 5 this spring.
So does the chart help you to decide what type of chickens you might add to the flock.
It could, but honestly, there are so many factors other than egg production. If Twiggy didn’t lay, I’d still enjoy having her around.
This will my third year of using the chart you’ve provided, too. I really appreciate it!
We used your tally sheet for the first time last year. We have 7 hens in their second year and got 1122 eggs give or take a few. And that’s with one being broody all through July. Thanks for sharing, it’s fun to know how productive our ladies are and the natural ebb and flow of egg laying through out the year.
I have been using your chart since year 2 of Having my chickens. It’s good to have. I am going into the 4th year of laying. I was worried what this would mean. But it was nice to see that so far for this year( which the laying started 2 days before Christmas) they are on track for where we were thus time last year. Keeping this chart has been very helpful to me. Thank you for posting. I am wondering how my spring egg production will be. Time will tell lol
I have used your egg chart since I began chicken keeping four years ago, thank you so much. I have eight bantams and can see by others records that bantams do lay less but I love them.
It’s a bit tricky because I also lost two girls this year.
Topaz, gold laced wyndotte only lays one clutch then sits on all the other girls eggs but doesn’t commit to broody. I have never yet come across another girl like this. She laid 8 in 2 months. The year before she laid 6 in the same period of time.
Sparkle, silver laced wyndotte laid 37 in 4 months and then sadly I lost her.
Amber a vorwerk laid 1 egg in April and sadly died a month later overnight at 2 years old.
Emerald a game bird laid 36 in 3 months and Toffee also a game bird laid 39 in 2 months. They have a very short season and both started their moult in May.
Peaches, brown leghorn laid 75 in 8 months but a total of 94 in 10 months as it was her first year and she started in November and similar Barley also brown leghorn laid 77 in 8 months but a total of 93 in 10 months.
Speckles an ancana was moulting in June when we got her so I don’t know yet but they are supposed to be good egg layers like the leghorns.
Lastly Butterscotch a gold top also in her first year has laid 77 in 5 months despite four broody spells. She lays really well in between.
The total is 428 for the year. I would expect next year to be better. I just love them though whatever the egg count but it is fun to watch the trends. April was also my best month and February my worst.
This is our second full year of keeping track of the eggs for our mixed flock of 4 hens. We got 586 eggs this year compared to 945 last year. Since it’s so easy to tell which chicken laid which egg we keep track for each hen and can see that the most eggs were laid by our Australorp Beulah. 280 last year and 181 this year. We also have a Speckled Sussex, An Easter Egger and a Cuckoo Maran.
Oh dear, we’re very late. We only received our computer at Christmas and it’s taken us a while to work it out. We’ve looked carefully at our tally scratches and added them all up. Edwina and Frittata laid 314 eggs during 2015. Pancake didn’t lay any useable ones. She claims to have a medical certificate excusing her. We were all hatched in 2012. We’re very impressed with Twiggy.
Yes, I have several hens with that same certificate :)