We keep careful track of the number of eggs we get each month to see how the chickens are affected by the changing seasons. What most people don’t realise is that chickens lay fewer eggs in the winter when the days are shorter. For that reason, many commercial eggs farmers keep their barns lit for a good portion of the night to fool the chooks into thinking the winter days are the same length as the summer ones.
We don’t do that, of course. We only have three hens and even if we had any way of lighting their coop it wouldn’t really be worth the effort.
You can see why when you compare the number of eggs laid in March and April.
We got three fewer eggs in April, but it’s a shorter month – by one day – which when you do the maths actually means the daily average was the same. Each chicken laid one fewer egg with one day less at its disposal.
So far this year, then, we’ve had 325 eggs from the three hens since the start of this year. They could have earned us £81.25 if we’d been selling them. Over that time we’ve spent £28.20 on food for them, so each egg has cost about 8p. Combined, they’ve delivered a theoretical profit of £53.05, although most of this, of course, has been in the shape of savings made by either us or the people to whom we’ve given free eggs.
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