The Field Calculators → Stock
Stock
Flock feed & egg math
What the birds eat, what they lay, what the storage costs, and what an egg really costs you.
Result
Laying hens12
Feed per bird per day0.25 lb
Feed price22 $/50 lb bag
Laying rate70 %
Feed used
91 lb/month
3.0 lb/day · 1.8 bags a month.
Eggs
21.3 dozen/month
Feed cost per dozen
$1.89
Feed only. It ignores birds, housing, bedding, and every hour of your time.
Feed cost
$40.13/month
Storage for 3 months
274 lb
About 6.8 cu ft — and it belongs in galvanized cans with tight lids, not bags.
What this will not do
- Store feed in metal. The feed room is where a rodent population gets built, and mice chew plastic totes and bags without difficulty. Galvanized cans with tight lids, up off the floor, away from the wall.
- Winter laying falls off a cliff without supplemental light — hens need about 14 hours of day length. Adding light is a real trade: you get winter eggs and you spend the hen's lifetime laying faster.
- The honest accounting rarely beats the store on price. Keep chickens for the eggs you can't buy, the scraps they eat, and the manure — not to save money.
The full build and the reasoning are in Chapters 25, 27 of the guide.