We have two mini-flocks: The Old Flock, consisting of 6 Light Sussex Hybrids which we bought in May 2011, and The New Flock, consisting of 6 Light Sussex Hybrids bought in September 2012, cohabiting with 1 random brown layer and 1 tiny all-black cockerel, both of which arrived a fortnight ago when a lady arrived at the door with them in a pet-cage asking if we would 'take them in'. Never look a gift chicken in the mouth I say!
The Old Flock, after a hugely productive first 18 months or so with us, moulted this year in November and more or less stopped laying (well, 1 per day between the 6 of them) for nearly two months. The New Flock arrived with us as 'point of lay' pullets at 16 weeks old and started to lay erratically at about 20 weeks, but have now (at 34 weeks) settled down to the 'usual' super productive cycle.
I'm planning a chapter in The Book covering some useful maths, statistics and analytical techniques which will hopefully be of great benefit to Farm business leaders. I don't have enough data for the first 'worked example' yet, but here's a quick preview:
| New | Old | Brown | ||
| No. Hens | 6 | 6 | 1 | |
| Age in Weeks at start | 34 | 102 | ? | |
| 06.01.2013 | Sunday | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| 07.01.2013 | Monday | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| 08.01.2013 | Tuesday | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| 09.01.2013 | Wednesday | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| 10.01.2013 | Thursday | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 11.01.2013 | Friday | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| 12.01.2013 | Saturday | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| 13.01.2013 | Sunday | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| 14.01.2013 | Monday | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| Mean | 5.44 | 4.56 | 0.67 | |
| Median | 6.00 | 4.00 | 1.00 | |
| Mode | 6.00 | 4.00 | 1.00 | |
| Laying Efficiency | 90.74% | 75.93% | 66.67% |
Laying efficiency is the mean divided by one egg per day per day per hen which I think is a simple, easy metric (not strictly accurate but useful nonetheless).
I'll update the data over the coming weeks and when I've got 30 data points per flock I'll do some analysis.
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