Ask most poultry keepers whether their hens made money last month and you will get a guess. Eggs as a business lives or dies on small margins - feed alone takes about 75 percent of an egg farm's sales, according to KNCCI - so the farmers who keep simple daily records are the ones who actually know.
Record one: eggs collected, every day
Write down the eggs you collect each day, per flock or per house. One line a day is enough. After a few weeks you know your flock's normal laying rate - and any sudden gap has a cause worth finding: heat stress, a feed change, disease starting, or eggs walking away.
Many farmers only discover theft when sales feel light. A laying record compared against eggs actually sold shows the leak the same week it opens.
Record two: feed in, eggs out
Note every bag of feed you buy and when it runs out. On standard guidance from chick suppliers like Kenchic, a laying hen eats roughly 110 to 120 grams a day - so 100 hens work through a 70 kg bag in about six days. If your bag empties faster, something is eating your margin: spillage, rats, or uninvited mouths.
Divide the week's feed cost by the eggs collected that week and you have your feed cost per egg - the number that decides whether a buyer's price is profit or loss. KNCCI puts the full production cost at up to Ksh 10 per egg once labour, vaccines and water are counted.
Record three: money in, money out
One page a week: what came in from egg and chicken sales, what went out for feed, vaccines, transport and wages. This turns "business is bad" into something you can act on - which week turned, and why.
It also gives you your break-even tray price before a buyer quotes theirs. Sell below your own break-even and you are paying the buyer to take your eggs.
What the numbers let you do
With three honest records you can time the hard decisions: when to cull a flock past its laying peak, when to restock, whether home-mixed feed is really saving you money, and which customers are worth keeping. Our month-by-month Kenbro guide shows the laying curve you are measuring against, and our cost of 100 chickens guide gives the full budget picture.
A word from our farm
We are Fitnest Farm in Kochia East, Homa Bay County. We keep these records for our own Kenbro flock. Our own prices are public: live mature Kenbro chicken at Ksh 450 per kg, slaughtered at Ksh 500 per kg, and kienyeji trays at Ksh 460. We deliver chicken orders of 30 birds or more in Homa Bay, Kisii and Kisumu; smaller orders collect at the farm - we would rather say that plainly than promise what we cannot serve well.
Questions, or want to order directly? WhatsApp +254 791 255 964, or visit the Fitnest Farm Shop.
Sources: KNCCI poultry reporting (February 2025); standard layer feeding guidance published by Kenyan chick suppliers including Kenchic; Ministry of Agriculture and KALRO farm record-keeping extension materials. Figures vary from flock to flock - your own records are the final answer.