Henstead Chicken & Egg Tracker: the backyard chicken spreadsheet that does the math
Henstead is a chicken egg tracker spreadsheet for backyard flocks and small homesteads. You record your hens, the eggs you collect and what you spend. Henstead turns it into answers: how many eggs you are really getting, which hens are laying, what a dozen costs you, and whether egg sales cover the feed bill. Everything sits in one Excel-format workbook with a charming farmhouse look in forest green, cream and yolk yellow.
What the chicken egg tracker does
- Flock records for up to 60 birds: name, breed, egg color, hatch date, automatic age, status, leg band and photo notes, plus eggs this year and the date of each hen’s last egg.
- Daily egg log with 5,000 rows. Log by hen, or pick Whole flock and type the day’s total. Track unusable eggs, egg size and weather.
- Automatic egg stats: laying rate for 7 and 30 days, a month-by-month table, a week-by-week table, a hen-by-hen table, top 10 hens, best day and a check-in flag when a layer goes quiet for a week.
- Feed and supply expenses with an automatic Feed & care or Setup & other split, so a new coop or incubator doesn’t distort your cost per dozen. Add bag weights to see feed used per dozen eggs.
- Egg sales and customers: record cartons sold with a default price, paid or unpaid status and payment method. Customer totals, unpaid balances and last purchase fill in on their own.
- Money summary: income, expenses, net profit, cost per dozen (feed & care and all-in), break-even price, dozens kept for home and their value at your store price.
- Health and treatment log with follow-up dates and an egg withdrawal countdown based on the days you enter from the product label or your vet.
- Coop chores and maintenance checklist with 22 ready-made chores, how often, last done, next due and color-coded status.
- Incubation and hatch calendar for 30 batches: candling day, lockdown date, expected hatch, a live countdown, progress bar, hatch rate and a day-by-day plan. Chicken, duck, goose, turkey, guinea fowl and quail incubation days are built in and editable.
- Seasonal laying notes: this year vs last year by month, laying rate, seasonal reminders, your own notes and a comparison chart.
- Dashboard with 8 KPI tiles, progress bars for your egg goal, chores and next hatch, a Flock watch alert list, 5 charts and a Year at a glance table.
Who it is for
Henstead suits first-year backyard keepers who want to know their laying rate, families who sell extra eggs to neighbors and coworkers, homesteaders who want an honest cost per dozen, and anyone hatching chicks with an incubator or a broody hen. It’s simple enough for a beginner: white cells are for typing, mint cells calculate for you, and every list is a dropdown.
Why keepers choose Henstead
- Honest numbers. Setup costs are kept apart from running costs, and laying rate only counts days you actually logged.
- Two ways to log eggs. Per hen when you know who laid, whole flock when you don’t. Every stat works either way.
- Safe to use. Formula cells are locked (no password), and formulas read Yes/No flags rather than option names, so renaming a dropdown option never breaks a total.
- Room to grow. 60 birds, 5,000 egg entries, 1,000 expenses, 1,000 sales, 100 customers, 300 health entries, 80 chores and 30 hatch batches.
- Any currency. One currency setting feeds every money header and dashboard tile. Default is $.
How it works
- Open the Start Here tab and follow the 4-step quick start.
- On Settings, set your currency, flock name, yearly egg goal, egg price and store price per dozen.
- Add your hens on Flock and start logging eggs on Egg Log.
- Log feed and supplies, egg sales, treatments, chores and hatches when they happen. The Dashboard updates as you go.
What’s included
- Henstead-Chicken-Egg-Tracker.xlsx: the 14-tab workbook (clean copy, no sample data)
- Henstead-User-Guide.docx: a step-by-step user guide with tab-by-tab instructions, tips, troubleshooting and FAQ
File format and requirements
Excel-format .xlsx for Microsoft Excel; tested in LibreOffice Calc; built with standard functions that also work when you open it in Google Sheets. You need a spreadsheet app on a computer or tablet. The user guide is a .docx file that opens in Microsoft Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice Writer. The workbook uses the free Inter font; if it isn’t installed, your app uses a similar font.
Customization
Rename or add breeds, statuses, expense categories, health issues, chore areas, species and payment methods on the Settings tab. Choose lb or kg for feed, Monday or Sunday week starts, a “due soon” window for chores, lockdown days, and your own incubator temperature and humidity reminders. Review a past year by typing it in Report year. Sheets are protected without a password, so you can unprotect them to change colors or layouts.
Digital download
This is an instant digital download. No physical item ships. After checkout, download the files from your Taskdale account and open them in your spreadsheet app. Want to try it first? The free Henstead Lite includes the flock list, egg log, stats and a mini dashboard.
Real-life uses
- A family with six hens checks why winter laying dropped and compares it with last year.
- A homesteader who sells two dozen a week sets her price from the feed & care cost per dozen and tracks who still owes for cartons.
- A first-time hatcher prints the day-by-day plan and knows exactly when lockdown starts.
- A keeper treating a hen sees the egg withdrawal countdown on the Dashboard until the eggs are OK again.
FAQ
Does this egg production tracker work in Google Sheets?
Yes. It is built with standard functions that also work when you open the .xlsx in Google Sheets. It is also tested in LibreOffice Calc.
Do I have to log eggs for every hen?
No. Log the whole flock’s daily total and every flock-wide stat still works. Per-hen logging adds per-hen stats.
Can I use it for ducks or quail?
Yes. The flock, egg log, costs and sales work for any layer, and the hatch calendar has duck, goose, turkey, guinea fowl and quail incubation days.
Can I change the currency?
Yes. Type your symbol once on Settings and every money header and dashboard tile uses it.
Will it work next year?
Yes. The year in use switches automatically, and Seasonal Notes compares this year with last year.
Does it give medical advice?
No. The health log records what you and your vet decide and counts down the withdrawal days you enter.
Is there a free version?
Yes, the Henstead Chicken & Egg Tracker Lite is free with a Taskdale account.
License
Personal use only. You may use Henstead for your own flock and print copies for yourself. Please don’t resell, share, give away or redistribute the files, in original or edited form. Author: Taskdale.
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