If you were to take this to a small claims type of court, the judge would
award you replacement cost for the bird. In other words what would it cost
you to go down the road and purchase a laying hen. No way are you going to
get lost earnings from the eggs, this is not a human being we are talking about,
if the dog grabs your spouse, then you get his/her lost earnings and lost
companionship, pain and anguish. But ask for that in a court over a
chicken and the judge is going to send you packing. Being extremely
generous $10 bucks a bird.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 1:50
PM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming]
chickens
I'd say figure your birds' individual "career earnings". Something
along the lines of the average length of time you keep your birds (some keep
them a lot longer than others), plus the number of eggs those birds would
have laid over that working lifetime and their retail value, then how much you
could have gotten for the cull bird at the end of her useful lifespan.
For instance, we keep ours 2.5-3 years, and we figure two cycles of
laying per bird (since there's at least one molt in there somewhere). We
figure our first laying cycle can only realistically go 12 months, since
they typically start to lay at 6 months and molt at 18 months. That
first cycle gives us average about 2 eggs every 3 days.
Then the second laying cycle, also figured about 12 months (to allow for
the molt and any wintertime reductions) sees 1 egg every 3 days.
Total eggs would be 2/3*180 for the first cycle, plus 1/3*180 for the second
cycle. Sales per bird would be that number of eggs times whatever is
your sales price per egg. Then $1/lb for the cull
weight.
If you're feeling generous, or if this needs to stand up under a certain
amount of arbitration scrutiny, you'd want to subtract out the price you
originally paid for the bird, the cost of feed during that entire 36 month
cycle, and the earnings you've already had. Or you could go with the
lost productivity and let the balance be "emotional wear and tear". He's
darn fortunate you're not gunning for his dog, to be perfectly honest. I
hope whatever number you come up with, he pays it without a fuss and keeps his
dog at home next time.
Kathryn Kerby
Frog Chorus Farm
Snohomish, WA
In a message dated 3/24/2010 11:32:44 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
jbmckillip AT mesanetworks.net writes:
Anyone know how to value a chicken that a dog
got? In this nice snow storm today, my neighbor's large Husky dog
got out and ate several of my chickens before I caught him. I'm mad
beyond mad, since this has happened before, and now he wants to pay for them
and I want him to pay for them! They have not been laying a year
yet. I'm sick about it.
Barb
Front Range,
Colorado
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