Backyard chickens · for backyard chicken keepers
CluckLedger is an egg ledger for backyard chicken keepers who want to know what their eggs actually cost. You tap + on a home screen widget when you come in from the coop, without opening the app, and add feed, bedding and other costs on the day you pay them. With the number of hens on record, it works out your lay rate and the cost of one egg. When a month closes you get a card that reads, for example, "September, one egg from our flock: $0.34", with every cost behind that figure listed underneath.
When a month ends, CluckLedger turns it into a card: one egg from your flock cost $0.34, from 142 eggs, $48.96 of costs and a 79% lay rate. Feed, bedding and other costs sit under the figure, so you can see where every cent came from, and the card saves or shares as an image. You don't have to wait a month for a first look: as soon as you log one egg and one cost, a preview marked "at this pace" appears and updates as you go.
Put the widget on your home screen and tap + on your way in from the coop. The count goes up on the spot while the app stays closed, and the widget shows today's eggs plus one line with this month's pace. Taps on the widget and entries made in the app end up in the same ledger.
Lay rate is counted per hen per day: eggs collected divided by hens times days. Note the date a hen joins or leaves and every day is counted with the birds you actually had, so a month with five hens for eleven days and six after that still adds up. The History tab shades a calendar by eggs per day and lists each month with eggs, costs, cost per egg and lay rate.
Most small flocks are counted with tally marks on a calendar by the back door, a pencil notebook that lives in the coop, or a running note on someone's phone. Feed receipts end up somewhere else entirely: a drawer, a card statement, the bottom of a tote bag. The two lists rarely meet, so the question every keeper gets asked, "what do your eggs actually cost?", is usually answered from memory, and usually in the middle of winter when the hens have slowed down and the number feels worse than it is.
Farm management apps can hold all of this, but they are built around forms: a record per bird, a field for breed, tabs for health and hatching. That is a lot of typing for someone holding a basket in one hand and a feed scoop in the other. CluckLedger keeps only the three things the question needs: how many eggs, how many hens, and what you spent.
In the morning you collect eggs and tap + on the widget, once per egg. If you open the app instead, the Today screen is a large counter with + and − buttons, built to be hit with a gloved thumb. A stray tap comes off with −, a whole day's total can be typed in, and a day you forgot can be filled in from the calendar. Any day can carry a short note, such as "first egg from the pullets" or "double yolk".
When you buy a bag of layer feed, add the cost: the amount, the date, and one of three categories, Feed, Bedding or Other. Every cost can be edited or deleted later. If you want a nudge, an optional daily reminder goes off at the time you choose, evening by default, and skips itself on days you have already logged. The notification only says it is time to log eggs; it never shows counts or costs on the lock screen.
The figure is simple on purpose: the costs you entered for a month, divided by the eggs you collected that month. Nothing else is folded in. Chicks, the coop, depreciation and the value of your time are not counted. If you want the coop in the number, enter it under Other and watch the figure jump; that is your call, and the card will show it under Other.
Costs belong to the month you paid them. A bag bought on the 28th counts in that month even if the hens finish it in the next one, and nothing is spread across months behind your back. A month with no eggs shows no cost per egg at all instead of dividing by zero, and a month with eggs but no costs says "no costs entered" rather than pretending eggs were free. The card says "our flock" because it is your household's number. It is not compared with store prices, and the app never tells you whether keeping hens pays.
CluckLedger reports lay rate as a hen-day percentage: eggs divided by hens times days, times 100, by week or by month. When the flock size changes, you note the new number and the date. In August, five hens for eleven days and six hens for the remaining twenty make 175 hen-days; 133 eggs in that month is a 76% lay rate. Without the date of the change, the same month would look either better or worse than it was.
The number is shown as it is. If a late collection lumps two days of eggs into one, that day reads high and the rest of the month evens it out; nothing is capped or smoothed. There are no warnings when the rate drops and no suggestions about feed, light or care. The numbers are a record of your flock, and what they mean is up to you.
There is no account to create, no server, and no analytics. The app makes no network requests, and the widget reads the same ledger stored on the phone. Moving to a new phone is a backup file: export it through the share sheet, keep it wherever you like, and restore it on the new phone. If a restore fails, the records already on the phone are left as they were.
Delete all data in Settings wipes everything at once, including what the widget shows, and the app starts again at an empty counter.
There are no hen profiles, breed lists, health records, hatching calendars or egg sales. Cost categories stay at three, so the card stays readable. There is no advice anywhere in the app: nothing about what to feed, how much light hens need, or why laying slowed down.
CluckLedger is a record-keeping tool. It does not give veterinary or husbandry advice, and its cost per egg is your own household figure based only on what you entered. For questions about your hens' health or laying, talk to a veterinarian or your local Cooperative Extension office.
Add up what you spent in a month and divide by the eggs you collected that month. CluckLedger does this from the costs you enter under Feed, Bedding and Other and lists those costs next to the result. Chicks, the coop and your time are not included unless you add them yourself as Other.
It is the eggs you collected divided by hens times days, as a percentage. Six hens over 30 days are 180 hen-days, and 142 eggs in that time is 79%. CluckLedger uses the flock size you had on each day, so a hen added or lost mid-month is counted correctly.
No. The home screen widget has a + button that adds an egg to today's count without opening the app. The widget shows the new count right away, and the app picks up those taps the next time you open it.
Yes. Use − to take an egg off today, type a day's total directly, or pick a past day on the calendar and enter its count. Lay rate and cost per egg are worked out again from the corrected numbers.
No. It records and calculates; it does not diagnose anything or suggest changes to feed, light or care. For a drop in laying, ask a poultry veterinarian or your local Cooperative Extension office.
No. There is no account, no server and no analytics. Your records stay on your phone, and a backup file leaves it only when you share it yourself.
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