Tools to Run Your Chicken & Egg Farming Business
Running a chicken and egg farming operation requires tracking animal health, managing feed inventory, coordinating harvest schedules, handling customer orders, and monitoring financial performance. The right software tools help you stay organized across all these moving parts without spending hours on paperwork. This page covers the essential categories of tools that actually matter for your farm’s operations and growth.
Inventory & Feed Management
Managing feed supply is one of your largest ongoing expenses. You need to track consumption rates, predict when you’ll run out, and coordinate with suppliers. Farmbrite is built specifically for small farms and lets you log daily feed usage, track costs per bird, and generate reports on feed efficiency. This matters because feed typically costs $0.15–$0.30 per pound, and a flock of 100 layers can consume 15–20 pounds daily. Agworld combines inventory tracking with weather data and health alerts, helping you adjust feeding schedules based on season and bird condition. For simpler operations, a spreadsheet system using Google Sheets can work initially—create tabs for inventory levels, reorder points, and supplier contact details.
Health & Flock Records
Tracking bird health, mortality rates, and vaccination schedules is critical for productivity and food safety compliance. Farmbrite allows you to log health events, medications, and treatments for individual birds or the whole flock, creating a history you can reference if a health issue emerges. This documentation protects your business if customers ask about animal welfare or if you need to prove vaccination status to inspectors. Livestock Tracker is another option that focuses specifically on health events, breeding records, and mortality tracking. For compliance purposes, having written records (digital or paper) showing you’re monitoring bird health regularly strengthens your position with regulators and gives you data to improve practices year over year.
Order Management & Customer Relations
If you’re selling eggs or meat birds directly to customers, you need a way to track orders, manage customer contact information, and handle follow-ups. Square for Retail works well for small farm operations—it handles point-of-sale transactions, customer history, and simple order tracking in one interface. Many small farms use Shopify to set up an online store where customers can place orders for delivery or pickup, with automatic confirmation emails and payment processing built in. HubSpot CRM is free and lets you track customer interactions, manage your mailing list, and note preferences (like egg size or delivery frequency). For a farm selling 5–50 dozen eggs per week, these tools eliminate the need for a notebook of customer orders and keep communication consistent.
Scheduling & Task Management
Daily farm routines—feeding, watering, egg collection, coop cleaning—need consistent timing. Asana lets you create recurring daily tasks and assign them to team members if you have staff. You can set reminders for seasonal tasks like deep cleaning coops or checking on broody hens. Google Calendar serves the same purpose for basic scheduling and works well for small operations—color-code task types (feeding, cleaning, vet checks) so you see your week at a glance. Mobile access is important here because you’ll be checking schedules while in the coop or the field.
Financial & Profit Tracking
You need to know whether your operation is actually profitable. Wave is free and handles invoicing, expense tracking, and basic profit-and-loss reports—useful if you’re selling directly to customers and need to invoice orders. QuickBooks Online Self-Employed starts at $15/month and tracks income and expenses, calculates quarterly tax payments, and organizes receipts by category (feed, equipment, utilities). Zoho Books is another affordable option at around $20/month. Knowing your cost per dozen eggs—including feed, labor, bedding, utilities, and equipment—tells you whether your selling price leaves a real margin. Most small farms find they need to charge $5–$8 per dozen to be profitable, depending on their costs.
Weather & Environmental Monitoring
Agworld integrates weather forecasts with farm planning, alerting you to temperature swings that affect bird behavior and production. Templog is a simpler option—it monitors coop temperature and humidity remotely, useful if you have automated ventilation systems or need alerts if temperature drops dangerously. Extreme heat or cold reduces egg production and can cause mortality, so knowing conditions 24/7 matters more than many farmers realize.
Communication & Team Coordination
If you have employees or contractors helping with the farm, clear communication prevents mistakes. Slack is free for small teams and beats text messages for coordinating daily tasks, sharing updates, and keeping a searchable record of decisions. Google Drive (free) lets you share checklists, feed schedules, and health records with team members so everyone’s working from the same current information. These tools become more important as your operation grows beyond just you.
Email Marketing
Building a mailing list of regular customers keeps you top-of-mind for repeat orders. Mailchimp is free up to 500 contacts and lets you send weekly or monthly updates about egg availability, special orders, or seasonal products. Substack is another free option if you prefer a simpler newsletter format. Even 2–3 emails per month to customers who signed up for your list can increase repeat purchases by 20–30%.
Free vs Paid Tools
Start with free tools if your operation is under 100 birds and you’re handling most tasks yourself. Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Slack, Mailchimp, and HubSpot CRM cover the basics at no cost. As you add staff, increase inventory complexity, or hit 200+ birds, paid tools like Farmbrite ($20–$30/month), QuickBooks ($15+/month), and Shopify ($29+/month) save time and reduce errors enough to justify the cost.
A good approach is running free tools for your first 3–6 months while you understand your actual workflows, then invest in paid software where you see friction or mistakes. Don’t buy tools before you know you need them.
The Minimum Tech Stack to Launch
- A simple spreadsheet (Google Sheets) or farm management app (Farmbrite free trial) to track daily feed use, health events, and mortality
- A payment and customer tracking system (Square, Shopify, or free HubSpot CRM) so you manage customer orders and know who’s buying regularly
- A calendar or task manager (Google Calendar or Asana) to stay consistent with feeding, watering, and egg collection schedules
- Basic accounting (Wave, free tier) to track what you’re spending on feed, supplies, and utilities versus what you’re bringing in