Missing Camera

Kind of hard to post a picture of the chicks this week. I do not know where the camera is. However, they are doing wonderfully. I have the wattage down to 302 watts. I started at 700 watts 24/7, and have been decreasing it readily. So now I have 203 chicks at 300 watts- so figure a watt and a half per chick per hour. The reason I am so happy at the wattage per chick is now down is twofold. One, environmentally it is good to keep our energy requirements low. Second, the cost per chick in electricity is now at one half of a cent a day. So $1.08 per day for 200+ chicks.

I found the chart below for the average electrical requirements for various electronics.

Power consumption compared

TVs1:
Average plasma: 338 watts
Average LCD: 176 watts
Other gear2:
PlayStation 3: 197 watts
PlayStation 3 Slim: 96 watts
Xbox 360 Elite (2007): 185 watts
Nintendo Wii: 19 watts
Xbox 360: 187 watts
Average PC: 118 watts
DirecTV HR20 DVR: 33 watts
Nintendo Wii: 19 watts
Slingbox: 9 watts
Wireless router: 7 watts

1Among 2008 and 2009 models tested.
2Tested in typical usage states (playing a game, running software)

I always feel guilty about the energy requirements of the farm, even though we use surprisingly little in energy. We use a small milk machine, my tractor will go months without needing to be started, we do not use heat lamps for the hens, fans for the cows, most of the manure is spread by the animals themselves, but still feel pretty guilty about tapping into that electrical grid for my little peep peeps. Anyways, an alternative way to look at it is that this LCD screen for the computer, and the PC itself are about the same electrical usage as the brooder.

We all use a lot of electricity, and think little of the consequences of that source. So on the farm I want to keep that low, not pass the cost on to customers, and keep our overhead low.

On a fun note- the snow is completely melted off our field. Has been for some time. Going to start brush cutting out some of the wild roses that have grown along the field edges. There is about 600 feet on the west side of the field that needs to get cut out. The field edge has grown out about 15 feet from the wall- about 1/5th of an acre. There are also two downed poplars in the back field. I didn't get to cut them up last year. Going to snip them up so we can bale that area this year.