Track egg production, schedule health checks, and see whether your flock pays for itself — all from your phone. Free to start. Works offline from the backyard.
Most backyard chicken keepers start with a notebook — or just memory. Production dips and you're not sure if it's the moult, a disease, the heat, or a predator at night. A hen looks off and you can't remember when you last drenched for worms. Feed costs are adding up but you've never worked out what a dozen eggs actually costs you to produce.
PaddockMate IQ was built for Australian conditions — the summer heat in Queensland, the cold snaps in the Tablelands, the council rules in suburban Melbourne, and the dual-purpose breeds favoured by hobby farmers in the Darling Downs and Lockyer Valley. It runs on your phone, works offline from the coop, and keeps a real health and production history for each of your flocks.
Log egg counts and cracked eggs per flock. See your 7-day and 30-day laying rate, colour-coded green, amber, or red against your breed's expected performance. Link egg sales directly to income records with one tap. The 13-month comparison chart shows seasonal dips clearly — handy for understanding your autumn/winter production drop.
Auto-generated reminders for the checks that matter: mite and lice inspection every 4 weeks, worming every 3 months, coop clean and disinfection monthly, Marek's and Newcastle La Sota vaccination schedules, and beak checks. Every reminder logs to a health history so you have an audit trail if birds get sick.
Record treatments against individual flocks: product name, dose, batch number, date administered, who administered it. APVMA product lookup pre-fills default withholding periods. Particularly useful if you sell eggs at a farmers' market and need to demonstrate responsible chemical use. Treatments are time-stamped and exportable as CSV.
Link every feed bag purchase, bedding expense, vet visit, and equipment cost to your flock. Record egg sales at retail, wholesale, or a notional home-use value. The running P&L tells you exactly what your dozen eggs costs — most backyard flocks run at $8–25 per dozen once all inputs are included. Knowing the number lets you decide whether to scale up or cut costs.
Running a broody hen or a tabletop incubator? Log the set date, expected hatch date (21 days for chickens, 28 for ducks, 35 for Muscovies), incubator name, temperature, and humidity. Candling reminders auto-create at days 7, 14, and 18. Record fertile, clear, and questionable counts at each candling, then log the hatch outcome for a running fertility rate.
Draw your coop and run boundaries on the Leaflet map. Add infrastructure markers for water points, nesting boxes, feeders, and biosecurity gates. Useful for properties with multiple pens or a combined chicken-and-garden setup. Works equally well for a single suburban backyard coop or a multi-pen farm operation.
Getting the breed right for your climate and goals is the single biggest lever on backyard egg production. Here's a practical guide based on what Australian small-flock keepers actually report:
| Breed | Eggs/year | Heat tolerance | Cold hardiness | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isa Brown | 300–320 | Moderate — shade essential above 35°C | Good | Maximum production, suburban flocks |
| Lohmann Brown | 300–315 | Moderate | Good | Commercial production on small properties |
| Australorp | 250–280 | Good | Excellent | All-climate performer, dual-purpose |
| Rhode Island Red | 200–260 | Good | Excellent | Hardy, dual-purpose, Tablelands & alpine zones |
| New Hampshire Red | 200–240 | Good | Good | Dual-purpose, lower-cost feeding |
| Plymouth Rock (Barred) | 180–220 | Moderate | Good | Family flocks, dual-purpose, kids' favourite |
| Sussex (Light) | 180–220 | Moderate | Excellent | Free-range, cold climates, foraging |
| Silkie | 80–120 | Poor — very susceptible to wet heat | Moderate | Broody hens, ornamental, children |
Note on heat management: All breeds struggle above 38°C. For Queensland and northern NSW coastal summers, prioritise shade (minimum 80% shade cloth), cool water refreshed twice daily, frozen treat blocks, and reduced stocking density. Combs and wattles are the primary heat dissipation organ — large-combed breeds like Leghorns actually handle heat better than small-combed breeds despite what you might expect.
Add your flock: name it, choose the species and breed, enter bird count and housing name. Takes about 60 seconds. The app auto-creates your first set of health check reminders.
Tap Log eggs after your morning collection. Enter the count and any cracked. The app calculates your lay rate and shows you the trend. Works offline — syncs when you're back on Wi-Fi.
When the mite check reminder arrives, open the app, complete the check, log what you found and what you treated with. If production drops more than 20% week-on-week, you get a health signal alert prompting you to investigate.
PaddockMate IQ is designed for Australian conditions. You can log daily egg counts per flock, track your 7-day and 30-day laying rate, flag cracked eggs, and link egg sales directly to your income records. The app works offline so you can log eggs from the backyard even without signal.
PaddockMate IQ lets you set recurring reminders tied to your flock — for example, mite and lice checks every 4 weeks in summer (more frequent in warm, humid regions like Queensland and coastal NSW). The app sends you a push notification or SMS when each check is due, and you log the outcome so you have a health history per flock.
Yes. Log feed purchases, vet costs, bedding and equipment costs against your flock, and record egg sales at whatever price you sell or value them at. The Costs and Sales modules give you a running profit/loss. Most backyard flocks in Australia run at a net cost of $8–25 per dozen once all inputs are counted — but the data lets you find where the cost is going.
For pure-bred laying performance, Isa Browns and Lohmann Browns consistently top 300 eggs per hen per year under good management. Australorps typically produce 250–280 eggs/year and handle heat and cold well across most of Australia. Rhode Island Reds sit at 200–260 eggs/year. Using PaddockMate IQ you can track actual performance for your specific birds — real on-farm data often differs from breed averages.
Requirements vary by state and council. In most Australian states, fewer than 5 chickens in a suburban backyard is permitted under standard residential zoning without registration, though roosters are often prohibited. Keeping more than around 5–20 birds or selling eggs commercially may require a Property Identification Code (PIC) from your state's DPI. Queensland requires a PIC for any poultry property. Always check your local council's specific rules.
Add a health record for each vaccination event against your flock: product name, batch number, date, dose, and who administered it. The app auto-creates a recurring reminder for annual boosters. For Marek's (HVT vaccine, administered to day-old chicks), record it at intake. For Newcastle La Sota intranasal, the app will remind you at 4–6 weeks and again annually.
Free forever for hobby flocks. No credit card. Works offline from the coop.
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