A feature-rich C++ command-line application for managing backyard chickens, tracking egg production, analyzing costs, and monitoring coop operations.
Built with real-world data modeling, object-oriented design, and persistent data storage.
Designed to replace spreadsheets and manual tracking with a structured, data-driven system.
CoopKeeper was built to solve a real-world problem: managing backyard chicken operations efficiently.
Instead of spreadsheets or scattered notes, this tool provides a structured, data-driven way to:
- Track production trends
- Monitor costs
- Maintain coop health
- Make informed decisions over time
Full walkthrough of CoopKeeper’s features and CLI interface:
- 📊 Real-time egg production dashboard
- 📅 Monthly filtering across all record types
- 💰 Accurate cost-per-egg and cost-per-dozen calculations
- 🐔 Realistic seasonal production modeling
- 💾 Persistent storage using TXT + CSV export
- Language: C++
- Architecture: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- Data Storage: Pipe-delimited TXT files
- Export: CSV
- Interface: Command-Line Interface (CLI)
- Egg production trends (daily, weekly, monthly)
- Lay rate (%) per flock
- Cost per egg and per dozen
- Feed cost tracking over time
- Cleaning frequency and maintenance intervals
A backyard chicken owner can use CoopKeeper to:
- Track daily egg production trends
- Monitor feed costs over time
- Identify seasonal drops in productivity
- Stay on top of coop maintenance
This turns raw data into actionable insights for better flock management.
- Eggs today, last 7 days, and current month
- Lay rate (%) with performance status:
- Excellent / Good / Fair / Low
- Financial insights:
- Cost per egg
- Cost per dozen
- Production analytics:
- Best production day
- Monthly trend vs previous month
- Maintenance tracking:
- Last cleaning date
- Smart alerts (low production, overdue cleaning)
- Add, edit, delete egg records
- Chronologically sorted records
- Monthly filtering
- Daily totals and production trends
- Track feed purchases and costs
- View full history
- Monthly filtering
- Log coop-related expenses
- Categorize spending
- Monthly summaries
- View expenses by month
- Track coop cleaning activity
- Monitor cleaning frequency
- Monthly filtering
- Track chicken health issues
- Log observations per bird
- Monthly filtering
CoopKeeper/
│
├── data/
│ ├── Chickens.txt
│ ├── EggRecords.txt
│ ├── FeedRecords.txt
│ ├── Expenses.txt
│ ├── CleaningRecords.txt
│ └── HealthNotes.txt
│
├── exports/
│ └── CSV files generated here
│
├── screenshots/
│ ├── dashboard.png
│ ├── eggs.png
│ ├── export.png
│ └── thumbnail.jpg
│
├── src/
│ ├── CoopTracker.cpp / .h
│ ├── Chicken.cpp / .h
│ ├── EggRecord.cpp / .h
│ ├── FeedRecord.cpp / .h
│ ├── Expense.cpp / .h
│ ├── HealthNote.cpp / .h
│ ├── CleaningRecord.cpp / .h
│ └── Utils.cpp / .h
│
└── main.cpp
All data is stored in pipe-delimited .txt files:
MM/DD/YYYY|field|field|...
04/09/2026|17|Strong spring production
- 20-hen flock model
- Seasonal production patterns:
- Spring/Summer → peak production
- Winter → reduced output
- Realistic feed and expense tracking
- Accurate cost-per-dozen calculations
Today's Lay Rate: 85.00% (17/20) - Excellent
Cost Per Dozen: $3.99
Best Day: 04/07/2026 (19 eggs)
Production Trend: [UP] +24.74%
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/Holidazee/CoopKeeper-CLI.git
-
Open in Visual Studio 2022
-
Ensure required folders exist:
/data
/exports
/screenshots
- Build and run
- Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- File I/O (TXT + CSV export)
- Data parsing and validation
- Sorting and filtering
- Date-based querying (month/year filtering)
- Real-world data modeling
- Profit tracking (egg sales)
- Per-chicken productivity tracking
- GUI version (Qt or web app)
- Graphs and analytics
Taylor Burris
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