IMPORTANT VIDEO TO WATCH

[Foristers]

I'm thinking that a normal "posting bias", if you will, makes it impossible to make any inference about what is happening at larger scales just from trends in social media postings. How many people post with "My Chickens are Laying Exactly as Usua!" or "Everything is Completely Within the Normal Variations for Chicken-Owning!!!!" (unless it's replying to an opposite problem posting)?

In general, I see social platform postings being extremely biased toward reporting problems and worries, because that's when people feel the need to check in with others. So that any increase in social reporting doesn't necessarily reflect any increase in what is actually happening across the population. I think this would be a normal phenomenon and would happen even if no one was trying to be fear-mongering or had any agenda (although some probably do).

The posters above are saying this too and the summary that "saysfaa" wrote is accurate, so if you don't want to contribute to the click count you don't need to

I know of lots of other known biases in data collection, I wonder if "posting bias" has a real name?

This is a great point.

 

[Foristers]

Your not the only person who’s chickens aren’t laying but im sure its all due to different reasons.

You sound very kind. Hope you have a good night.

That is very nice of you. I hope you have a good night also.

 

[m2wandc]

I don’t want drama.

I haven’t read everything people are posting.

I’m here to learn about long term goat feed issues because I PERSONALLY have had chickens for several years. I added 15 new chicks to the flock last year after a predator wiped out most of my flock.

These chicks SHOULD Have started laying august/sept 2022 time frame - I know in winter they slow down but here they get a minimum of 8-10 hours of sunlight each day even in the winter.

These 15 girls were not laying. I was getting 0-3 eggs a day. Mostly 1-2 per day. I thought it was odd. Chalked it up to a possible egg eater. Couldn’t find a culprit after using a game camera. Thought maybe the vaccine they got at the Hatchery might of caused something. I contemplated everything but figured I’ll just wait until summer 2023 and if they aren’t laying more by then I’ll investigate more.

Watched a silly Instagram reel where a lady was feeding goat feed. I figured what the heck I’ll try it. I mixed 1 Bag of goat feed with one bag of lay pellets and one bag of cracked corn. The next morning I had 9 eggs! Every day since I’ve had 9-12 eggs a day. So I was thrilled, but now I’m reading about the copper.

Today I added oats, barley & dried peas to the mix.

I can’t send anyone my lay pellets because they are mixed in with all of the above, but I can tell you I was feeding lay pellets from tractor supply (their brand)

My chickens get loads of kitchen scraps every day.

My concern is Goat Feed…how much is too much, they will be eating the equivalent of one bag over a long time because I’ve now mixed it with all the other feeds.

??? If you know please advise. ???

I can personally vouch for the goat feed making a difference overnight, but I won’t continue if it’s an issue in high copper.

 

[ChicFil- A]

More drama…I didn’t watch, but assume it’s the feed drama.

So many reasons why chickens might not be laying…. But not worth watching yet another person talking about their experience as if it applies to everyone.

Scare tactics! There is so many reasons.

 

[m2wandc]

In a nutshell

I want to know if I need to dump the equivalent of a trash can full of feed because 1 bag of goat feed is mixed in….will that amount of copper harm them?

The mix is 1 bag of each: goat feed, lay pellets, oats, peas, barley, corn.

My next thought is do they make goat feed that doesn’t have copper?

I’m sorry if this has been asked, I searched and find too much to sort it out

 

[U_Stormcrow]

One bag, stetched with all that other stuff, you should be safe. In a nutshell, the typical goat feed has about 5x too mucxh copper. When you mixed it with layer, you were left with about 3x too much copper (assuming equal amounts). Depending on how much oats, corn, barley peas were added, your ratio will drop further.

All that said, goat feed is usually well below the target protein levels for chickens (and has the wrong amino acid balance, besides. The same is true for oats, corn, barley. Meaning you took a feed intended to just meet the minimums and made it nutritionally worse on almost every measure, however well meaning you may have been. Peas won't fix that, and for reasons of their own (as with the barley and the oats, they shouldn't be included at high rates without taking other steps to compensate for antinutritional factors.

Recommend you get your birds back onto a nutritionally complete chicken feed, instead of attempting to make your own.

 

[Acre4Me]

I don’t want drama.

I haven’t read everything people are posting.

I’m here to learn about long term goat feed issues because I PERSONALLY have had chickens for several years. I added 15 new chicks to the flock last year after a predator wiped out most of my flock.

These chicks SHOULD Have started laying august/sept 2022 time frame - I know in winter they slow down but here they get a minimum of 8-10 hours of sunlight each day even in the winter.

These 15 girls were not laying. I was getting 0-3 eggs a day. Mostly 1-2 per day. I thought it was odd. Chalked it up to a possible egg eater. Couldn’t find a culprit after using a game camera. Thought maybe the vaccine they got at the Hatchery might of caused something. I contemplated everything but figured I’ll just wait until summer 2023 and if they aren’t laying more by then I’ll investigate more.

Watched a silly Instagram reel where a lady was feeding goat feed. I figured what the heck I’ll try it. I mixed 1 Bag of goat feed with one bag of lay pellets and one bag of cracked corn. The next morning I had 9 eggs! Every day since I’ve had 9-12 eggs a day. So I was thrilled, but now I’m reading about the copper.

Today I added oats, barley & dried peas to the mix.

I can’t send anyone my lay pellets because they are mixed in with all of the above, but I can tell you I was feeding lay pellets from tractor supply (their brand)

My chickens get loads of kitchen scraps every day.

My concern is Goat Feed…how much is too much, they will be eating the equivalent of one bag over a long time because I’ve now mixed it with all the other feeds.

??? If you know please advise. ???

I can personally vouch for the goat feed making a difference overnight, but I won’t continue if it’s an issue in high copper.

Just a basic response that could have been made any Jan/Feb: your chickens did not lay overnight bc you gave them goat feed.

The process a chicken goes through to lay eggs, then to molt (and stop laying) or to slow down due to decreased light takes time- as does the process to start back up. So, your chickens were already ramping back up, hormones increasing, etc, before you ever gave them goat feed. They probably would have laid that next day regardless of the goat feed.

For example, we noticed a few years ago that during really hot spells, egg production dropped. It was due to less water intake -they aren’t hydrated enough, and the first thing that falls off is egg production. They had water, but due to the heat, they would hunker down and drink enough to survive but not much else. So, I changed up a few things to help them hydrate better. This worked, but it was several days to get production back up - they were still in egg laying mode, so it wasn’t very long to get back to laying eggs. But, it takes a longer time for their bodies to get back to laying mode after the winter bc their bodies have to ramp back up -hormones increase, egg factory begins to develop yolks that eventually become eggs, etc.

 

[m2wandc]

One bag, stetched with all that other stuff, you should be safe. In a nutshell, the typical goat feed has about 5x too mucxh copper. When you mixed it with layer, you were left with about 3x too much copper (assuming equal amounts). Depending on how much oats, corn, barley peas were added, your ratio will drop further.

All that said, goat feed is usually well below the target protein levels for chickens (and has the wrong amino acid balance, besides. The same is true for oats, corn, barley. Meaning you took a feed intended to just meet the minimums and made it nutritionally worse on almost every measure, however well meaning you may have been. Peas won't fix that, and for reasons of their own (as with the barley and the oats, they shouldn't be included at high rates without taking other steps to compensate for antinutritional factors.

Recommend you get your birds back onto a nutritionally complete chicken feed, instead of attempting to make your own.

Thank you

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you

Just math, no big thing. Apologies for me pre-caffeine punctuation. That was not my most lucid post.