Scratch and Treats Can Reduce Egg Production

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Veelee said:
Yes, from reading a bit on their forums, it looks like reptiles have to have the right balances, so their owners have to know their stuff!
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She definitely knows her stuff on this. She kept a green tree frog for double it's expected lifespan and her bearded dragon has laid three clutches of eggs this summer.

She's worried about calcium in regards to that, but if reptiles are anything like birds I figure that Isabella wouldn't be laying eggs if she weren't in optimum health.
 
Thank you for the visuals! I don't feed straight whole corn, but I do scatter some mixed-grain scratch out every afternoon very thinly in a grassy area so they get exercise going after it. How much of that should they get a day, do you think? I'm probably giving them too much, about two cups for 21 birds (only one is a rooster). They are getting an 18% feather fixer right now as I'm anticipating them going into molt very soon. Egg production has not dropped off due to heat so far (90-100 highs) and I am frankly amazed. Thanks.
 
I stopped all that treats, now they get FR (fermented) with grit and Oyster Shells in separate dishes, sprinkle crumbles or MW at close up. That's it ... Their feed is a balanced mix of what they NEED and as everyone says too much treats will affect their laying AND health. This I've learned.

Switched from stage feeding; I do a small bag of Med Starter and when that's done, FR until they start laying before I add the extra dish of OS. Read an article about the "energy" it took for an egg to be laid, an egg being protein ... Made sense they needed MORE protein whereas Layer has only 16% with bit more calcium. It's been said the extra calcium isn't good for chicks and Roos, although some disagree.
 
Veelee said:
All of us love to treat our girls, but the kinds of treats they get can lower egg production. It's just math. Laying pullets/hens need 16% to lay well. If 90% of her daily intake is 16% layer feed and 10% of her daily feed is 9% scratch, her protein intake is lowered to 15.3%. If you underestimate how much you are treating and you give her 20% scratch, her protein intake is now lowered to 14.6%. If you give her 30%, she's only getting 13.9% protein.
How easy is it to underestimate how much you are giving? Here are two pictures of 1/4 lb of feed, the total of what a laying hen will eat in a day. Under it is a picture of 1/10 of that in corn (by weight). On the lower right is how much a handful holds (4.5 times as much as the tablespoon each hen should get).
One handful of scratch for every 4.5 chickens is maximum to make sure they are only getting treated 10% of their diet. Or one tablespoon of scratch per chicken! How many of us toss them handful after handful? I know I was blithely guilty of this until I crunched the numbers. Now I don't even feed 9% scratch, because what is the purpose of lowering their protein? Instead, I give one handful per chicken of dried Black Soldier Fly Larvae. They are much lighter in weight than scratch, so .4 oz equals about one handful. Since BSFL is 45% protein, this results in raising their daily protein level to 18.9%.
Or I treat them with a fermented homemade organic whole-grain scratch of 17.9% protein consisting of corn, wheat, split peas, oats, alfalfa pellets, black oil sunflower seeds and kelp. They would like to skip the peas and alfalfa and just gobble the corn, but those are the main protein in the mix, so I only give enough that they clean their plates of every morsel.
Note: Free-range chickens, in addition to their 16-18% layer feed, are getting extra protein in the insects they eat. For free-rangers, garden produce treats are just another part of their balanced free-ranging diet and aren't crucial to limit.
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BigBlueHen53 said:
Thank you for the visuals! I don't feed straight whole corn, but I do scatter some mixed-grain scratch out every afternoon very thinly in a grassy area so they get exercise going after it. How much of that should they get a day, do you think? I'm probably giving them too much, about two cups for 21 birds (only one is a rooster). They are getting an 18% feather fixer right now as I'm anticipating them going into molt very soon. Egg production has not dropped off due to heat so far (90-100 highs) and I am frankly amazed. Thanks.
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I can't help myself...please check the price tags at your feed store. Feather Fixer isn't worth paying extra for. If you want to raise the protein I'm willing to bet that the chick feed is cheaper than this feather fixer you're buying and higher in protein.
 

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