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  1. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Those are all myths.
  2. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    What's wrong with your water?
  3. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    You mean garlic scape? Rape greens are a brassica.
  4. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Of course different breeds will lay different size eggs and larger hens lay larger eggs. Their egg production drops naturally over time, but is accelerated a bit by oversized eggs. Yet, for the most part, you can't decrease the amount of protein and decrease egg size without affecting...
  5. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    We use commercial brown layer strains and we start extending the lighting at 18 weeks old. We start at 13 or 14 hours of light (depends upon the season) and add 30 minutes per week until we reach 16 hours. They come into lay pretty rapidly and reach a peak at about 28 weeks old. But...
  6. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    There are any number of lighting timers available for general use. Basically they plug into a wall receptacle or extension cord and then your lights would plug into the timer. Any hardware store can hook you up with what you need for about $20-$30.
  7. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    That depends upon what you have installed. If you just have lights plugged in via cords or extension cords then a timer like that used for Christmas lights could be used. If your lighting is hard-wired then there are small digital timers that can directly replace a light switch. Other than...
  8. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    I don't grow any. We are in an area where there has been an organic boom and organic feed is readily available. We get it delivered from a mill about 20 miles away that does nothing but organic feed and specializes in poultry feed. Sometimes I buy crops from the neighbors and "bank" it on...
  9. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Yes we are certified organic. There is no way we could make a profit on this selling conventional eggs. I've never found the paperwork and inspection to be a big deal. When I first contacted a certifying agency they sent me a huge binder full of paperwork and forms that looked a bit...
  10. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Without the flock raiser do you expect that to be enough protein? I'd suggest a vitamin and mineral premix too. What about methionine, salt, and phosphorous?
  11. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    That's a pretty big coop. Since you are living in Mississippi I'd think they'd just need a safe place to roost at night and would generally live outside of it. We had an 8 x 8 coop in Texas with 15 hens. They ran our fenced backyard year round and just went in the hen house at night. We did...
  12. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    If the bills weren't $224,000. No... we do ok on it. Some years are better than others depending on feed prices, but we enjoy it. The cost of the first hen house is included in our mortgage so we aren't trying to fund it separately. I figure at the very worst, even if we break even on that...
  13. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Fresh eggs are always good. You wouldn't believe how many I eat each week. There's no shortage of them here, close to 400 dozen each day. Even if we haven't made it to the grocery store, there's always eggs to eat. One of my neighbors was going on and on today about our eggs. She said...
  14. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Fun stuff. I started hanging out here seven years ago when we first bought 15 chicks and raised them on our back porch/backyard in West Texas. A few years later I ended up buying a small farm in Wisconsin with a large hen house. Now we have two hen houses with 2500 hens in each and we are...
  15. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    I just looked at the website for our local mill and they sell a 20% chick starter for 0-6 weeks and then recommend an 18% grower until lay. Other companies may sell a general purpose starter/grower for the entire period. It depends upon what is available to you.
  16. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    No problem. Are there any recommendations on your feed bags? Depending on the company they may sell fewer or more types of feed for different stages of growth. Some may sell a starter/grower for 0-20 weeks, others may sell a medicated starter and then recommend switching to their grower feed...
  17. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    Huh? I guess I don't understand. Grower feed until they start laying, then layer feed.
  18. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    You'll need to feed a high protein grower, around 18-19%. Too little protein won't give them enough for good growth and too high a protein causes them to grow too fast. They need time to build a sturdy frame for that increasing weight to be a good layer. Once they start laying you should feed...
  19. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    We have 5000 hens for shell egg production and I can tell you that the amount of protein absolutely does affect egg size. Since large eggs are the top retail seller we get a premium price for lots of nest run eggs where the average egg size is in the large weight range. To maximize our...
  20. Mac in Wisco

    What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

    That's what I was talking about above... feeding too much scratch and diluting their layer ration so they are not getting enough protein. Now you are adding protein back in to make up the difference.
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