5 new chickens

[jflynn253]

I adopted a flock of chickens that had 7 hens. On mothers days the previous owners hatched 4 more chicks. We eventually put down 1 and gave an older hen away. About 3 weeks ago we added 5 more older hens to the flock. WE have a total of 14 hens now. We are having a egg production problem. I think it is because of stress of adding the 5 new egg laying leghorns. But my bigger question with this many chickens how much food should I now be feeding all this chickens.

I do have 2 self feeding tubes (man made PVC pipes about 6' tall) in the run and a 35 lbs. self feeder in the coop. These have scratch in them and are not empty. I feed my chickens after work around 4:30-5pm when I collect the eggs. When I do feed them I also give them table scrapes from the night before. This varies in the amount each day. Also on the weekends I let them out of the coop for free range all day.

I hope this helps and I hope that you folks can help.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I adopted a flock of chickens that had 7 hens. On mothers days the previous owners hatched 4 more chicks. We eventually put down 1 and gave an older hen away. About 3 weeks ago we added 5 more older hens to the flock. WE have a total of 14 hens now. We are having a egg production problem. I think it is because of stress of adding the 5 new egg laying leghorns. But my bigger question with this many chickens how much food should I now be feeding all this chickens.

I do have 2 self feeding tubes (man made PVC pipes about 6' tall) in the run and a 35 lbs. self feeder in the coop. These have scratch in them and are not empty. I feed my chickens after work around 4:30-5pm when I collect the eggs. When I do feed them I also give them table scrapes from the night before. This varies in the amount each day. Also on the weekends I let them out of the coop for free range all day.

I hope this helps and I hope that you folks can help.

Can you clarify that what you have in your tube feeders is, in fact, scratch -- this is generally made up of whole and/or cracked grains? When you feed them in the evening what, if anything, are you feeding them in addition to the table scraps - is it a commercial feed?
The first potential problem I see based on your post above is that you are free feeding scratch - scratch is intended as more of a treat, not as a primary diet base, generally speaking the target is no more than 10% of the overall intake for a given bird. Overall it is insufficient nutritionally to support production, especially in protein. A bird that is filling up on scratch that is available free choice is not going to consume sufficient amounts of more nutritional feed items to make up the difference. Table scraps can also be deficient depending on what they are....vegetables, for example, have certain nutrients but also tend to be low on protein, combined with a diet already low in protein you are moving away from production support rather than to it.
If what you have in the tube feeders is, indeed, scratch, replace that with your choice of commercial diet (layer, grower, all-flock, etc) and toss out the scratch in the evening as a treat.

 

[chickens really]

It sounds like your balance of Nutrition is way off....Age appropriate Diet first....Layers need proper nutrition to productively lay eggs..Oyster shell and granite git out at all times...Treats for layers is at 5% of daily ration..Meaning a Tablespoon per bird a day...Fresh water at all times...

Try adjusting your feeding...Free choice feeding is better than waiting till after work....

Best of luck

Cheers!

 

[jflynn253]

I switched out the scratch feed in the auto feeders and placed layer feed pellets in the auto feeders. I also put down about two big scoops of crumble layer feed at night when I get home from work around 4:30-5 pm when I give them the table scraps. About every other dau I put one cup of oyster shell in the crumbles for them to eat. There is always egg shells in the table scrapes for them to eat