Apples inhibit egg-laying??????

[Beekissed]

Sounds plausible to me.....

 

[WriterofWords]

That is another "old wive's" tale I think, because mine eat apples all the time and it has never affected their laying.

 

[wombat]

We're feeding apples and tomatos all the time, and most of ours are fairly consistent egg-a-day layers.

Sounds like an ol' granny story.

 

[mmtillman]

Quote:

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Well, if anyone finds anything "official" on the subject (not that I'm discounting Aunties and old wives, mind you!

) I hope they will share it. The fact that two people are coming up with this suggests there is something to it.

 

[1stepcloser]

Mine love apples and are laying...

 

[txchickie]

Psh

Mine get apples all the time. We have an apple tree that gives these tiny green apples that the chickens LOVE. They eat them all the time.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

If a hen was fed only fruit, I could understand where it might affect egg laying because they have no room for or no access to higher protein foods.

My birds are too young to be a test case, but in my childhood we fed a lot of surplus fruit and veggies and I cannot remember my parents ever commenting on a reduction of eggs.

I feed all manner of garden and orchard surplus, figuring it helps reduce the food bill and cannot hurt the young birds to have a varied diet.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Quote:

I have an apple orchard too and my hens have never stopped laying because of eating apples!

 

[Akane]

but that once the fruit starts to fall (and rot), they tend to move the hens out of the orchard, because eating a lot of fruit causes reduced laying.

Easy explanation. What time of year do apples start to fall and especially reach the point of rotting? Fall. What time of year do chickens start to slow down laying? Fall. Does anyone see a correlation? It has nothing to do with the apples.​