Best feed for my hens to encourage laying

[Jules6hens]

Hi,
I researched best foods for hens and this one came up....as a natural parasitic and insecticide. I have two types of DE. one is food grade, to add into their feed. The other one is for their nest...just a sprinkle in the nesting box and roost area. Do you have any other info on DE....as happy to get all information I can.
Cheers
J

 

[Jules6hens]

Good point! I have now made up the scratch and put into a bowl with a bit of water to make it a mash. They love it! but keeping to what great advice you guys have given me and only giving them 10% of layer pellet...so just 1/2 cup a day between the 6 of them. and now I have the pellets on their own in the feeder, with the shell grit in another one. thank you all for your help. really appreciate the support. Cheers. Jules

 

[enola]

DE is not an effective wormer. Once it gets wet DE will not kill worms or bugs.

 

[Chris09]

Hi,
I researched best foods for hens and this one came up....as a natural parasitic and insecticide. I have two types of DE. one is food grade, to add into their feed. The other one is for their nest...just a sprinkle in the nesting box and roost area. Do you have any other info on DE....as happy to get all information I can.
Cheers
J

DE does nothing internally and your just wasting money.

 

[Jules6hens]

Hmm ok, this isn't what I found when I researched it, and seems many chicken owners use it too, so seems like there is divided opinion on it. I appreciate your view, but for now, I've bought it and the information I gathered suggests it's very effective parasitic, so I'll stick with it till I find researched information that says don't. Cheers. Julie.

 

[enola]

There are a LOT of threads on this site of people desperate for help. Their chickens are dying one after the other, and they don't have a clue what is wrong. After finally following advice to worm with either Safeguard or Valbazen, their hens finally stop dying and return to good health again.

 

[Chris09]

Hmm ok, this isn't what I found when I researched it, and seems many chicken owners use it too, so seems like there is divided opinion on it. I appreciate your view, but for now, I've bought it and the information I gathered suggests it's very effective parasitic, so I'll stick with it till I find researched information that says don't. Cheers. Julie.

DE works fairly well in a dry environment but once it gets wet it looses it effectiveness until it dries out again.
Look more into the horticulture world, they will flat out state the DE us useless when it is wet. (this includes good organic gardening sites)

The selling pitch that you here a lot is that DE has "tiny microscopic edges that scratch away at the waxy exoskeleton of hard bodied insects. This causes them, in time, to loose all the moisture contained in their body and they simply dehydrate and die."

Well DE is no longer "sharp" when it is wet and leaves the chickens gizzard, and it is going to be real hard to "dehydrate" any parasite that is living with in a moist area like a chicken with out first dehydrating the host in this case the chicken.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I'm thinking they're adjusting to their new surroundings and will soon get back to laying. Their diet is now different and certainly better but any change throws them off, they'll need some time to adjust.

To make sure my girls get the protein they need, I give them their layer feed in the morning to make sure they eat it all. Later in the day, a few hours before they head to roost, I'll give them treats such as cracked corn, sunflower seeds, crimped oats. That way they are sure to get their protein and then get a little something to go to bed on.

I also make sure my girls have access to a mix of construction sand and wood ashes for dust bathing as that helps prevent lice and mites. I personally don't use DE as it is documented to be hazardous to lungs - both human and chicken. I do the deep litter method in my coop and DE will kill the good bacteria and microbe-critters that makes deep litter work so it would work against me to use it. There is a mixed camp on the use of DE, for sure, and everyone has to do what they think is best. I will say that it's good to sprinkle around your hosta's to keep slugs from eating on them but you do have to reapply after it rains as it is no longer effective once it becomes wet.

I know the girls are thankful that they're now with someone who is taking such good care of them and I'm betting they'll be rewarding you with more eggs as soon as they adjust. Good Luck!

 

[Jules6hens]

Thank you for your reply! and for your good suggestions. Since I have separated the goodies from the layer feed, they are now giving me 2 to 4 eggs a day....very happy with that. I'll now give them their mash later in the day too, so they do eat their protein layer feed - good idea - thank you.
Can you tell me - what is the deep layer method you use in your chicken coop?
Cheers
Julie

 

[Mtn Laurel]

That's great news! Glad they've adjusted and are giving you some eggs. That means they're happy and on the road to recovery.

Deep Litter is a method of coop maintenance that's been around forever. It's much like making compost in that you layer carbon material - pine shavings, straw, leaves, shredded newspaper - with nitrogen based material = chicken poop. This encourages beneficial bacteria, microbes, organisms and the like to work to decompose the litter. You clean it out usually in the spring and the broken down material goes into your garden.

It's definitely a time saver and I love having the compost for the garden in the spring. The built up litter can even raise the temp in the coop a few degrees in winter if it's "cooking" properly. Most importantly, there's some evidence that it's actually healthier for the chickens as the beneficial bacteria helps them to naturally build immunity to diseases. My vet recommends this method of coop maintenance for that very reason.

To achieve this end, you can't use DE or any type pesticide when doing deep litter as it will kill the beneficial bacteria and other things that are needed to make the deep litter work. Deep litter can be done on any type floor. I have a wood floor and have covered it with a tarp. I then add a bucket or two of dirt from the forest floor to several inches of pine shavings to kick-start it with the elements needed for decomposition.

Deep litter does not smell when adequately maintained. Should you smell ammonia, that means you need to add shavings, leaves, straw to offset it. The girls love it when you add fresh litter and will take care of further maintenance by scratching and digging around in it. Yes, they even like to dust bath in it.

Below are a few links that explain Deep Litter far better than I can.

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/deep-litter-method.html
http://themodernhomestead.us/article/Deep-Litter-1.html

This is one of my favorite links as he adds DE at one point and explains what happened and why it wasn't a good idea to use it. The post regarding the DE is on page 3.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/643302/results-from-first-year-with-deep-litter-method

Hope this info helps and best of luck to you and your girls!

Edit to add a photo of my deep litter from last winter. This is right at the entrance so you can see that it's built up about 6 inches or so. The bottom layer is more compressed and the litter has been turned into tiny bits in the decomposition process. The top layer is fairly new and is mostly leaves. Hope this gives you a visual as to what deep litter looks like.