Cayenne Pepper It Really Gets Those Hens Laying

[JennsPeeps]

I tried it last fall and all I got was a pound of REALLY expensive chicken feed for pullets that didn't lay for another month or two.

 

[hinkjc]

I think a lot of it is coincidence as to if they pick up laying or not. Mine aren't getting peppers right now, but they are laying more. I personally use hot red pepper flakes as a natural way to keep worm loads down. I would guess if your birds have worms and this helps reduce that worm load, you may see slightly better production. I don't think it would magically make them lay though, especially if they aren't ready to lay. At least that hasn't been my experience in the past.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Worked every time for me so far.

 

[jkljkljkl]

I don't think I would be feeding my girls oodles of noodles....That stuff is poison.

 

[YNOT2K]

This sounds like an old wive's tale to me. But, hey, if it works...why not?

 

[CrazyTalk]

I think a lot of it is coincidence as to if they pick up laying or not

Yup, people tend to try all sorts of weird stuff when their pullets are a couple of weeks away from naturally laying - then they ascribe the effect to the thing they did, instead of the birds just starting up naturally.



This has been studied quite a bit - the effect goes away when you start controlling for these sort of things.

 

[Ariel188]

Any more recent thoughts of opinions on this? Hot pepper flakes or cayenne pepper. I love natural stuff so if it keep them healthy with parasites I think that is great but would like to hear from more people about their experiences.

 

[CrazyTalk]

There's still no evidence (beyond anectdotal) that it works at all. And there's plenty of evidence that it doesn't-


http://www.pjbs.org/ijps/fin887.pdf
Quote:

 

[Ariel188]

There's still no evidence (beyond anectdotal) that it works at all. And there's plenty of evidence that it doesn't-


http://www.pjbs.org/ijps/fin887.pdf

What about helping keep away parasites, worms, etc? That alone is totally worth it!

 

[CrazyTalk]

There seems to be some studies showing that it reduces salmonella uptake in broilers, but beyond that I haven't found anything (and salmonella isn't really a big issue in small flocks). The reduction in salmonella seems to be caused by increased mucus production in the digestive tract, so I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Beyond that I wasn't able to find much beside a whole bunch of 'natural' websites promoting it, but offering no actual support for their claims.