Cayenne Pepper It Really Gets Those Hens Laying

[Ariel188]

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.

So then skip it? I am guessing you do not use it?

 

[MeepBeep]

Any more recent thoughts of opinions on this?

I can give an 'opinion' on it based on recent experience...

Since there are scientific studies that don't back it up, it could be just post hoc ergo propter hoc (correlation does not imply causation) but anyway here is my experience...

This year during the month of June I was getting quite frustrated as I was only getting 1 or 2 chicken eggs a day out of dozens of hens... My Guineas were laying like crazy the entire month so it wasn't a dietary deficiency... The chickens eggs for some reason just started to drop off during the end of May and by June they were just eating machines giving nothing back...

Also worth noting my October hatches from last year were laying a single thing yet, and my birds get their full 16 hours of light (supplemented) every day regardless of the seasonal light changes...

And if anyone cares for this tidbit, they reside in a partially heated coop (about 40°F) all winter with supplemental light as well so egg production is even pretty steady during the winter months, so it wasn't a molting thing...

As for feed my chickens always have dry balanced feed available to them, but they also get fresh vegetables, bread, fruits or other things every day as I have a hook-up for free day old stuff from a local grocery store...

So on to my experience, during the first week of July I was given several cases of past the sell date toasted tortilla (corn chips) about half of them were jalapeno flavored, some were just labeled 'hot' and the rest were plain... I crusted the chips up and soaked them in water overnight to make a corn mash, and that was the chickens treat for several days... Within a few days all the sudden my bantams started to lay, I was up to about 8 bantam eggs a day... Come the second week the regular sized birds started to lay, including the October hatches that were not laying a darn thing (they are my only olive eggers so it was obvious when they started to lay)... It's now the end of July and I'm getting about 2 dozen or more full sized eggs a day, the bantams all went broody (as did a few full sized hens) so their is obviously lost egg production from them, and probably others as they are now fighting over nesting boxes... I just installed four more nesting boxes today actually, because of the broody birds, so I expect production might climb a bit...

Now it might be a fluke, but I can say the next time egg production slows down I will certainly give spicy food another roll of the dice, it certainly didn't' hurt anything...

 

[NSchickennube]

This is one article that I have found.
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-benefits-of-garlic-cayenne-and.html

 

[KevinHicks]

I have found that these home remedies are very valuable in meeting the dietary deficiencies in the chickens. In the summer, I give whole oats and bread. In the winter I give whole corn (not cracked). Garlic, cayenne, apple cider vinegar and other natural supplements keep parasites and Bactria to a minimum and end up increasing egg production BECAUSE OF THE DEFICIENCIES THAT THEY FIX, not because of a magical nutrient that makes eggs. You just have to experiment when your birds slow down egg production. They could just be so busy fighting off diseases that they can't keep up with laying

 

[GardenWeasel]

I've been using cayenne on and off for the last 4 yrs. Not for egg production really, but read an article somewhere about using it for gape worm. I lost 2 hens before seeing the symptoms and an old time remedy was to mix cayenne pepper in their food. I add 2 TBSP to a half bucket of mash. Don't know if it is a cure but it must control because in a few days gaping stops. The article said worms in the poop of wild birds was a factor and earthworms carry it too.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

My daughter needed something to test for her middle school science class. Most of my hens had slacked off so I thought it would be fun to try testing cayenne. We gave my Marans half a cake of cornbread every day with the equivalent of one and a half tablespoons of cayenne baked into each half for 5 days, 5 days of regular, 5 with cayenne and then a final 5 without. The birds were on supplemental lighting but the natural day length was increasing the entire time. I didn't see much improvement with the other breeds and the Black Australorps were already laying well but over the course of the experiment there was a definite increase. I didn't notice much difference in the days where they got cayenne and the days that they didn't but at the end of the experiment we went from a max if 3 eggs in a day to 6. I don't remember how many (or few) eggs they were laying before the experiment but two weeks ago the number of eggs that I put in the incubator had increased dramatically to 17 and the next week it was 30. So far this week it still looks like a pretty good rate. I need to get more cayenne to give to my other birds. It might be coincidence or it could have many reasons to work but it is definitely worth a few bucks to try it. I have a store near by that sells it cheap in plastic bags. It at least will keep mice from eating their food and certainly doesn't hurt them.

 

[Selenashackley]

How much cayenne pepper do you feed a chicken per day?

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

How much cayenne pepper do you feed a chicken per day?

I usually just feed it once a week. My normal method is to use fermented scratch grains (they are wet but probably fresh scratch would work if you soaked it for just a few minutes and then drained the water off. I scatter a good amount...maybe 6 tablespoons for a quart of feed for 60 birds. I stir it in (with a plastic glove on) and then toss a few handfuls into each pen.

 

[Selenashackley]

Thank you

 

[chickwalla]

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