Not being pecked, not over crowded, lots of space and outside daily. What would you recommend for high protein? They all get Layena Pellets and Scratch, equal amounts daily. I also add oyster shell and grit to the food. I'm at a loss as to what is going on. Why just one and not all???
She is about 1-1/2 years old, a Golden Wyandotte.
I know eggsessive already covered some of this but here goes.
Losing whole feathers in November at 18 months of age - that's molt.
I'm surprised the others aren't molting if they're the same age. The coop and run should look like someone had a pillow fight in there.
Your feeding regimen needs a complete makeover.
Never add grit or oyster shell to the food. Each needs to be in its own container or the grit could be placed in a pile on the ground.
Layer feed is about 4% calcium, oyster shell is 95% calcium carbonate so just under 40% elemental calcium. It will coat the feed and they won't have a choice but to consume excessive calcium. She's likely not laying eggs now so that makes matters worse. That calcium isn't going to build egg shells so any not used for bodily functions will be processed by the kidneys and negatively affect one or more of the 6 kidney segments.
Mixing layer with scratch at a 50:50 ratio nets a total intake of 12% protein. That is 4% lower than is necessary to maintain body functions
including metabolism and disease resistance. It certainly isn't going to help regrow feathers that are 93% protein.
Further, the numbers we are discussing are for crude protein. But that is only part of the story. The real issue isn't crude protein but amino acid content. If that protein is from vegetative sources (scratch grains), there will be limiting amino acids that make the deficiency worse than that 4% deficiency. Body functions can only maintain up to the level of those limiting amino acids.
Compounding the negative effects are that a bird will initially consume more feed in an attempt to resolve the deficiency. Eventually, this increase in feed intake shifts to a pattern of reduced feed intake. Besides inferior feed efficiency, the birds are fatter as a consequence of overconsuming energy.
Scratch grains are also low in or missing some of the vitamins and minerals important for chicken nutrition.
During periods of stress(like molting) and slumps in egg production, it's important to increase protein and vitamin content of feeds.
There's a reason that most experts say to limit ALL treats (including scratch) to no more than 5-10% of the diet.
All feed labels will have feeding instructions. I'm reading a layer feed tag right now. It says, "Feed as the
sole ration beginning at 16 weeks of age".
I don't read anything into that which says to mix half and half with scratch.
I have seen 20% protein layer feed that does say to mix with scratch but it is formulated to do so with higher protein and fortified with vitamins and minerals that are low in scratch.
My recommendation is to eliminate all the scratch. Perhaps switch to an 18% all flock or grower feed. 18% protein, if balanced in amino acid content, is sufficient for molting birds to recover. Temporarily, perhaps offer some fish, meat, crickets or mealworms every couple days.
