Chickens Only Really Producing When Fed Bugs

[JenOfAllTrades]

I've had 4 hens that look like Rhode Island Reds for a couple of years. They were fantastic layers at first (they were already laying when friends bought them for us as a gift -- no idea how old they are), but haven't gotten back to their original production after last winter. They've never molted; at least nothing more obvious than a few feathers. We feed layer crumble, scratch, and table scraps. They also sometimes get cottage cheese or yogurt, for the calcium. We have offered them oyster shells, off and on. In desperation, I've recently added bugs (mealworms, superworms, etc.) -- that got us back up from one egg every day or so to 1 - 3 a day. The girls look a bit thin to me (although no one else thinks so), and we treated one of them for mites quite a while back. She was better for a while, but her back end looks gunky again (although this never seemed to slow down her egg production in the past). They have the run of our large backyard every afternoon.

Should I be concerned about them only seriously producing when fed bugs, or that they look a little thin? Is there anything else we should be doing? Are they likely just getting older? Thanks for any help you can give me!!

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! Yes, they are getting older, and health issues and lower egg production will happen. They need a more balanced diet too. Either layer with oyster shell on the side all the time, or flock raiser with oyster shell on the side. Scratch and stuff are treats, and shouldn't be more than about 10% of their daily ration. Mites, lice, and intestinal parasites will all affect your entire flock, and must be treated that way. You still have mites, at least, and need to fix that problem ASAP also. Mary

 

[aart]

I've had 4 hens that look like Rhode Island Reds for a couple of years. They were fantastic layers at first (they were already laying when friends bought them for us as a gift -- no idea how old they are), but haven't gotten back to their original production after last winter. They've never molted; at least nothing more obvious than a few feathers. We feed layer crumble, scratch, and table scraps. They also sometimes get cottage cheese or yogurt, for the calcium. We have offered them oyster shells, off and on. In desperation, I've recently added bugs (mealworms, superworms, etc.) -- that got us back up from one egg every day or so to 1 - 3 a day. The girls look a bit thin to me (although no one else thinks so), and we treated one of them for mites quite a while back. She was better for a while, but her back end looks gunky again (although this never seemed to slow down her egg production in the past). They have the run of our large backyard every afternoon.

Should I be concerned about them only seriously producing when fed bugs, or that they look a little thin? Is there anything else we should be doing? Are they likely just getting older? Thanks for any help you can give me!!

This could be a serious problem...what do you mean by 'gunky'?

 

[JenOfAllTrades]

Thanks so much for your responses! By 'gunky' I mean feathers matted with poop & white mite stuff. If I recall correctly, when this happened before we bathed her gently in a bucket of warm water, then treated the area with a solution of tea tree oil diluted in vegetable oil. (The same treatment can be used for head lice -- a few drops of tea tree can be diluted in shampoo, worked into wet hair and left on for a little while before rinsing. One treatment usually does the trick.) We also sprinkled the coop and nesting boxes with diatomaceous earth. Those two things seemed to solve the problem for quite a while, so I think we'll do them again. I have cut way back on the treats, but am still feeding mealworms & superworms because I think they need them. (I also offer them red wigglers from our worm bin occasionally, but they're much less enthusiastic about them than the others.) We're on the West Coast, and from what I've read, the drought is hurting the wild bird population by making worms & other soil bugs less available. So, I figure if it's hard for the wild birds to get enough bugs from the dirt, it's probably tough for our girls to scratch them out of our clay soil (hard as concrete these days), too. Once we deal with the mites and get the girls' diet balanced a little better, I think their egg production will come up to as good as it's likely to be, at this stage of the game.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer your thoughts!

 

[aart]

Gunky butt can be caused by a problem with an unbalanced diet,
or could be some kind of disease or parasite in the gastrointestinal or reproductive tracts,
and can 'scald' the skin around the vent.
A fecal float should rule out intestinal parasites, or pinpoint which ones so they can treated effectively.

When in doubt, go back to a simple balanced diet of formulated chicken chow and plain clean water fresh daily for a month and see what difference it makes.
Then slowly add other foods singly to see if they cause an issue.

As to the original question....yes, lack of protein can negatively effect egg production and the molting process as well.