Chickens won't eat feed, eggs are small

[mharring]

I have three chickens that I keep in a coop at night and through mid-morning. They generally do not eat their pellets during their cooped up time, but wait for the door to open before grousing in the yard. The eggs they lay are somewhere between a grocery store chicken (medium) egg and a robin's egg. I've tried leaving them in the coop all day with no choice but to eat the pellets, but it just seems to agitate them, and they begin digging their way out. Any thoughts on getting them to eat the pellets, and whether avoiding pellets leads to smaller eggs?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

How old are your birds and specifically what breeds are they?

If they are young birds as in have only been laying this last few weeks their eggs are supposed to be small. They'll naturally grow larger over the next several weeks.

Some breeds of birds simply lay smaller eggs while others can larger ones.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I have a Jersey Giant and Buff Orpington, so BIG girls, and they won't touch pellets. Got to be crumbles or nothing. Which makes no sense cuz I've seen them choke down a whole tomato. But maybe your girls want smaller feed size.

 

[mharring]

thanks for the responses. All three are new producers, still in the first two weeks of laying, but at least one has laid "normal" size eggs. I've been told the birds won't eat much in the hot summer months, but triple their intake in the winter. So they may be forced to eat pellets, lacking bugs and grass in winter.

 

[cmom]

Being they have been laying for only around 2 weeks, their eggs will be on the small size. Also you did not mention what breeds they are. some lay smaller eggs than others. When I switched my birds over to pellets they did not want to eat them at first either but eventually they got hungry enough and now they are practically eating me out of house and home. A suggestion, mix some crumbles with the pellets.

 

[DanEP]

When i switched over to pellets my girls didn't like them either.After 36 hours of not eating them i threw a hand full in the run like scratch and they ran for them and ate them all so I threw some more with the same results.After a few times of this I just let them get hungry in the am and by pm they were eating out of the feeder.A week later they were eating them just fine.

 

[cmom]

That is a good idea to mix some scratch in with the pellets too