Commercial Poison (err... "Feed")

[Brooks_]

Yeah. Crazy theory, I know.

It could work. The going deeper part would be key though.

 

[nuthatched]

It could work. The going deeper part would be key though.

Nose plugs and gloves.

 

[Goosebaby]

This is the same rhetoric heard from literally every conspiracy theorist. The real poison in this country and society as a whole lately has been misinformation.

My neighbor is an engineer. Recently a lot of the neighbors pitched in to get a some transfers of gravel for our shared road because it was getting pretty shabby. She refused to help.
A few days after the gravel was set down she had a load of red clay dumped over the steepest part of the road because “we ruined the road” and she was repairing the damage and making it “manageable.”
Red clay...on a steep mountain road...right before winter. She made it into a mud slide, but she’s an engineer so she KNOWS.

Generally I don’t like criticizing academics and professionals, but we’re just humans and we aren’t all knowing, a technical engineer while knowledgeable about their field may know nothing about epidemiology, nutrition, biology, or anything else, and high education doesn’t necessarily prove intelligence.

 

[ChickyMudder]

This is the same rhetoric heard from literally every conspiracy theorist. The real poison in this country and society as a whole lately has been misinformation.

Misinformation? Please dont start with that line of crap. They shared their experience. You cant ignore it, label it, and shut people down when they speak their truth. Its their damn truth, not a conspiracy. Nobody conspired. They just said their feed kept their hens laying while others did not. Censorship through fear, bullying, and shaming is the real cancer here.
critical thinking and freedom of speech are vital. If you fear misinformation than you fear your own ignorance will allow you to be mislead. Logic, research, and critical thinking are skills that prevent us from falling for everything.

 

[Qwerty3159]

Misinformation? Please dont start with that line of crap. They shared their experience. You cant ignore it, label it, and shut people down when they speak their truth. Its their damn truth, not a conspiracy.

The “damn truth” is a flawed assessment of what the situation is which many sensible users have tried to explain. Titling the thread Commercial Poison is not sharing an experience, it’s a (conspiracy) theory. Not sure what isn’t computing here?

You sound like a conspiracy theorist yourself if you don’t believe in the soundness of feed tests conducted by an independent third party.

 

[Goosebaby]

Misinformation? Please dont start with that line of crap. They shared their experience. You cant ignore it, label it, and shut people down when they speak their truth. Its their damn truth, not a conspiracy. Nobody conspired. They just said their feed kept their hens laying while others did not. Censorship through fear, bullying, and shaming is the real cancer here.
critical thinking and freedom of speech are vital. If you fear misinformation than you fear your own ignorance will allow you to be mislead. Logic, research, and critical thinking are skills that prevent us from falling for everything.

If “critical thinking and freedom of speech are so vital” don’t all examples therefore matter? Wouldn’t attacking someone else for expressing their opinions and accusing them of “censorship through fear, bullying, and shaming” be exactly all of that.

There are so many factors that can contribute to hens not laying, the age and quality of feed, quality of care and management of the birds, season, lighting, air quality, predators, flock dynamics, age, illnesses, and so on. Stating those simple facts shouldn’t be considered threatening.

To determine why so many “alleged” flocks would stop laying a person would need to excercise critical thinking and investigate all of these factors of each flock who’s owners are claiming to have had this happen, and not simply accept the word of someone who claims that this is happening to them and everyone else they know and what their assumed explanation for why just because it’s their “truth.”
Personally I prefer logic and proven fact over anyone’s “truth” any day and even if it contradicts and corrects something that I once believed I don’t regard it as an attack on “freedom,” because I choose not to live in ignorance.

 

[NatJ]

Misinformation? Please dont start with that line of crap. They shared their experience. You cant ignore it, label it, and shut people down when they speak their truth. Its their damn truth, not a conspiracy. Nobody conspired. They just said their feed kept their hens laying while others did not.

Actually, if you are talking about the first post in the thread, they did NOT have a feed that "kept their hens laying." The original poster had hens that quit laying, and later resumed laying after a feed change. Their hens stopped laying much earlier than is normal for molting, remained stopped for 8 months, and showed various signs of poor health. After a feed change, their hens got healthier, and within a month resumed laying.

The poster who shared about a feed that kept hens laying was a different one.

The point that is most interesting to me: both of those experiences were different than the usual "problem feed" narrative: one went on for much longer and had other problems than just lack of eggs, while the other did not have a problem.

 

[BastyPutt]

I'm an educated, middle-class, engineer and family man, and am usually averse to conspiracy theories. HOWEVER… I’d recently come across multiple stories about how backyard chickens weren’t laying anymore, and I could relate. We have 3 girls about 3 years old and they all stopped laying last June (2022). The theory is that they’re (whoever “they” are) putting something in the feed. Vaccines for bird flu, vaccines for people… other more nefarious stuff? Poor quality ingredients for sake of profit? Who knows?

In addition to not laying, our chickens were lethargic, didn’t free-range when the door to the run was left open and just seemed “off”. The commercial “feed” was Dumor 16% Layer Formula from TSC.

So my wife and I mixed up a homemade feed of various corns, seeds, proteins, oyster shell & gravel, and the results are amazing! Within a week, they started to venture out of their run. Within 2 weeks they started “squatting and stomping” (a sure sign of fertility / productivity) which they also stopped doing completely.

3 weeks after purging their commercial “feed” we got our first egg in nearly EIGHT MONTHS! Now 4 weeks in, we’re getting eggs DAILY. I’m telling you all it’s as if they’ve woken up from an 8 month coma. More accurately “purging an 8 month poisoning”.

Aside from the fact that I agree with your assessment of the commercial food, regardless - blending your own feed is always superior. Not only do you know exactly what is in there, but it is also more sustainable in the event of shortages.

And there is one prominent BYC user who we will leave unnamed, who has a resentment toward anything natural, suggested you are unable to know or control the nutritional levels - which is a load of poo. These, as I'm sure you have found, are easy enough to calculate. If you suggest anything other than antibiotics, harsh chemicals or culling - prepare for the "mushroom" to hunt you down like a rabbit. Make enough of these suggestions and that will make sense.

Great flock keeping

 

[BastyPutt]

Then

If “critical thinking and freedom of speech are so vital” don’t all examples therefore matter? Wouldn’t attacking someone else for expressing their opinions and accusing them of “censorship through fear, bullying, and shaming” be exactly all of that.

There are so many factors that can contribute to hens not laying, the age and quality of feed, quality of care and management of the birds, season, lighting, air quality, predators, flock dynamics, age, illnesses, and so on. Stating those simple facts shouldn’t be considered threatening.

To determine why so many “alleged” flocks would stop laying a person would need to excercise critical thinking and investigate all of these factors of each flock who’s owners are claiming to have had this happen, and not simply accept the word of someone who claims that this is happening to them and everyone else they know and what their assumed explanation for why just because it’s their “truth.”
Personally I prefer logic and proven fact over anyone’s “truth” any day and even if it contradicts and corrects something that I once believed I don’t regard it as an attack on “freedom,” because I choose not to live in ignorance.

Every "proven fact" in this context has a dissent. It isn't ignorant to use the experience of others and your instinct when making decisions. Discrediting others experience would be consider ignorant.

 

[BastyPutt]

This is the same rhetoric heard from literally every conspiracy theorist. The real poison in this country and society as a whole lately has been misinformation.

The word "misinformation" makes me want to vomit every time I hear it.