Current Internet Theory

[HorseGirlAbby]

Anymore feedback on Payback? We have switched feeds a few times in recent months due to drive distance (a local mill we want to support is just a bit too far to drive regularly) and trying to find a reasonably priced alternative and had decided on Payback. But our switch is recent enough that I'm not sure if it's affected egg count (which is currently low)

I've been feeding Payback for years, and just recently switched to their all-flock feed, due to having a rooster. My egg count is super low as well, getting two eggs a day from seventeen hens... Ten of them are just old, turning five and six this year. The other five are either pullets, three of which are laying, or younger hens, who should be laying by now. They all molted late and hard last year, so maybe that has something to do with it. I was getting eggs from one of my five year old hens up until a few weeks ago, so that's good.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Well, maybe it is the protein factor. You have spiked protein and high egg protein. If we are pumping ourselves up with good egg protein, maybe that is what neutralizes the spiked protein?

Not what this article is stating, but I see where you would make that connection.

The chickens would be given a type of COVID vaccine (oversimplifying, of course). The eggs they produce would have antibodies that could be EXTRACTED and put into vaccines for humans.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This whole thing is way out of hand. It went from backyard chickens are being fed tainted feed, to farmers have been feeding tainted commercial feed. It was Dumor & Producer's Pride & then went to all of Purina. Today I viewed a guy on Youtube reading the Nature's Best statement on their feed & saying Nature's Best manufactured the feed at TSC & were covering their butt. Where will it all end? If my chickens weren't laying since last June, I would have done more digging before now. Whisper down the lane at its best. There might be a problem with the feed but find out before you trash everybody.

Worst part is its taken over my youtube suggestions. I follow literally 1 chicken channel and new I barely have any good suggestions because it's all tinfoil hat chickens

 

[Aunt Angus]

tinfoil hat chickens

 

[Sally PB]

Data, on my experiment, already.

Today is the first day of feeding old, what I would call out of date, Purina brand All Flock feed. (7 months old. Cringe.)

Today I got two eggs. So, what does this prove? (drumroll)

That sometime yesterday, hours before I even bought this feed, two hens ovulated. And I think that that is ALL it proves.

I'm not even certain which hens. It might not include the one who's been laying 2 out of 3 days, and today would have been day 2.

The other BIG thing that might be relevant is that today is the third day in a row that has had several hours of sunshine.

My money, if I were a betting person, would be on the sunshine.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Data, on my experiment, already.

Today is the first day of feeding old, what I would call out of date, Purina brand All Flock feed. (7 months old. Cringe.)

Today I got two eggs. So, what does this prove? (drumroll)

That sometime yesterday, hours before I even bought this feed, two hens ovulated. And I think that that is ALL it proves.

I'm not even certain which hens. It might not include the one who's been laying 2 out of 3 days, and today would have been day 2.

The other BIG thing that might be relevant is that today is the third day in a row that has had several hours of sunshine.

My money, if I were a betting person, would be on the sunshine.

Yeppers. I still get ignored that out of my 11 laying chickens, I get between 7 and 10 a day feeding Purina and Dumor and Nutrena (whatever is in stock). They've been on Dumor the last month or so.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Yeppers. I still get ignored that out of my 11 laying chickens, I get between 7 and 10 a day feeding Purina and Dumor and Nutrena (whatever is in stock). They've been on Dumor the last month or so.

I get ignored that I wasn't feeding those brands and still had a few weeks with no eggs. Guess we don't fit the narrative

 

[NatJ]

Yeppers. I still get ignored that out of my 11 laying chickens, I get between 7 and 10 a day feeding Purina and Dumor and Nutrena (whatever is in stock). They've been on Dumor the last month or so.

I get ignored that I wasn't feeding those brands and still had a few weeks with no eggs. Guess we don't fit the narrative

I've noticed. It's helped form my opinion that feed cannot account for ALL accounts of laying or not-laying so far. I don't yet have an opinion on whether feed accounts for ANY of the laying or not-laying cases. I'm hoping the lab results will be helpful there, or people switching feed back and forth several times might also shed light on it.

If changing feed can turn the laying on-and-off reliably, it might be helpful for people who have hens with reproductive issues: much cheaper than trying to get a vet to do contraceptive implants! I imagine there would be a small but constant market for a feed that can stop pet hens from laying eggs when the owner wants them stopped.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I imagine there would be a small but constant market for a feed that can stop pet hens from laying eggs when the owner wants them stopped.

I would SO buy this for any birds with reproductive problems! I have a duck with implants. Feed would be SO MUCH CHEAPER.

 

[Perris]

I've considered every excuse, from broody season, to the hot (now cold) weather, to moulting...

did you check the dates on the bags of feed?

There are too many experienced keepers, including people who have not signed up to conspiracy theories about it, and people whose posts in the past have led me to believe what they say and think they are not idiots, reporting suspicions with their feed. And if you look, there are similar threads from years ago, long before all the nonsense started.

There are also a lot of inconsistencies when the 'data' (info) is aggregated under a product name (as if all examples of that product, or manufacturer, or brand were involved), leading sensible people to dismiss it as internet nonsense or inexplicable. A (to me) plausible explanation for the reported phenomena is people have inadvertently and unknowingly bought bags of feed that are so old the nutrients are more or less short of what they were when the bag was packed, and the formulations aim for the minimum required, so any loss from there matters. It appears that feedstore and warehouse staff are not always as careful about stock rotation as they should be, or do not themselves understand the codes used on the feed bags to indicate when they were made.

I hypothesize that those having no issues have been getting fresh feed. Those having issues might want to have a look at the milling date on their suspect feed, if they still have it, or what they've got in store if they buy in bulk but don't use in bulk. If there are a lot of recent dates, that would refute this idea.