Current Internet Theory

[affacat]

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.

I'm not sure what is causing our issue, but it's definitely not old feed. Our local area has robust livestock needs and quick feed turnover. Some of the feed stores around here would more likely run out of feed than have to sell old stock.

 

[affacat]

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.

We have around 40 hens and the vast majority should be laying. We are getting 8-10 eggs a day. We are currently using payback layer, but switched a few months ago from a local mill. But our egg issue stretches back to summer, so we're just confused overall. We've culled roos, added nest boxes, changed to unlimited food all day and made other changes to get it up. It's odd. I can't swear its the feed but I'm at wits end.

 

[Perris]

I'm not sure what is causing our issue, but it's definitely not old feed. Our local area has robust livestock needs and quick feed turnover. Some of the feed stores around here would more likely run out of feed than have to sell old stock.

but do you actually check the dates? Do you know you are not buying old feed?

 

[NatJ]

I'm not sure what is causing our issue, but it's definitely not old feed. Our local area has robust livestock needs and quick feed turnover. Some of the feed stores around here would more likely run out of feed than have to sell old stock.

The problem is not likely to be the feed store itself.
The problem is likely the warehouse that loads feed into trucks to go to the feed store.

I've seen people mention (other threads, sometimes other years) times when a feed store will get a fresh shipment of feed, and that newly-delivered feed is actually quite old.

 

[Brooks_]

We have around 40 hens and the vast majority should be laying. We are getting 8-10 eggs a day. We are currently using payback layer, but switched a few months ago from a local mill. But our egg issue stretches back to summer, so we're just confused overall. We've culled roos, added nest boxes, changed to unlimited food all day and made other changes to get it up. It's odd. I can't swear its the feed but I'm at wits end.

What is your day length? In hours and minutes?

 

[3KillerBs]

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

I forget it it was this thread or another one where I pondered the possibility that having birds in under cover to protect them from wild birds and Avian Flu was cutting down on their access to light -- which would already be marginal in the winter.

 

[Sherry68lynn]

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.

I started feeding my chickens different food and went from 6 to 19 eggs with 70 chickens. We got sunshine here in pa the pst 2 days, I’ve switched them late last week. So for me sunshine didn’t have anything to do with them laying more cause we didn’t have any.. just saying..

 

[Huntmaster]

6 to 19 eggs with 70

Was it 19 or 21? 10 minutes ago, it was 21 on a different thread.

 

[Huntmaster]

Was it 19 or 21? 10 minutes ago, it was 21 on a different thread.

Aww @Sherry68lynn you don't want to play anymore.

 

[affacat]

What is your day length? In hours and minutes?

Day length: 9h 54m

Our egg issues became noticable during summer, but we wrote it off to having far more broodies than normal. After awhile it became obvious things weren't changing, and in fact were getting worse (a 2 egg day with 40 or so hens). That's when we changed a lot of things about our setup based on feedback from here. They now have free feed all day, double the nest boxes, less roosters, zero interaction with our dogs (just in case it was stressing them) and other changes. We've gotten 9 eggs for the past few days. We've fairly recently switched to payback (not because of egg count, but drive distance to the local mill) and haven't seen a shift plus or minus yet.

My issue that there's always something I can blame. Maybe it was molting, maybe it was the heat, maybe it's the cold maybe it's broodiness, maybe it's Maybelline. So I can't swear it's the feed. But i can say something feels off, and it seems many others are having issues too. Another guy we know with 40 chickens is getting 3 eggs, though I haven't asked what feed he uses because we don't know him well.