Does molting cause a drop in egg production?

Ninjasquirrel

Free Ranging
7 Years
May 11, 2018
5,163
14,386
566
Northwest Indiana
Ive noticed my girls are starting to molt and their egg production has been around 6 a day for 8 birds. I dont know if this is cause for concern. I see no signs of eggbound. I checked 2 of them yesterday and found no signs of it. They appear healthy. All are eating and pooping. They are more quiet than usual though. Any thoughts?
 
Yes, I would recommend you switch to a feather food that has extra protein.
Ill let their feeders empty and switch gradually. I dont want them to get diarrhea from the extra protein diet. Ill go pick up some today. How long do you recommend feeding feather fixer for? I might just get a small bag rather than the 50lb if itll only be a week or so.
 
Ill let their feeders empty and switch gradually. I dont want them to get diarrhea from the extra protein diet. Ill go pick up some today. How long do you recommend feeding feather fixer for? I might just get a small bag rather than the 50lb if itll only be a week or so.
It depends, how many feathers do your birds have? Are they bantams or standards? How much do they normally eat?
 
It depends, how many feathers do your birds have? Are they bantams or standards? How much do they normally eat?
Golden comets. Their in coop feed is the small container they had a little chicks. It emptys about every 2 days or so. In the run they have a 5 gallon feeder which usually emptys after about a month and a 1 gallon feeder which needs filled roughly every 3 weeks. That one is harder to tell because we fill it from the top so its always kept topped off.
 
Ill let their feeders empty and switch gradually. I dont want them to get diarrhea from the extra protein diet. Ill go pick up some today. How long do you recommend feeding feather fixer for? I might just get a small bag rather than the 50lb if itll only be a week or so.
I fed it all winter and my birds never did molt. But they laid eggs almost every day. From Nov to now maybe only 3 days total they didn't lay any eggs. I have 4; BO and ISABrown second winter. And 2 SLW pullets, now around 30-32 weeks. I just this week went back to 16%. The high protein diet, AKA Atkins, usually causes constipation. Of course it could work the opposite in birds. IDK. I never noticed different poop.
 
Just to clarify, we have that many feeders so everyone has an opportunity to eat and they dont fight or peck each other. We added the 3rd feeder because we noticed the one on the lowest tier had an empty crop at the end of the day. Since adding that feeder everyone has been well fed at the end of the day
 
I fed it all winter and my birds never did molt. But they laid eggs almost every day. From Nov to now maybe only 3 days total they didn't lay any eggs. I have 4; BO and ISABrown second winter. And 2 SLW pullets, now around 30-32 weeks. I just this week went back to 16%. The high protein diet, AKA Atkins, usually causes constipation. Of course it could work the opposite in birds. IDK. I never noticed different poop.
I worry about the constipation which is why I havent used that food. In my experience if you switch to any food too quickly regardless of the animal you will see a switch in their digestion. Switching food can cause upset tummies. A good example is going from a completely vegan diet and cheating a day. You will be sick all day. Your body is just not used to processing those proteins
 

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