Don't feed fruit to layers????

BetterHensandGardens

Songster
9 Years
Feb 28, 2010
245
4
111
Clinton, OH
In the Meyer Hatchery catalog, it says "Don't feed fruit to layers, since it can cause them to stop laying and it may take as long as six weeks for them to start again." Is this true? I've been giving my girls grapes since day one, and they absolutely go crazy for them.
hmm.png
 
Mine ate fruit just about every day last year and laid an egg just about every day last year. They loved strawberries, rasberries, blueberries, grapes, apple pieces (no seeds), melon. Pretty much anything.
 
Citrus is supposed to hinder laying of eggs but many other fruits in moderation are very nutritious. I can't wait to feed the girls chilled watermelon on a hot summer day!!

droolin.gif
 
My garden produces so many organic tomatoes that I am on overload by mid-July. So I got to giving my chickens about two to three pounds of chopped, fresh, organic tomatoes every afternoon as a treat for about six weeks last summer.


That was about two to three pounds of fruit, divided by eight birds.


The tomato snacks did not seem to reduce the amount of eggs being produced by any of the birds, other than the rooster. DaddyRoo didn't produce a single egg during that entire time, and, quite frankly, his egg production is still way, way down...
wink.png
 
I wouldn't feed my girls citrus, but they love watermelon, apples and grapes, tomato (they devoured my garden even jumping to get the tomatoes up high).
 
Seems like the more tomatoes that I fed them from the garden last year, they produce more and more eggs!

Like silkiechicken said, everything in moderation, they still need their regular feed.
 
Thank you everyone, I'm relieved that I haven't been inhibiting my chickens egg production by feeding them grapes, and as Barry points out, have only negatively impacted the Rooster's egg production.
wink.png


Wonder what Meyer Hatcherry was thinking when putting such a broad statement in their catalog...........
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom