egg laying ceased!

[Susan Houlihan]

Not really. The only special thing about layer feed is that it has more calcium--enough for laying hens, too much for birds that are not laying.

You can get the same effect by putting out a dish of oyster shell, and continuing to feed the pullet feed that they prefer.

Our Layer feed has 17% protein and 3-4% calcium. The pullet grower has 15% protein. I have always had oyster shells available. The pullet grower was not organic, the layer feed is. They used to like this layer feed. I did have a brand of organic layer feed a couple years back they didn't seem to like. On this layer feed we had no issue with them eating the layer feed and laying eggs, before we had the pullet food accessible. It's been 3 weeks since we've had an egg and we have 8 hens (the 7 pullets are too young to lay.) the oldest of these hens is 3, most are 2 years old. It just seems too long for them to be on egg laying strike. They are eating, just not that much.

 

[Susan Houlihan]

Not really. The only special thing about layer feed is that it has more calcium--enough for laying hens, too much for birds that are not laying.

You can get the same effect by putting out a dish of oyster shell, and continuing to feed the pullet feed that they prefer.

Welcome to our FUN-omenal Flock!

I hope you enjoy BYC as much as we do!

Our Layer feed has 17% protein and 3-4% calcium. The pullet grower has 15% protein. I have always had oyster shells available. The pullet grower was not organic, the layer feed is. They used to like this layer feed. I did have a brand of organic layer feed a couple years back they didn't seem to like. On this layer feed we had no issue with them eating the layer feed and laying eggs, before we had the pullet food accessible. It's been 3 weeks since we've had an egg and we have 8 hens (the 7 pullets are too young to lay.) the oldest of these hens is 3, most are 2 years old. It just seems too long for them to be on egg laying strike. They are eating, just not that much. They have plenty of room, 2 water sources, 10 hr natural light supplemented by 6 hr artificial light in coop at night, oyster shells, no predators, maybe 1 is molting and 1 is broody, some free ranging. These are happy hens living the life. Not sure if I should change food or just wait?

 

[claudiabostic]

Seems like you have a mystery here that may need some detective work to solve. Has anything else changed about 3 weeks ago other than the change in food? What has the weather been doing? Hot and humid weather makes them eat less and lay less. Was it a sudden stop of laying or did the eggs taper off? Is there any chance a snake or other predator could be sneaking into the coop and stealing the eggs? We had that happen about a year ago - we might never have known if the snake hadn't stopped on the coop steps one day to digest the 3 eggs it had eaten.
If the only difference you can come up with is the food, the way to test if that's the cause of not laying is to add the pullet feed back in and see if they start laying again in a week or so. If no change and you still don't get any eggs, then the food is probably not the issue.
So if they do start laying again then the question is, why do they like the one food and not the other? Are they the same form or is one crumbles and the other pellets (for instance)? Are the ingredients similar? Did the pullet feed have an ingredient the layer doesn't have, or maybe the layer has an ingredient that they don't like? I would have thought the grower would have had more protein than the layer, but it doesn't seem so.

 

[Fuchsia]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

 

[Susan Houlihan]

Seems like you have a mystery here that may need some detective work to solve. Has anything else changed about 3 weeks ago other than the change in food? What has the weather been doing? Hot and humid weather makes them eat less and lay less. Was it a sudden stop of laying or did the eggs taper off? Is there any chance a snake or other predator could be sneaking into the coop and stealing the eggs? We had that happen about a year ago - we might never have known if the snake hadn't stopped on the coop steps one day to digest the 3 eggs it had eaten.
If the only difference you can come up with is the food, the way to test if that's the cause of not laying is to add the pullet feed back in and see if they start laying again in a week or so. If no change and you still don't get any eggs, then the food is probably not the issue.
So if they do start laying again then the question is, why do they like the one food and not the other? Are they the same form or is one crumbles and the other pellets (for instance)? Are the ingredients similar? Did the pullet feed have an ingredient the layer doesn't have, or maybe the layer has an ingredient that they don't like? I would have thought the grower would have had more protein than the layer, but it doesn't seem so.

Really good advice... add the old feed in, if no improvement, it's something else. I will try that. Thank you. We live in Alaska so snakes are not an option and I've not seen any predators. Our dog always keeps an eye out and has saved our girls multiple times. Def not humidity - it's cooling off here. Normally they really slow down in production in the middle of winter, but not yet. I'll try the food thing. Thanks

 

[Starburst]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! So excited you joined!
Make yourself at home in this amazing community!
I can't think of anything else to add to the information and advice that hasn't already been given.

 

[N F C]

Hi Susan, thanks for joining us!

 

[Isaac 0]

Hello, and welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join!

 

[DobieLover]

Hello, Susan, and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Good luck getting to the bottom of your egg shortage.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Hi and welcome to BYC! I hope your girls go back to laying soon