Egg Laying Pullets raelly necessary?

[Pine Grove]

If they are laying one to two eggs per day each, I'd say keep feeding them just like/what you have been.......

 

[JennsPeeps]

You question seems to indicate that you're asking if the feed should continue to be fed even though they know where to lay...?

Feed has nothing to do with them knowing where to lay, only with the quality of what they leave in the nesting box.

 

[Smiling Farms]

Thanks for the great responses, my question did not come out correctly. But has been answered.

1. I did mean pellets, but had remembered what a neihboring farmer wrote which he mispelled and I alwasy asked for it this way, and have always been understood at the co-op. But I actually read the label after a year. Thanks for the clarification.
2. Where they lay, meaning that the ladies have figured out how to use the nest boxes vs leaving eggs everywhere. We allow them to free range around the farm. I did not intend their feed had anything to do with it.
3. They do receive the pellets, just thought it was to kick start them on laying better then you were to wean them off, not that we have done so.

Okay this clarifies alot, for many ppl here in town have told me that I am spending too much on feeding chickens (fancy food) where as their chickens only get cracked corn. And my girls each lay 2 eggs, is this not normal?

 

[Grammi]

I do think that most chickens only lay one egg a day. What kind of chickens do you have,

 

[JennsPeeps]

Keep the chickens on layer pellets. Cracked corn doesn't have enough nutritional value as a sole source of food.

It's not broken, so why fix it?

And 2 eggs/day is highly unusual. What kind are they?

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

Quote:
We just want to know what brand you buy to make your girls lay 2 eggs a day!!!

Obviously this brand must have very high protein, or something, because every time I have run across someone who is getting 2 eggs per day from their chickens, they are giving them high protein. One of my bantys laid 2 eggs today, one right after each other, right in front of me. I just started recently feeding them scrambled quail eggs (something we have in abundance of) every other day, and I have noticed far less pecking, and now 2 eggs from the one girl. Come to think of it, egg amounts have really increased recently-I wonder how many of the others are laying 2 eggs, and I just wasn't there to see it?!

Edited to add: I agree with others, cracked corn is not nutritious enough for laying hens. This is what is given to hogs, and other meat animals to fatten them up before selling, or butchering them. Keep giving them the layer feed, it makes for much healthier, happier chickens!

 

[Tailfeathers]

Just remember that Scratch (or corn) is to chickens what candy is to a kid. A treat every now and then won't hurt anything but it shouldn't be their steady diet.

God Bless,

 

[tinman9952]

I'd recommend that you stop mixing your feed. Grit and oyster shells should be offered seperately. And I wouldn't mix cracked corn with their layer pellets either. Scatter a few handfulls as a treat on the ground. And PLEASE, what kind of chickens do you have?

 

[speckledhen]

My rooster also eats the mixture he hasn't laid an egg yet..

Gosh, I sure hope not! Roosters are male. Males dont have babies. If your question was serious about the feed, the Layer Pellets are the only feed you should NOT stop feeding them.

By the way, its an extremely rare occurence for a hen to lay more than one egg per day. Its just not how they are made.​

 

[deb1]

Quote:
You are obviously doing something very right! Ignore the other people.

I am surprised how many people get chickens-or any type of animal- without researching the animal first. I am a complete geek and read, read, read about everything that I do. That doesn't make me an expert, of course, but it means that I at least understand a little of what I am doing. It is surprising what kind of silly falsehoods that people accept as facts without doublechecking. I have been told, for example, that I really, really need a rooster for eggs.(You don't)

Yes, please, please tell us what breed of chickens that you have. (

Oh, please let it be either a Buff Orpington or Red Star. Those are the breeds I ordered for egg laying. Oh please let it be one of these two breeds)