Egglaying problems!

[Kiki]

Just think of corn for chickens as chips for humans.
Sure they can eat a few every now and then but you wouldn't want to be eating them everyday. They will fill up on the "bad" stuff before they get a chance to eat the "good" stuff.

 

[aart]

That's perfectly fine. The layer feed I give them as no physical evidence of corn though.

Corn is 'bad' per se....you have to look at the overall diet.
Look at your ingredient and nutrient tag @rjrinehart.
Tell us what the first 3 ingredients are and the percentage of protein and calcium are, please.


I like to feed a flock raiser/starter/grower/finisher type feed with 20% protein crumble full time to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.