I've definitely seen good results using cayenne in the feed & water.
Physiologically, capsaicin (which is the active ingredient in hot peppers) increases circulation. Any herbal for humans or livestock will tell you this. As to why it helps with laying, that is speculative IMO. One possibility is that the increased circulation helps the hens regulate their body heat more efficiently and therefore more of the feed can go toward egg production. I would add that during the molt, you will not be seeing eggs no matter what you use. You can add cayenne during that time, but it will only act as a general health tonic. To get your girls laying again more quickly, support their molt by offering more protein. I use straight BOSS as scratch in the fall/winter evenings when I have a lot of molting hens.
I will share my hot pepper "routine", but I have seen many variations of it as far as dosage and frequency so feel free to experiment for yourself. I also do not have, nor wish to have, an electric water heater to my coop. So we bring buckets out, but I am going out to check for eggs and check on the girls anyway, so it's not a big deal to me. My coop is also unheated, and I live in east central Minnesota.
I use a black rubber bowl for their water. My son attached a rope to a stud in the ceiling of the coop which hangs just to a few inches above the top of the water bowl. On the bottom of the rope is a 5-gallon bucket lid which has a hole drilled into it where the rope goes through & is knotted. This prevents the birds from perching and pooping in the water. It is also very easy to dump my buckets of water into the bowl without having to unhook something. Because the hovering bucket lid keeps the water clean, I am very rarely cleaning out the water bowl. I am literally just dumping water in to the bowl and moving on with things. If I need to clean out the bowl, I bring it in at night.
Twice a day, thrice if it's really cold (for me, that's under 10 below zero), I bring out a gallon of hot water with 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon cayenne powder. The oil is supposed to prevent the water from freezing so hard that the chickens can't peck through a very thin top layer of ice to the water below. I only have my water freeze on me overnight. I typically dump the water out after dark, so I'm not messing with ice the next morning, but sometimes I forget or don't get to it.
Once a day, I put crushed red pepper on top of their feed. (I feed them twice a day) When I have added powdered cayenne to the feed, it has sifted to the bottom and there has been a lot of waste, just like with powdered mineral supplements. If you feed wet mash once a day or a couple times a week, you could probably add the powdered cayenne there with little to no waste, but I have been feeding dry. My ratio is 1t cayenne OR 1T crushed red pepper to 1 cup of feed until they start laying well. Then I add only about 1/3 cup crushed red pepper each day as maintenance for my flock of 42.
I do run LED Christmas lights in the coop on a timer. But last year, no eggs until February/March and then pretty sparsely, even with light. I am seeing eggs already this winter. Not full production yet, but the cayenne/hot pepper is the only thing I've done differently from this winter to last. Same mix of chickens/ages.
I hope this helps someone else get winter eggs.
Physiologically, capsaicin (which is the active ingredient in hot peppers) increases circulation. Any herbal for humans or livestock will tell you this. As to why it helps with laying, that is speculative IMO. One possibility is that the increased circulation helps the hens regulate their body heat more efficiently and therefore more of the feed can go toward egg production. I would add that during the molt, you will not be seeing eggs no matter what you use. You can add cayenne during that time, but it will only act as a general health tonic. To get your girls laying again more quickly, support their molt by offering more protein. I use straight BOSS as scratch in the fall/winter evenings when I have a lot of molting hens.
I will share my hot pepper "routine", but I have seen many variations of it as far as dosage and frequency so feel free to experiment for yourself. I also do not have, nor wish to have, an electric water heater to my coop. So we bring buckets out, but I am going out to check for eggs and check on the girls anyway, so it's not a big deal to me. My coop is also unheated, and I live in east central Minnesota.
I use a black rubber bowl for their water. My son attached a rope to a stud in the ceiling of the coop which hangs just to a few inches above the top of the water bowl. On the bottom of the rope is a 5-gallon bucket lid which has a hole drilled into it where the rope goes through & is knotted. This prevents the birds from perching and pooping in the water. It is also very easy to dump my buckets of water into the bowl without having to unhook something. Because the hovering bucket lid keeps the water clean, I am very rarely cleaning out the water bowl. I am literally just dumping water in to the bowl and moving on with things. If I need to clean out the bowl, I bring it in at night.
Twice a day, thrice if it's really cold (for me, that's under 10 below zero), I bring out a gallon of hot water with 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon cayenne powder. The oil is supposed to prevent the water from freezing so hard that the chickens can't peck through a very thin top layer of ice to the water below. I only have my water freeze on me overnight. I typically dump the water out after dark, so I'm not messing with ice the next morning, but sometimes I forget or don't get to it.
Once a day, I put crushed red pepper on top of their feed. (I feed them twice a day) When I have added powdered cayenne to the feed, it has sifted to the bottom and there has been a lot of waste, just like with powdered mineral supplements. If you feed wet mash once a day or a couple times a week, you could probably add the powdered cayenne there with little to no waste, but I have been feeding dry. My ratio is 1t cayenne OR 1T crushed red pepper to 1 cup of feed until they start laying well. Then I add only about 1/3 cup crushed red pepper each day as maintenance for my flock of 42.
I do run LED Christmas lights in the coop on a timer. But last year, no eggs until February/March and then pretty sparsely, even with light. I am seeing eggs already this winter. Not full production yet, but the cayenne/hot pepper is the only thing I've done differently from this winter to last. Same mix of chickens/ages.
I hope this helps someone else get winter eggs.
