Feeds affecting laying?

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Either feed is good, as long as it's fresh. There's a mill date on each bag of feed, and it's best to use feed within two months of milling if at all possible. An all-flock feed works fine for everyone, there's no reason to switch to a layer feed.
Get something labeled for both chickens and ducks that's fresh.
Mary

 

[DavidReaves]

Didn’t think about that but it is weirdly worded.

It sounded more to me like they were addressing the specific issues that hit on social media. Supposedly there's a move to restrict small flock layers by eliminating the essential amino acids-- they state that they specifically confirmed no such lack. It's only weird wording because the issue/conspiracy is weird. (IMO)

 

[EvolveInNature]

I've sold so many eggs lately that costs should be covered by my chickens, actually. The prices of eggs has made my $5/dozen eggs a hot commodity.

That’s great, my eggs go to my 92 yr grandmother, friends and family, when I have extra I give to my coworkers or community members, sometimes I get a donation. But that’s why I have the chickens so that my community benefits and I happened to fall in love with them.

 

[Aunt Angus]

That’s great, my eggs go to my 92 yr grandmother, friends and family, when I have extra I give to my coworkers or community members, sometimes I get a donation. But that’s why I have the chickens so that my community benefits and I happened to fall in love with them.

I have them because I have always loved birds. I used to give away eggs, but folks insisted on paying. I stopped arguing. Now the chickens pay for their feed, and their eggs turned a profit recently. With eggs being $8/dozen, mine are quite the deal.

 

[Sammster]

other folks on the thread said they had notices posted in their stores to address people's concerns

Are you referring to TSC posting notices in their store? I did find a news article on line that quoted the feed manufacturers as "having made no changes to their formulas". I no longer shop at TSC, for other reasons. I did not have a problem with my feed.

 

[Sammster]

Has anyone tried Kalmbach? I have to drive 45 mins to get Nutrena. My local feed store only has Purina and Kalmbach. Luckily my chickens are barely 16 weeks old so we aren’t on layer feed yet. Adding more chicks and ducks this week so I want to be prepared.

I just started Kalmback, this week. My local, family-run feed store carries it. The first thing I noticed is that it smells very good! It smells like actual food. Our old food didn't really smell like anything. And the girls really like it! I can't give a performance review, just yet - but others here say it's been very good for their flocks

 

[Awestruck]

We are in a milk co op, and one of the ladies has searched out places where there are chicken farms that sell eggs. She has been doing this for a couple of years now, and for the past several months, the chickens on all the different farms are not laying right now. Or not laying enough for the people to sell their eggs.
This had been going on before all the talk about the Tractor Supply feed suspicion. I don't know if these farms use Tractor Supply feed or not, but I use Dumor, or whatever organic layer feed Tractor Supply sells.
I had 3 hens left last spring, and one had quit laying. The other 2 stopped laying for several months. The one that quit laying died. The other 2 started laying again in January. They are almost 6 years old.
I do give them the feed I get from Tractor Supply, but, I also give them fruit and vegetables, and some other things. I'm not giving them as much feed, but adding other things like wheat and black oil sunflower seeds. I'm looking to switch brands of feed and get my feed from somewhere else from now on.

 

[Krugerrand]

TSC is in a weird place here. I'm confident their corporate lawyers and PR people wanted them to try not to throw their house brand under the bus while at the same time maintain that they are simply the seller - if there's a problem, it's the Mfg's problem.

If that leaves you feeling like you just shook hands with a new car salesman who moonlight as a vehicle outfitter...

Yup. Lots I don't understand of this whole thing. 1) why is this a TSC issue over a food brand issue. I can't see TSC making an effort to undermine the food they sell. They want people to buy the food cheap. 2) why would a food manufacturer want to undermine their customers interest in buying their products? 3) why do people on BYC assume that members who have many years of experience with chickens can't identify an unusual egg laying issue? 4) why do some people on BYC laugh at others concerns and assume them to be idiots? I keep reading about the suggestion that this is only people not used to 2 year old chickens in winter ... and they flat out pretend they never read the posts of seasoned chicken owners. It strikes me as very rude. 4) why can there NOT be the possibility that there's something wrong with some brand's feed AND the issue be something other than a global cartel trying to rid the US of back yard chickens? It sure strikes me as highly possible - especially in these economic conditions that a company would try to 1 cheat to save money or 2 make some ingredient switch to save money and inadvertently cause a negative issue with their product.

It's really sad how we treat each for what we perceive as protecting our team.

 

[Bhubbard]

Yup. Lots I don't understand of this whole thing. 1) why is this a TSC issue over a food brand issue. I can't see TSC making an effort to undermine the food they sell. They want people to buy the food cheap. 2) why would a food manufacturer want to undermine their customers interest in buying their products? 3) why do people on BYC assume that members who have many years of experience with chickens can't identify an unusual egg laying issue? 4) why do some people on BYC laugh at others concerns and assume them to be idiots? I keep reading about the suggestion that this is only people not used to 2 year old chickens in winter ... and they flat out pretend they never read the posts of seasoned chicken owners. It strikes me as very rude. 4) why can there NOT be the possibility that there's something wrong with some brand's feed AND the issue be something other than a global cartel trying to rid the US of back yard chickens? It sure strikes me as highly possible - especially in these economic conditions that a company would try to 1 cheat to save money or 2 make some ingredient switch to save money and inadvertently cause a negative issue with their product.

It's really sad how we treat each for what we perceive as protecting our team.

Well said. I thought this was an awareness issue and we are all in this together thing and the people on here seem to be pretty quick to shut it all down. I think some of the arguments on here have been twisted a little. I believe it’s a TSC issue because IF the feed is bad it goes back to the board of TSC behind it I believe is the claim. I have had chickens as an adult for 8 years been a member here for 5/6 years. Grew up with livestock and currently own my own mini farm as a felt I owed it to my 3 kids to give them same life I had. I’m also a physiologist and own my own gym. Never in all that time have I seen so many people reject the notion that something could be off and blame weather or light because that is a credible argument to follow. Ohio has never had reliable weather that’s ever anything but crazy. This is my first time experience with this massive egg fall out. If you check the record I haven’t posted on here in years but turned here for help because I was at a loss for what was going on. I have enjoyed being back on this forum even though it was crazy to see how dug in sides were. Hopefully everyone can figure out this situation for themselves. With a few more minutes a day of light and some feed swap I went from zero eggs to collected 15 yesterday. That I will call a win. Hope everyone else that has had issues is also getting back to a normal lay rate soon. The feed is too expensive to not be getting anything for your efforts.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Has anyone tried Kalmbach? I have to drive 45 mins to get Nutrena. My local feed store only has Purina and Kalmbach. Luckily my chickens are barely 16 weeks old so we aren’t on layer feed yet. Adding more chicks and ducks this week so I want to be prepared.

I've used Kalmbach for several years. Both feeds are good, but I can get Kalmbach a good $4-5 cheaper than Purina here & we are in Purina country.