First egg...dry spell

[Killyhawker]

Hey there! In our mixed flock, our 23 week old Barred Plymouth rock pullet, TommyGirl, was the first to lay an egg on Wednesday (9/16). Her second egg was two days later in the nest box… Now there is a dry spell. No more eggs from her or any of the others. They are just at starting out, so I am not concerned.

However, other than patience, I do need some advice… I stopped feeding them crumbles and pellets(they don’t eat them) and went straight to a mixed feed of whole oats, whole corn, black oil sunflower seeds and they really don’t eat much of it. It’s like I’m wasting feed. Maybe it’s the heat from the past month being 90° weather, but maybe I should give them some layer crumbles, maybe?

 

[lysmandor]

They definitely need to be on proper chicken feed, preferably layers pellets/crumbles or at least an all-flock with supplemented calcium. Is the whole grain feed you're feeding a scratch mix, or a complete feed? Scratch is a treat, and feeding it exclusively (especially when they are laying) will lead to nutrient deficiency. They will also need calcium of some sort (whether that is included in a layer feed, or oyster shell served separately) as they come into lay.

What do you mean by your chickens not eating the crumble/pellets? Do they receive other treats/food? Do they free range? My chickens do eat less during extremely hot times, but that makes it even more important that what they DO eat is highly nutritious.

 

[black_cat]

They need to be on a proper commercial chicken feed. Give them either grower feed with oyster shell on the side, all flock with oyster shell on the side, or layer feed.