Green Mountain Soy Free Layer

[LilyD]

Quote:
Mine have just started laying in the last few weeks but they don't really seem to like the soy free food. Everyone started dropping off their laying once I was feeding that. Now I am adding meal worms and sunflowers for extra protein and feeding raw veggies and fruit for added nutrients. I have 22 hens 11 of which are still just starting and got 10 eggs the other day and 8 today.

 

[Jon0286]

I added kale and boss and getting 4 eggs a day from 4 newly laying pullets. I only feed some kale and a hand full of black oil sunflower seeds.

 

[Jon0286]

I have also been told when changing feed to do it slowly. You can put them out of lay if u change the feed all at once.

 

[Jon0286]

I tried feeding just the soy free layer and no drop off in production so far. 4 eggs a day from 4 hens...

 

[PatQ]

Mine are almost totally switched to the GM soy-free layer (was mixing with remainder of my starter feed for a gradual changeover)- got my 1st egg 5 days ago at 17 weeks so must be fine

I add lots of extras - pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, meal worms, lentils, ancient grains, barley grass, flax, oatmeal, raisins and anything else I have on hand. They also get leftovers and garden extras and roam free in the yard all day so lots of weeds, grass and bugs.

 

[GreenMountainEric]

CO and GM both have fish meal (mine does, too). GM has canola meal to boost protein and methionine. Sunflower seeds have about the same amount of methionine as canola meal, btw.

During the time I had my hens on GM soy-free (while I was waiting for a special order to come in so I could make my own feed again), I didn't notice a change in their laying. They were on it for only a couple of weeks, though. I'm not sure if that's long enough to see a difference...

When I did a search for "protein Green Mountain feeds soy-free" I saw 15% protein in the seach results, but couldn't find it anywhere on their site, so I'm not sure what that number was referring to or where on the site the Google search found it. You know what I did see, though, was that second to last on the list of ingredients was Methionine-99%, so it's being added as a supplement despite the canola, etc. Or at least it was when they weren't using fish meal, which has more methionine than soy beans or canola (they haven't yet updated their site to reflect the change to their feed formulation).

Hi countrygoddes. We do add DL Methionine to the ration. And it does help to keep the Canola meal to a minimum. Thing is, we are regulated on the amount of DL Methionine that we can use. Otherwise, we would be able to eliminate Canola. One thing, that I can tell you, is that the Canola Meal is less than 3% of the ration now. (After adding fishmeal). I am also maxed out on the amount of Fishmeal, and Flaxmeal, that can be used in a ration, without having ill effects from using too much. Also, with the amount of flax, that is currently in the ration, using sunflower meal would start to turn the egg whites brown in some breeds of chickens. Removing flax, to add sunflower meal, would not be preferable for most of my customers. They want as much flax, in the ration, as possible.

I called the feed store and had them check the tag on the green mountain soy free layer it is 16 percent protein and has fishmeal. The website for GM must be out of date doesent list fishmeal and says 15 percent. I wonder why they don't put sunflower meal into the feed.

Guess I better get that updated!!

 

[GreenMountainEric]

I should also mention, that the Canola, that is approved for organic use, is not GMO. It is the naturally cross-bred variety that was developed in the 70s. No Organic certifier would allow one of the GMO varieties.

 

[PatQ]

Thank you so much for peeking in here and answering our questions

My girls are just at point of lay and are totally switched over to your Green Mtn. soy-free. So far so good!

Quick question - I'm not totally against soy, just don't want so much of it, so I'm thinking of getting one bag each of regular and soy-free and then just mixing them up - half and half for a nice variety - is that a crazy thing to do or does it make sense?

Also - what is your feeling about feeding the layer feed at 18 weeks old even though only 1 out 7 of mine are laying? Is there any overload of calcium worries for the non-layers at this point - it could be awhile before they start since I don't plan on adding light and we are coming into fall, so who knows when the rest will start laying.

 

[Jon0286]

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Thank you so much for peeking in here and answering our questions

My girls are just at point of lay and are totally switched over to your Green Mtn. soy-free. So far so good!

I have read that you should stick with all soy free because the birds might like the soy one better and then not eat the soy free as well. I have feed mine soy free from day one. I wanted soy free eggs and could not find them in the store so I ended up building a chicken coop. I don't see any issues with the laying as of now but time will tell.

Quick question - I'm not totally against soy, just don't want so much of it, so I'm thinking of getting one bag each of regular and soy-free and then just mixing them up - half and half  for a nice variety -  is that a crazy thing to do or does it make sense?

Also - what is your feeling about feeding the layer feed at 18 weeks old even though only 1 out 7 of mine are laying? Is there any overload of calcium worries for the non-layers at this point - it could be awhile before they start since I don't plan on adding light and we are coming into fall, so who knows when the rest will start laying.

 

[GreenMountainEric]

Thank you so much for peeking in here and answering our questions

My girls are just at point of lay and are totally switched over to your Green Mtn. soy-free. So far so good!

Quick question - I'm not totally against soy, just don't want so much of it, so I'm thinking of getting one bag each of regular and soy-free and then just mixing them up - half and half for a nice variety - is that a crazy thing to do or does it make sense?

Also - what is your feeling about feeding the layer feed at 18 weeks old even though only 1 out 7 of mine are laying? Is there any overload of calcium worries for the non-layers at this point - it could be awhile before they start since I don't plan on adding light and we are coming into fall, so who knows when the rest will start laying.

Hi Pat,
For what it is worth, there is less soy, in our regular formula, than most. (Only about 8% of the ration) To answer your question- It's not crazy at all. The regular ration will perform slightly better, and your chickens will eat a little less of it. Blending the two, will give you something in between, and should work very well.

Also- You are ok to start feeding layer feed at 18 weeks. Your chickens are equipped to handle the extra calcium at that age. Minimum age to feed layer would be about 17 weeks......