I have 15 laying hens ( some are molting but not all). I also have lights in the coop so it is not a lack of light. The last 5 days I've gotten 2,1,3,2 and 0 eggs. I switched from crumbles to pellets and it looks like none of the hens want to eat the pellets. It's the same brand feed just pellets instead of crumbles. has anyone ever had this problem? I have 100lb of pellets. They were eating it in the begining because they went through about 30lb of it and I refilled the feeder, but since I have refilled it they just arent eating it. should I just trash the pellets and go get crumbles again (they waiste so much) or Should I just wait it out untill they break down and eat the pellets? Are they dumb enough to starve to death with a full feeder pellets?
they will eat it. i have always fed pellets and one time the store was out so i did crumbles. the hens did not like them; however, they go hungry and ate!!! silly birds
I would get some crumbles and mix it, ot put it on top of the pellets. They will adapt. Lack of eggs might be related to the reduced light. Add a light on a timer, and see what happens in a week or so......
I switched from crumbles to pellets about a month ago and the exact same thing happened. I think they were just eating enough to not starve, clearly not enough to produce an egg. I kept feeding the pellets and cut out treats like scratch. They have almost gotten back to normal now. I guess it took them a while to figure out that I was not going to switch them back to the crumbles. They were raking it out of the feeders and I was throwing away as much as they were eating. Pellets are NOT ending up in the floor and I am sure that they will get completely back to normal soon (or someday...lol)
My hens are seven months old and I switched them to lay pellets. I put a layer of crumbles in the feeder then pellets, then crumbles and so on. So far so good. They have only been on it a week. Hens I have had in the past always made the switch. Franko
