Hens laying poorly for MONTHS - mystery!

[jbobs]

Thanks,

Just the other day we did our spring de-licing. I have often wondered about worming the chickens, as we worm the horses and the cats and dogs, so why not the birds?

I still have a bunch of turkey starter left in the shed, and it'll be no problem feeding them on that or pullet grower for the next few weeks. If it means we will get eggs regularly I'm sure we will have no problem going back to our standard layer diet.

Would feeding them cooked hamburger once in a while help them out? We raise beef cattle and the one thing we always have more than we know what to do with is hamburger

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I would also try to make whatever changes you think best and try to stabilize them now. Adding and removing a rooster also causes a ruckus in the flock, in addition to changing their diet, day length, confinement and the extreme mouse problem. I know we all make changes to solve problems and improve things, but a lot of changes in a short period of time can be disruptive, too. That's why so many chickens that go to new homes stop laying for a little while.

My 3 year olds are laying as well as they did as pullets, after taking the winter off. Over the winter, I was wondering what their production would be like this spring. I would make whatever changes you can to optimize how you are keeping them and then just wait and see how they do. I still have high hopes for your girls.

 

[jbobs]

Well, I have discussed this with my family and we have decided on the following plan of action. We are going to cull about 20 of the oldest birds in our flock for starters. Then we are going to gradually change over their feed from the stuff they are on now to pullet grower 22% for two weeks, then put them back on layer pellets 17%. The blinds are comming off the windows. We have been giving them whole bran mash every couple days and we are going to keep doing that. We're going to stick to this regime and see how it works out as spring progresses.

In may we have 36 chicks from the hatchery comming in, and we keep our chicks in a separate brooder house. When they are about four or five months old we are going to cull the rest of our flock, completely disinfect the coop, and move them in there for the winter. Our birds do (normally) lay well all winter long, so it is understandable that birds producing all year will power out sooner than those that are allowed a break for the winter. (Our winter starts in october and ends in may so that's a pretty long break,

) Of course, when they molt production goes down by about half for a couple weeks, but they never outright quit.

I'm not sure what you folks figure is a good price for feed, but our bags of layer pellets (55lb) are $14.00 and we sell our eggs for $3.50 a dozen. We tried charging more than that but our customer base went down significantly so 3.50 seems to be the threshold price. Our neighbour, who feeds his pure wheat and bran, pays almost half the price for feed (by the ton) so I think if we were to cut the layer with something cheaper, we should be doing it with that, since his birds seem to lay like crazy on it.

Anyone else have experience with wheat? I'm not sure what the protien content is in it, but our neighbour says the protien is in the brand that he feeds them.

Another interesting thing: our chickens are sleek and shiny and beautiful; his look like they've been run over by a truck. I have heard that this is typical of birds that don't lay vs. those that do.

 

[upthecreek]

i've found that people will tell you anything when bragging on their animals/chickens , you saw enough difference in the looks of their fowl to tell you all you need to know(between the lines) .
The starter grower sounds great for them(it's what i would feed them all the time w/a mixture of 1/2 sunflower seed 1/2 wheat late in the evening-just what they clean up-with starter/grower availiable all day) but about swiching them .... it would have to be a super layer/breeder feed before i would even think about switching them on to it . Most Layer feeds are Crap , yes chickens can get by on it and do ok but it takes it's toll as you can testify to . It amazes me what some chickens live through and on .


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[fiberart57]

I think the maximum protein for wheat is 12% and thats for hard, red winter wheat. White and others is lower.

I gave my birds hamburger all winter when it was brutally cold - about a tablespoon per bird twice a week. It seemed to help them make it through the winter in good shape and they continued to lay despite the fact that I don't light them up. I gave it to them raw but others on this site recommend cooking it.

Mary

 

[upthecreek]

Yes raw hamburger is great for caged birds every day if possible when not on free range) . The regular feed wheat i can get (not red hard winter wheat) is about 10% protein


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[Tala]

Honestly, it sounds like you over-manage your birds.

Just my opinion, but here's what I do: Put out Flock Raiser (20% crumble feed) free choice constantly avaliable, put out fresh water every day or two as needed, lock the coop door at night, and open it in the morning time. Easy. Chickens will raise themselves as long as you protect them from predators. Our yard is fenced to keep dogs out and they go under the porch if a hawk flies over, and the coop was built with raccoons in mind so it's pretty secure.

I'm not sure what you folks figure is a good price for feed, but our bags of layer pellets (55lb) are $14.00 and we sell our eggs for $3.50 a dozen. We tried charging more than that but our customer base went down significantly so 3.50 seems to be the threshold price. Our neighbour, who feeds his pure wheat and bran, pays almost half the price for feed (by the ton) so I think if we were to cut the layer with something cheaper, we should be doing it with that, since his birds seem to lay like crazy on it.

Anyone else have experience with wheat? I'm not sure what the protien content is in it, but our neighbour says the protien is in the brand that he feeds them.

Another interesting thing: our chickens are sleek and shiny and beautiful; his look like they've been run over by a truck. I have heard that this is typical of birds that don't lay vs. those that do.

Flock Raiser is more expensive than layer, but it comes to about $14/50# here, so we can do the same math. One laying hen eats approx 0.25lbs of feed per day (less if they free range) Supposedly that's the number for Leghorns, and heavier breeds might eat more, but I have found it to be pretty close to average for all my birds.

So at $14 for a bag then you are paying $0.28/lb
So it should cost $0.07 per chicken per day, which is also per egg.
I can sell eggs at $0.84/doz and still cover the cost of feed that went into those eggs. (I sell mine for $2/doz - it pays for the non-layers' feed too)

I would never take feed advice from someone whose birds look like they've been run over by a truck.​

 

[jbobs]

We picked up 6 bags of 21% grower and 4 bags of 17% layer, and we also bought a bag of soy meal which is 46%. We plan to add a cup of this to their bran mash every night and if things pick up in a week or two, we want to gradually start feeding a mixture of wheat and grower regularly and continue with the bran mash, adding a bit of soy to it every day. We only feed them enough bran that they can finish off in about 5 minutes. And of course they will get veggies and grass when it become available. They love to free range in the summer and pick up all kinds of wild food - their favorite is to dig around in the compost/manure pile for worms. Their second favorite is to sneak into the porch and steal the dog's food

. We also sold 15 of our older more sorry looking birds today so the feed intake will be a little less. They dug into the grower like they hadn't eaten in weeks.

 

[jbobs]

Honestly, it sounds like you over-manage your birds.

LOL I know what you mean. We never used to until this happened. All we did was like you said: they got layer pellets, oystershell, and water. The odd veggie scraps. The lights were on all the time and they went out in the morning and in at night. We had healthy, well-producing birds for years until last fall when they started this molt, and then started dying off. They were not being kept inside when we started to loose birds so in that respect I doubt it was ammonia poisoning. What we did have was thousand of mice getting into the feeder, to the point where the food in the feeders was mixed half and half with mouse droppings. I thought maybe this was making them sick. Then we started to bugger around with this and that trying to get them to lay again and we just made things worse by listening to what other people said, because we were desperate to try anything.

We're trying to really manage our costs, though. Feed has gone up in price a lot in the past few years and at over 600 dollars a ton we are actually barely breaking even at the best of times. I guess the 84 cents a dozen thing works out if all your birds are laying 100% of the time, but out of 80 birds our high production rate has been between 50 and 60 eggs per day. Plus we use the money to buy new chicks every year or so and raise them up along with the turkeys and meat birds so the money isn't just consumed by feed, we do get to buy other poultry stuff with it. Occationally, if the eggs have been good, the chickens buy us pizza for all our hard work but lately there has been no freebies

I think what basically happened was that when egg production went down, we panicked because we were wasting a lot of money. Our reaction to this was to SPEND LESS when, in fact, we could have solved the problem faster by spending a little more. If it was just me personally, my birds would be on processed feed permanently with brana nd grain as a supplement, but I'm a student - my parents are the ones working payday to payday in a crummy economy while trying to save money on farming, so I have to let them have the final decision as to what they want to spend their money on. It has been very hard times financially. Most of our birds be bought off of other people who had to sell them because they couldn't afford to keep them anymore.​

 

[Kittymomma]

I think you're on the right track now. The old saying, "Save a penny to spend a pound" is only still around today because it's true.

ETA: I think using the extra burger to up the protien intake is a great idea.