How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[ChickenCanoe]

20/21 - just wondering, someone mentioned that their hens eat more and lay better w/ crumbles? Vs. pellets? Any truth?

I doubt there is any relationship since it is the same food. Crumbles and pellets start life exactly the same made from the same formula. The exact same mix of legumes and grains run through a hammermill mixed with the vitamin, mineral, amino acid and fat supplements along with a binding agent. When well blended and steamed, they are run through a pelletizer. After they come out of the pelletizer, if they want to produce crumbles, some of the pellets are then diverted to the crumbler line where the crumbler breaks up the pellets. Exactly the same feed.
The other form of feed is mash. Still the same feed except it is more finely ground without the binding agent and not run through the pelletizer.
If anything, pellets would be more nutritious because more of the supplements will be bound up in the pellet.
That's why I like to ferment my feed because with crumbles and to a lesser extent, pellets, the fines that end up in the bottom of the feed bin are where all those goodies added as powders are located.

 

[Petra Pancake]

6 perfect looking eggs from 6 layers. And that with a weird diet: wheat, millet, a bit of cheese and crushed egg shell. And yard foraging all day. Haven't bought layer feed in over a month for various reasons... (will go back to buying it though, but it shows that "old-style" chicken feeding also works).

 

[pennyJo1960]

Quote: do not think anyone was saying the difference was nutrition based but
simply what seemed a preference... mine prefer pellets my feeders are gravity
fed the pellets feed down easier in my view the birds work less to feed them
they forage all day long outside a quarter acre run area a huge apple tree a smaller apple
and small walnut grove and a old cooler to hid from aerial attacks knock on wood have not lost one

 

[GC-Raptor]

My girls when they were in the brooder wasted over half the crumble. At 5 weeks I put them in the coop and the wasting continued. At 16 weeks I gradually transferred them to pellets over 2 weeks.
With the pellets if they drop one on the floor, they quickly scoff it up. Zero waste.

This is my experience. Yours will vary.
As for producing eggs. I get 32-35 a week from 5 one year old hens.

5/5 today.GC

 

[ECarter1217]

3/2 warm and humid sunny 83 is the temp

 

[LavvyTaffy]

2/3, put poor Red in a coop by her self. The roos were giving her to much "attention".

 

[ChickenCanoe]

do not think anyone was saying the difference was nutrition based but
simply what seemed a preference... mine prefer pellets my feeders are gravity
fed the pellets feed down easier in my view the birds work less to feed them
they forage all day long outside a quarter acre run area a huge apple tree a smaller apple
and small walnut grove and a old cooler to hid from aerial attacks knock on wood have not lost one

I agree that pellets work much better in gravity fed systems.
However, chickens are voracious eaters and will fill their crop with whatever is available whether they prefer pellets or crumbles. The only thing feed related that will affect egg production is nutrition or a lack of feed.
There are lots of people that don't/can't free range and pellets or crumbles is all they have to eat.
A good Mediterranean rooster running with your hens is a great way to protect hens from daytime aerial predators.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Quote: I do have a 1 1/2 yr old cockerel out with my ladies
he is quite the romeo as my birds are not pets I do not handle them allot
and they all could use a break from having one also me thinks he is going to
auction this weekend

 

[Spartan22]

23/21 - 2 more moulter layers must have decided to give up their precious eggs, they sensed that once I got the time they'll be sent to "freezer vacation" on one weekend.

On pellets vs crumbles = more eggs.
I'd been feeding layer pellets for 4 yrs due to less waste on scratching. Now am reevaluating that concept after someone mentioned that they got more eggs when they switched to crumbles. Just got to thinking, isn't it that the binders for pellets is made out of starch? Doesn't that act as a filler for bag weight and to fill up the chickens unnecessary junk? Doesn't the pellets require longer digestion process than crumbles? Whereas (crumbles) can be converted to egg production faster? I got no conclusion since my set up prevents me from experimenting.

 

[KuneKune]

9/9