Kalmbach Henhouse Reserve?

[ekd]

Hi all-
My local feed store stopped carrying the feed I'd been feeding my girls (the Du-Mor 16% crumbles) and I bought some local-ish mill's pellets. The woman at the feed store said their chickens love it. My four laying girls almost immediately stopped laying. I went from 3-4 eggs per day down to 1-2. I'm considering going with the Kalmbach Henhouse Reserve because I'd heard lots of good things about it, but I thought I'd check in here first. Do you all like it? Will it get my (fairly newly minted) layers back to laying?

 

[nuthatched]

Feed doesn't affect laying, they may be going into their winter break.

 

[ekd]

Feed doesn't affect laying, they may be going into their winter break.

It's still in the 70s and 80s here. It's been minimally cooler, but barely autumnal.

 

[nuthatched]

It's still in the 70s and 80s here. It's been minimally cooler, but barely autumnal.

It's not a matter of temperature, but daylight. They need 14(?) Hours of daylight the active the hormones in charge of laying.

 

[FrostRanger]

Switch if you want but your girls probably won't lay much until spring no matter what you feed them. Days are shorter and many birds will be molting right about now. If you do feed henhouse reserve do know you have to serve it wet else they can just pick out the bits they like and leave the rest and possibly have nutritional issues

 

[Evadig]

I feed henhouse reserve and we (the hens and I) like it.

As @FrostRanger said, they’ll pick and choose what they want to eat out of it.

I toss mine on the ground, so it’s more like scratch. They do a pretty good job of eating everything. But I don’t really feed treats, either, so it’s either eat everything or go hungry.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I feed Chickhouse Reserve rather than Henhouse, as my girls just never did grow to like the Henhouse. I combine it with Kalmbach 20% Flock Maker to boost the overall protein, moistening and/or fermenting it. Since they're not on designated layer feed, I provide flaked oyster shell on the side and feed them back their eggshells.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The Kalmbach is good feed, and yes, serving it as a wet mash or a ferment helps avoid the usual problems w/ any whole grain feed, not just Kalmbach's examples.

Your birds haven't stopped laying due to feed unless their existing feed is nutritionally deficient, and has been for some time. In which case you should be seeing OTHER symptoms of declining health as well, and possibly undesired behaviors like feather picking.

Declining avg daily light levels is the likely reason for reduced rate of lay. You don't say where you are at, but our more northern neighbors (I'm in the N FL area) are already borderline daily light levels w/o supplementation, and our neighbors in NC will be there around end of this mo/early next.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

…Declining avg daily light levels is the likely reason for reduced rate of lay. You don't say where you are at, but our more northern neighbors (I'm in the N FL area) are already borderline daily light levels w/o supplementation, and our neighbors in NC will be there around end of this mo/early next.

Whoops, gotta go lock up the run!

 

[Miss Cassi chicken coop]

Hi all-
My local feed store stopped carrying the feed I'd been feeding my girls (the Du-Mor 16% crumbles) and I bought some local-ish mill's pellets. The woman at the feed store said their chickens love it. My four laying girls almost immediately stopped laying. I went from 3-4 eggs per day down to 1-2. I'm considering going with the Kalmbach Henhouse Reserve because I'd heard lots of good things about it, but I thought I'd check in here first. Do you all like it? Will it get my (fairly newly minted) layers back to laying?

Hello!! My girls love it!! Same! They peck at what they want of course, but I mix it with their crumbles and table scraps as a treat! I feel like it helped their nutrition to lay? But that’s just me?
I’m still learning? But who knows, like anything else, they do what they want