mix corn with layer feed?

[Bear Foot Farm]

Do your birds free range? Maybe they are laying outside the nest boxes

 

[cointoss]

My hens are fed primarily cracked corn, with some oyster shells added in the winter, and food grade DE for deworming occasionally. They also get a few of my produce trimmings from making dinner, most days. They free range and lay an egg every day, sometimes 2. In the winter I add in field peas occasionally to make sure they are getting enough protein -- they don't get a light in their coop, but they still lay an egg every day in our NE winters. They aren't fat at all, but I suppose that is b/c they are so active. If they only got corn and were in a coop all day, they would probably need more supplementation.

Other things to consider other than diet are your birds' happiness -- they may not lay much if they are cranky, unhappy with the their living space, or too hot. Also different breeds are known to lay at different rates. Some will lay every day for years, some more like every other day.

Good luck! It sounds like you are on the right track

 

[Junkmanme]

I read somewhere, a couple of years ago, that feeding some dried hot pepper (chile) to the chickens will "stimulate" them to lay eggs. (Use the hot pepper flakes such as those you might sprinkle on pizza)

I use an electric coffee grinder to make my own chile powder from whole dried hot peppers (dried red "Anaheim" peppers from Hatch, New Mexico) I include the seeds also ----everything but the stem, because I like my chile HOT!

My chickens LIKE the hot pepper and they ARE "good layers"....so perhaps the hot pepper flakes DO stimulate "egg-laying"!

just my 2 pesos worth,

-Junkmanme-

 

[Scott]

Quote:
2 eggs a day?!?!? Are you sure about that? I didn't know that was even biologically possible.

 

[cointoss]

Here is what I have read on BYC and elsewhere: Chickens lay eggs, on average, about once every 25 hours. But sometimes their internal clock works closer to every 23 hours -- which means that you can have two eggs in one day.

I wouldn't have believed it myself, except that when I only had one chicken laying (after the others met with various deaths, and the newbies were still babies) it happened more than once. Usually only every 2-3 months, but a few weeks ago it even happened twice in one week! Fun times

 

[Scott]

Hmmm, learn something new everyday.

 

[Gin530]

I'm not sure that I can help you, but I can sympathize with you. I have 19 hens and I am only averaging around 10 eggs a day. Not satisfactory to me. I have Red Star and Black Star and they are advertised to be laying machines in the heat and cold, so not sure what is going on with them. I feed them layer of the morning and then throw scratch out to them of the evening. They expect some food from me even if they have been out all day. My spoiled babies. Good luck with your rooster. I love them.