My 1 1/2 year old Red Stars quit laying...

[scalaway]

Any suggestions? We feed them the regular DuMor layer feed (TSC) and I throw out some vege's now and then--they love a good cabbage

-- They aren't moulting--both look good and are active etc...We got a few eggs from them--like 2-3 or so a week--not sure if it was one or both trading off--but we get the darker eggs from them, so I know they laid after winter--but they've just stopped--completely. We have 2 white leghorns who are clockwork--and another mixed breed (Red Star mom with a lacey winged wyandotte) that lay just fine--every day--but the Red Stars have gone on strike--One of my hubby's old farmer friends said to feed them something or other to force a moult--but I don't really want it fed to all of them because the others are doing just fine--what can you do to get them going again?? I miss my monster brown eggs

!! Any ideas??

 

[sugarbush]

Hybrids lay early and quit early...if they are not moulting, and nothing has changed in their feed, I would guess they are at the end of their productive life....that does not mean they will not lay anymore, just not as much.

 

[ChickieKeeta]

Any chance they are beginning a molt & it just isn't obvious yet? My chicks recently quit laying & theywere molting.
I heard they lay best on a diet of layer feed without other
foods. I don't know if that is accurate.

 

[cybercat]

You might want to up the protien to kick start them again. That works alot of times, bring it up to 20% for a week. If that does not work and they are not moulting then they are done with their mass production. As was said the burn out fast. If you want longer laying hens look to the duel purpose breeds as they will lay for many more years than the hybreds.

 

[scalaway]

Are Red Stars considered hybrids? Wow..only one year of laying..that stinks

!! I'm going to try changing the % of their layer food--see if that makes a difference---I don't know about moulting..they don't look like it , but who knows??

-- An old farmer my hubby works with suggested a "Forced Moult"--he had a concoction he thought we should feed them with corn soaked in something or other--I was kind of tentative--what do you think?

 

[sugarbush]

I think it sounds like something an old farmer would do

Yeah red stars are one of the sex links...the hatcheries are getting away from calling their birds sex link and coming up with new names for them.

Added: the red star mix you have will not pittle out early like the red stars did... Hybrid offspring loose the qualities of their parents in the first generation.