My (quite short) TSC feed experiment.

[casportpony]

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[casportpony]

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casportpony
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[Ms Kurtis]

In my opinion, you can disagree me with all you want. But here’s my take, Producer Pride is more available than a local company…. i don’t have “local companies” by me that sells chicken feed. Prices of eggs went up, so in their minds they turned to backyard chicken owners and said hey let’s make this food toxic so they can’t get eggs either and are forced to pay for store bought.

A lot of people are unaware what to actually feed their chickens. So they get laying pullets and think “hey i’ll by it the cheapest ‘layer feed’ i can find” aka TSC. Readily available and pretty cheap. And ik this is a fact because i’ve myself educated a lot of people on here alone that you shouldn’t be feeding your chickens anything under 18%.

Now, i made the same mistake when i first got my chickens. I bought Producer Pride layer feed because it was cheap. After reading on here ab what other people fed theirs i changed the food to Purina All Flock 20%. As soon as i changed the feed, egg shells got stronger, yolks were more orange, they were laying a lot more frequently, and i noticed my birds had more energy.

Call me crazy but NO ONE should be feeding their chickens producer pride, and should turn more towards something 18% and above if you want good eggs.I've always fed the same layer feed and they've just stopped this week. Before that all the egg shells were hard. My Australorpes lay in the coldest of temperatures. Something else is going on.

 

[CKfarm22]

@Ms Kurtis what type of layer feed do you use?

 

[Luv Ducks]

Hey everyone! I’m not sure how many of you have heard the “Tractor Supply chicken food is bad” rumor, but when I first stumbled on a video warning me that my Producer’s Pride mini pellets (40lb bag) feed is why my chickens had a weird molt and stopped laying this winter, I got to thinking.

Background: I live in Missouri about an hour east of Springfield, and I have Buff Orpingtons from Cackle Hatchery. When I lived in Virginia, I’d owned red sexlink, gold sexlink, heritage RIR, and heritage Black Java, and I’d fed them Dumor brand feed. None of my previous chickens had stopped laying like these girls did this year. This is my first year with Orpington hens, but I also have five laying-age pullets that my hens hatched. I have seven hens and five pullets (and a rooster).

Armed with the new feed information, I decided to do a little experiment. I bought some local feed and gave that to my chickens for a week, and the results were outstanding! I went from getting 1 egg a day (every once in a while 2) to getting 5-6 by the end of the week! I was thrilled, but I also knew this was after Winter Solstice, and it could be coincidence. So I fed them the PP feed for a week. The eggs dropped a bit in size, but production stayed the same. I wanted to try one more time for two weeks each feed, but I got sick for a week and the kids had to feed the chickens. Both bags were getting low, and the kids just alternated depending on which bag was easiest to get into (they’re still kind of young). The TSC food ran out. I bought two bags of local feed because it turns out to be cheaper and I like its scent better. Also, I like big eggs.

During the time I got sick, the egg production lessened again to 3-4 a day. I’m still only getting 3-4 a day, though they’re a decent size and my chickens have only had local feed for the past week. I wasn’t sure why production dropped again when I’ve been giving them food from the very bag that potentially got them laying 5-6, so I asked my neighbor about her experience. She’s been feeding her 40 laying pullets (and three roosters) the local feed all winter, and they also stopped laying--about a month after mine stopped, and are only just starting up again a month after mine did. So, with all this information, I have a new theory that it’s the weird weather causing the egg problems.

One thing people often forget about is that this year’s Autumn and Winter have been crazy; I think it’s that that caused the weird egg problems, not the food. If it is the food, chances are it wasn’t done on purpose. Why would large feed companies sabotage themselves when they know there are tons of local companies we can turn to?

So, have you done any experiments with your chicken feed? If so, what did you do and what were the results? If you want to try an experiment, please feel free to post and update it here!

I hope you don't mind my chiming in. I have ducks and with this crazy winter stopped getting one egg out of 9 hens for only a couple of weeks this winter. I am now getting 4 eggs a day and I blame it totally on the winter. We have a new TSC store in our town and the feed I give mine seems to be fresh. They get layer feed, flock raiser and duck pellets. It's been one crazy winter here with no snow and lots of sunshine and this is the first year I have ever gotten eggs in February. In fact I had water glassed 80 of their eggs expecting to need them to get through the winter. Just my thoughts, I hope you didn't mind me letting you know my experience with ducks.

 

[CKfarm22]

I hope you don't mind my chiming in. I have ducks and with this crazy winter stopped getting one egg out of 9 hens for only a couple of weeks this winter. I am now getting 4 eggs a day and I blame it totally on the winter. We have a new TSC store in our town and the feed I give mine seems to be fresh. They get layer feed, flock raiser and duck pellets. It's been one crazy winter here with no snow and lots of sunshine and this is the first year I have ever gotten eggs in February. In fact I had water glassed 80 of their eggs expecting to need them to get through the winter. Just my thoughts, I hope you didn't mind me letting you know my experience with ducks.

I know nothing about ducks but i thought you shouldn’t feed them chicken food?? I thought ducks were supposed to eat duck specific food or “all flock” food.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I know nothing about ducks but i thought you shouldn’t feed them chicken food?? I thought ducks were supposed to eat duck specific food or “all flock” food.

You are right and the feed I give them show both animals on the bags. I also have been seeing our Canadian Geese paired up for mating season and the Mallards have returned so I still think most of the craziness is from the weather. I have never seen them do this before March before. I am just happy to be getting eggs.

 

[CKfarm22]

You are right and the feed I give them show both animals on the bags. I also have been seeing our Canadian Geese paired up for mating season and the Mallards have returned so I still think most of the craziness is from the weather. I have never seen them do this before March before. I am just happy to be getting eggs.

Interesting…

 

[NatJ]

I know nothing about ducks but i thought you shouldn’t feed them chicken food?? I thought ducks were supposed to eat duck specific food or “all flock” food.

Chicken food usually doesn't have enough of certain things to be healthy for ducks.
But plenty of duck raisers do use chicken food plus supplements.

(I don't have ducks, and I'd have to look up what supplements for what ingredients. But I've read enough threads to know if can be done and is even fairly common.)

 

[CKfarm22]

Chicken food usually doesn't have enough of certain things to be healthy for ducks.
But plenty of duck raisers do use chicken food plus supplements.

(I don't have ducks, and I'd have to look up what supplements for what ingredients. But I've read enough threads to know if can be done and is even fairly common.)

That’s what i thought, like chicken food didn’t have enough of something for it to be healthy enough for ducks. Isn’t it like niacin or something? Niacin in chickens feed is too low for ducks right?