My (quite short) TSC feed experiment.

[NatJ]

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?

Yes, niacin sounds like the name I was trying to remember.
But if someone provides enough niacin in any way, they can use chicken food as part of what their ducks eat, and not have a problem.

 

[Aunt Angus]

All flock feed has added niacin, but most of us supplement it anyway, either through additives or foods high in niacin.

 

[la dee da]

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 don’t mind at all! It’s interesting to see that the weather this year has affected more than just chickens. I mean, it makes sense, but since I’ve only ever owned chickens, I guess the thought never occurred to me.

 

[Tbrad]

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.

After all this talk started, I went to tractor supply to see what they offer (i have been strictly purina layer and alternate with the omega bag) and plus i needed more feed...all the chicken feed they offer bsides the organic, including producers pride, are manufactured by Purina. It's smaller but the name is on the bag.

If it was a manufacturer thing there is a chance all feed would be affected or just certain batches...I use the example of when blue bell pretty much had to stop making ice cream altogether because of their issues. That stuff is a possibility in animal feed as stuff is recalled all the time.

Is it weird that some people had chickens stop completely, yes BUT if I have learned anything is that chickens stress easily and can stop laying at the snap of your fingers. My chickens have fared fine, even layed more consistently than I expected during molting season. I'm also not near where the crazy weather has been happening but I do doubt that the feed has been intentionally messed with

 

[CKfarm22]

After all this talk started, I went to tractor supply to see what they offer (i have been strictly purina layer and alternate with the omega bag) and plus i needed more feed...all the chicken feed they offer bsides the organic, including producers pride, are manufactured by Purina. It's smaller but the name is on the bag.

If it was a manufacturer thing there is a chance all feed would be affected or just certain batches...I use the example of when blue bell pretty much had to stop making ice cream altogether because of their issues. That stuff is a possibility in animal feed as stuff is recalled all the time.

Is it weird that some people had chickens stop completely, yes BUT if I have learned anything is that chickens stress easily and can stop laying at the snap of your fingers. My chickens have fared fine, even layed more consistently than I expected during molting season. I'm also not near where the crazy weather has been happening but I do doubt that the feed has been intentionally messed with

Just because Purina owns Producers pride, doesn’t mean it’s made the same way or in the same warehouse. And if you look it up Purina Mills is owned by Land O’ Lakes. So it’s this company owns this company that owns this company.

Anywho, doubt they’re making butter in the same factory they make dog food.

 

[Tbrad]

Just because Purina owns Producers pride, doesn’t mean it’s made the same way or in the same warehouse. And if you look it up Purina Mills is owned by Land O’ Lakes. So it’s this company owns this company that owns this company.

Anywho, doubt they’re making butter in the same factory they make dog food.

Yes but ultimately my point was that if it's a big scheme by the company that produces the chicken feed to kill egg production, they produce a good portion of the brands that TSC sells. And again, I mentioned it would more likely be batches that had issues, not just producers pride and I even saw someone was feeding their chickens dumor and had the stopped egg production...another purina mills brand.

At the end if the day if the government or evil corporations were ally wanted to mess with us, drinking water is the most efficient way. Just look at Pg&e and what it could do

 

[Apis mellifera]

I dont believe in a conspiracy theory by some faux Amish guy, but Purina isn't exactly squeaky clean either. They have a history of recalls and secretive about ingredients at times. Could they have produced a bad batch of poultry feed? Sure they could have, but we will probably never know.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...-food-could-be-deadly-to-your-pet/ar-AA17leq9

 

[CKfarm22]

Yes but ultimately my point was that if it's a big scheme by the company that produces the chicken feed to kill egg production, they produce a good portion of the brands that TSC sells. And again, I mentioned it would more likely be batches that had issues, not just producers pride and I even saw someone was feeding their chickens dumor and had the stopped egg production...another purina mills brand.

At the end if the day if the government or evil corporations were ally wanted to mess with us, drinking water is the most efficient way. Just look at Pg&e and what it could do

And what makes you say they aren’t slowly poisoning us through water? I mean look at what happened in Ohio…

 

[Tbrad]

I dont believe in a conspiracy theory by some faux Amish guy, but Purina isn't exactly squeaky clean either. They have a history of recalls and secretive about ingredients at times. Could they have produced a bad batch of poultry feed? Sure they could have, but we will probably never know.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...-food-could-be-deadly-to-your-pet/ar-AA17leq9

I believe I mentioned recalls and bad batches being a possibility. I feel like people forget we do live in a world riddled with imperfections and sometimes crappy things happen. Doesn't mean it is an intentional ploy to screw backyard chicken farmers bc of their high egg cost. I mean if anything, shouldn't we inflate our charges as well if we are for profit?

If we really wanted to get into the grand scheme of things. They make the things that kill us faster cheaper than the healthy options and we choose it. They get all the money and we continue to feed it to them (i.e. soda, beer, refined carbs, fast food) just imagine if we simply took away ONE of those....how much would obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, etc decrease? We will never know bc we want what we want but yet we think they are targeting chicken eggs? It's almost laughable and I'm a skeptic by nature. We would be better off assuming it's all poison

 

[Tbrad]

And what makes you say they aren’t slowly poisoning us through water? I mean look at what happened in Ohio…

See comment above....