Switched to Kalmbach feed and now laying poorly?

[firechicken76]

Hi all. Wondering if I'm the only one having this issue.

I have a flock of 12 layers and was generally getting 8-9 eggs/day. They range in age from 1-2 years.

I was feeding an organic, non-GMO feed from a regional feed mill. I switched to Kalmbach non-GMO 17% layer about a month ago to decrease my feed costs. Since then, my daily egg count has slowly declined. Now, we're around 5-6 eggs/day and I've had a few girls who seem to have stopped laying entirely. I have an ISA brown who took a 2 week break.

Also worth mentioning that only a few of my girls have molted, and never entirely. Just partially. I'm not sure why. I expected half of them to molt over the winter and only a few did.

I do not use artificial light and we live in FL. I free range them. I did keep them locked up for a few days to see if they were laying outside the box, and that didn't help.

I've heard great things about Kalmbach feeds so I'm just wondering if anybody else is experiencing this before I switch them back to the expensive feed. Or if anybody has any ideas as to what could be going on???

Thanks!

 

[Debbie292d]

Provided the feed was not expired by a lot, it's good feed. Our show quality silkies have been on Kalmbach's Flock Maker for a couple of years now and they are doing wonderful.

Why they change their laying habits could have a lot of reasons, like molting, broodiness, stress, or the weather, but the feed shouldn't be one of them. I'd just keep going with it, and hopefully they get back to laying.

 

[sourland]

Chickens are resistant to change. If their feed consumption declined during the changeover/adjustment, that could cause a break in their laying cycles. What % feed were you originally feeding?

 

[firechicken76]

Chickens are resistant to change. If their feed consumption declined during the changeover/adjustment, that could cause a break in their laying cycles. What % feed were you originally feeding?

They were on a 16-17% depending on if it was summer or winter.

Two of the ones currently laying poorly were also laying poorly before the switch.

Also worth noting. I checked for mites/lice on about half of them last night and they didn't seem to have any. I'm considering maybe getting a permethirin garden dust just in case I missed it though.

Just stumped. I'm still fairly new to chickens so I know I still have a lot to learn.

 

[Mrs. K]

Has it gotten very hot? Heat will knock back my egg production. Plus as the summer wears on, and they get closer to molting, they tend to slow. I really have not found diet to be that influential, unless you really have a poor diet, a good commercial feed should work, regardless of the brand.

I would be more suspicious of the heat.