to lay or not to lay....

[jlmann]

Great! Mine are just now getting back to laying and I haven't had any problems yet this year . One of my ameracaunas though is laying GIANT eggs (two of them were too tall to fit in an egg carton) so I'm thinking about trying the cayenne pepper with her because i'm afraid she's gonna get egg bound so definately let me know if they eat the "recipe" good cause i've been trying to think of a way to feed it to her

 

[lilbreeches]

ok this morning i feed the girls "The Recipe". They ate it up. i mixed the cornmeal and pepper with just enough water to make it a mush. then just dropped handfuls in the pen and they devoured it. Now to see if we get eggs soon. will keep everyone updated.

also, i spoke to my aunt about it. she said she remembers her grandma putting cayenne pepper in her chickens water once a week. so .....lets see what happens.

 

[lilbreeches]

ok now an update. this did not work for me. i did this recipe 2 weeks ago and still, nothing. actually it seemed to give most of the girls some funky poo (really runny and orange looking) that is still going on and they haven't laid an egg yet. so, just wanted to update on this. hope others have better luck with this than i had.

 

[msgenie516]

Hi,

I'm really glad to hear that you rescued those poor hens from the commercial operation and I hope they start laying for you soon. I'm sure they will start laying, it's just a question of when.

I find it's very expensive to feed chickens so I can understand your problem. I'm always looking for ways to make it cheaper without sacrificing the food they need. I just had my DH make up new feeders out of empty cat litter buckets. He cut out holes in the sides, but not too near to the ground. But low enough that they can reach in and eat and get to the bottom if necessary.

I find keeping the openings as far up from the floor/ground as possible makes it less likely that they will kick foreign matter into the food. It was getting so bad with my old feeders that every now and then, I just had to throw everything out and start over with fresh food, which is so wasteful.

It also seems like they waste less (by billing out the food) with the feeders DH has made. And the feeders were free!

I think pellets are less wasteful than crumbles but, unfortunately, I have a group of 4 hens that won't eat anything but crumbles. So I am stuck with buying them just for those 4 hens.

I can't, but if you are able to free-range in your location, that should also help with the feed bill. As soon as the grass grows and the insects come out, anyway!

I do believe that they will need a period of adjustment, coming from a commercial farm. I just hope it's not too long for you.

Good luck!

Genie

 

[grandads]

I'm sorry it didn't work for you. I gave it to mine the same day I told you about it and went from 9 to 12 eggs a day to 30 to 34 at present. what are you feeding? how many do you have?

 

[grandads]

Are they cooped up or do you freerange? what are you feeding? Are you sure about their age? Are they acting like normal happy chickens now? Are these the only hens you have? If not how did the others do?