trace minerals

[emmapal]

Just picked up my first Azure order, thanks you evil, evil people! Of course I picked up a lot more than simply kelp powder. But I needed, NEEDED, all of it, right?

So do I just sprinkle some in their scrap bin every day or few? Or can I put it in a free choice bucket plain, like oyster or eggshell?

And I completely agree that trace minerals are subtle, and deficiencies may not appear overtly. Of more concern is putting into them what I want to get out of them. I feed my birds the way I want to eat. I always laugh about, "Salad isn't food, it's what food eats!" My kids say they eat their vegetables in our back yard eggs While that is tongue in cheek, if I am so concerned about our health and carefully feeding clean food, then I want the food we produce to be rich with nutrients whether in the garden or the pasture.

NO ONE is laying right now, not a single hen, not even my first years, so I will try this and see if they hurry to start up again.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

......
And I completely agree that trace minerals are subtle, and deficiencies may not appear overtly........

One must tread lightly with simply adding trace minerals to livestock rations. An over supplementation can easily lead to malabsorption of trace minerals. Minerals are carried across the brush border membrane by specific ligands and pathways, those pathways are specific to certain minerals and in some cases more than one mineral. For instance, an oversupplementation of copper can lead to malabsorption of zinc, the opposite is also true. In some of my work in my Master's Thesis we found deficiencies of copper and other minerals when we fed higher then normal levels of zinc to baby pigs. The phenomenon can occur in any higher animal, and certainly in those raised as livestock.

 

[pdirt]

Since your birds free range, another idea is to check with local farmers or the nearest extension office and see if there are any known mineral deficiencies in the local soil. Where I live, one farm discovered there was a specific mineral deficiency in the soil and hence in the forage their cattle were grazing upon. It caused a disease that would normally be treated with some potent drug and since they are raising organically and wanted an alternative to drugs, they created salt licks spiked with the supplemental mineral and it solved their problem.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I buy the Redmond Mineral Conditioner from azurestandard.

I used to buy kelp meal.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Depends on the size of the particles. If they're likely to inhale it or choke on it, best add it to something wet.

A few things come to mind about your circumstance. It's most likely due to the soil they're on. Any failure to follow the natural breeding cycles, including laying eggs whether or not you have males or intend to breed them, should be viewed as a failure of the reproductive system, (since it is) which is basically implying that something is so wrong with your land that they are unable to procreate on it. This is a serious issue that bears looking into. It may have potential repercussions on your long term health if for example the failure is due to very dangerous chemicals of certain types. Many farms have some seriously dangerous contaminations of certain areas, generally around the mechanical sheds for obvious reasons. Just running your hand through dirt that has been contaminated by a ruptured battery's fluid, for example, can render some severe brain damage.

Pat Coleby was a farmer who specialized in restoring soil health on pre-used farmland, and she took care to have her information sources cited in the majority of instances (unlike some other people whose works nonetheless offered information which is still holding true more often than not, i.e. Juliette de Bairacli Levy, whose books have been very useful for my animals, and have saved many lives). She wrote mainly for Australia but one thing she repeatedly cited was that in most cases, the animals can not get everything they need from free ranging. She also farmed in other countries.

One thing Pat wrote of in her books is that the CSIRO found that sulphur (American site wants me to spell it 'sulfur' but I'm used to the old way lol) is inhibited when conventional fertilizers have been heavily used (i.e. topdressing a paddock annually). Also, another person who apparently "knew their stuff" (agronomist Neal Kinsey) found that sulphur is the fastest growing deficiency in the world in recent years.

In her "Goat and Alpaca" book Pat Coleby said that "phosphatic and nitrogenous fertilizers inhibit a great many minerals, especially copper, 100%". Copper deficiency has also been a common problem for many farms, not just Australian ones, for which that book was primarily written. All of these things are important for reproductive health and any imbalance has collateral repercussions.

I used to put copper pipes in the animal's water troughs until I found another way to supplement them. If your land has been used for conventional farming, it may be in need of nursing back to health so to speak.

Also, vitamin A deficiency is the number one cause of failure to conceive in all species according to Pat Coleby, as many diseases and deficiencies can destroy the liver's stored supply of vit A or inhibit synthesis of it, sometimes permanently. Of course not all animals store it long term though. Hormone treatments are one cause, i.e. in animals used for unnatural breeding (meaning anything relating to artificially synchronizing oestrus, implanting or harveting ovum or embryos, artificial insemination, etc) but there are a variety of methods used, not all alike.

Anyway, just a few oddments of info there, may or may not be helpful. I am inclined to view any failure to lay as a reproductive failure which likely says your land is incapable of supporting animal life in the long term, and the reasons ought to be investigated. It may simply be an issue with the hens. Who knows what they may have been exposed to? But something that has such a high "strike rate" should be considered serious. Best wishes with your animals. If it's merely a dietary deficiency they ought to be laying soon. If it's a case of severe soil imbalance they may not lay until the imbalance is corrected.