Tractor supply brands of feed

[LizGio]

i agree. Just to be clear the only thing I have changed is the feed. I feed and collect at the same time every day. My light and water have not changed. No new animals. Just the feed.

Are they exposed to the outdoors, light coming through a window? If so, this is a natural change in the environment one can't control as the amount of daylight is never exactly the same and can effect the results of your experiment.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Are they exposed to the outdoors, light coming through a window? If so, this is a natural change in the environment one can't control as the amount of daylight is never exactly the same and can effect the results of your experiment.

If you read post 49 he has lights on. I believe it may be the feed. Or he is a plant from Cargill feeds . Just kidding

 

[Jaybird14]

If you read post 49 he has lights on. I believe it may be the feed. Or he is a plant from Cargill feeds . Just kidding

Plant …spy… lol ..no.. I’m just a 59 year old hobby farmer who is wondering w t f is going on.. I’m a bit of a prepper too and occasionally look around at the b s that is going on and question it.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Are they exposed to the outdoors, light coming through a window? If so, this is a natural change in the environment one can't control as the amount of daylight is never exactly the same and can effect the results of your experiment.

All my hens stop laying for the winter. When the days get longer, they start again.
How old are your hens, and where do you live?

Sue, some of my best friends are chickens too, lol I say it often <3

 

[springvalley123]

Plant …spy… lol ..no.. I’m just a 59 year old hobby farmer who is wondering w t f is going on.. I’m a bit of a prepper too and occasionally look around at the b s that is going on and question it.

Plus, at the time the youtube video about the people having problems, switching, then immediately getting egg resumption, that was all done back at least a month ago, when daylight was decreasing. So the mere passage of time would have worsened those peoples' results. A mere switch of food before december 21 would have shortened their daylight, assuming they weren't using artificial light.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

To some extent " the proof is in the pudding" as said, the birds' production picked up dramatically immediately upon being switched to a non-tsc bag of the supposedly similar formula. No waiting for more daylight, no adding more calcium, etc.

Anecdotal evidence is not proof just as correlation can not prove causation.
I’m presenting another side, not doubting your personal experience or that of others. The fact that not everyone is having the same issue is suggestive of circumstantial variables rather than the feed itself. If not then how can it be explained that my flock was not impacted the same way despite using the same brand of TSC feed for the past 6 months?
Anyone is free to feed TSC or other if they are dissatisfied with production results.
Personally I find my flock thriving and in good production on Dumor that was milled within the last 2 months. New 50 lb bag opened Dec 29th. Here are my graphs for Dec-Jan to date. I just started a new bag yesterday so time will tell.

 

[Ascholten]

Sometimes, people just overthink things. If I change their food and they are laying again, good enough for me. ... problem solved, I don't have a million dollar budget of someone elses money to set up a laboratory to control all the variables. Id take a wild ass guess and say If you want to verify it, go back to what you were feeding them and see if the egg laying drops off again. If it does, you got picky eaters !

Given many are complaining of the same issue, and many times they switched food and it solved the problem... well..... im game to give it a try. If I am wrong, well, the girls got some of the 'good stuff' to eat for a bit, they tricked me !! Looking up chicken soup recipes now


Aaron

 

[NatJ]

I will start off by saying that I only made it this far in the thread. I want to point out to properly run an experiment, EVERY factor must be controlled. This means they must have the same daylight hours, same water, same health (no mites, lice, bumble, etc) exact same amount of stress, etc. The only that can change is the feed to be 100% sure it's the feed causing these issues. If you run an experiment over a course of time when the daylight hours are shifting, your experiment is void. If you change their environment to only artificial light at a certain strength for a given amount of time, to ensure it feed not light causing change, the change in their environment alone would effect the legitimacy of your results. This all makes sense in my head. Maybe some else could reword it to make it more understandable

I partly agree, but there are ways to work around that without actually trying to control every detail.

For example, if the hens all start laying again, the person could switch back to the other feed, maybe in March or April when the days are still getting longer. If the laying stops again, it would be a good indicator that the feed caused the problem. But if switching the feed in March or April makes no change in the laying rate, then it is more likely that they originally stopped laying because of day length, not because of the feed.

It is unlikely that water, parasites, stress, etc would change for a specific few months and then change back at the same time as another feed change. (Not impossible, but definitely unlikely.) So switching another time would help control for variables like those as well.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I get the many are complaining & there may very well be a problem with the feed. How many are newer chicken people who haven't gone thru a winter with older chickens? How many notice like here in SE PA we have had many more cloudy days than normal? Things on the net spread like wildfire & conspiracy theories abound. Aren't those feeds cheaper because they lack things like probiotics & such? Feed is cheaper for a reason. Has TSC ever been approached & asked for an explanation? Just because many have the problem, it doesn't mean it's the feed, but then it may be the feed!

 

[Ascholten]

so your point is? Don't feed the chickens, they won't appreciate it? sounds like a feathered teenager.

Aaron