Tractor supply brands of feed

[NNYchick]

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!

I was thinking the same thing. These feeds are cheapest for reason, they meet the bare minimum on a good day so what are they swapping out to keep cost down. Just like any other animal feed you get what you pay for.
At least in my area TSC is the worst for finding fresh feed. So if the bag of feed you bought is old or the manufacturer used aged products to produce product to keep cost down it’s going to decrease the nutrition available.
The weather has been unusual all over the country. I saw a lot of post with people experiencing usual winter weather for their area. Flocks not use to below freezing temperatures all of sudden getting them is enough stress to stop laying.
So even if someone says nothing else has changed but the brand of feed, there might be enough smaller stresses that we aren’t seeing that is effecting them.

 

[Jaybird14]

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

You nailed it!

 

[Missyschix13]

Mine are laying without any light, just whatever they get outside. I have five over 2 years old, 2 a year and a half and two pullets.

Same! Mine are all pullets and on feed I get from tractor supply. None of them have gone through their first molt. So they have continued to lay at a normal rate. Even my chicken who is in infirmary.....still.. lol SmiYa...do you think it's our warmer than usual weather? I've been wondering about it.

 

[tripletfeb]

Same! Mine are all pullets and on feed I get from tractor supply. None of them have gone through their first molt. So they have continued to lay at a normal rate. Even my chicken who is in infirmary.....still.. lol SmiYa...do you think it's our warmer than usual weather? I've been wondering about it.

Pullets going through their first winter will typically lay all winter long. Wait until next winter, after they have molted, it will probably change

 

[Sally PB]

It has been VERY gloomy here. We have had two days with appreciable sunlight since the first of the year. Yeah, the hours of daylight are getting longer, but man! it seems like dawn hasn't gotten any earlier, or dusk much later.

 

[Quacking ducks]

Is anyone else having trouble with their ducks and chickens sneezing and their legs shaking? I give my birds the producers pride feed from TSC and in the last couple months they are sneezing and my little 7 month old runner duck’s legs are shaking. Could it be a nutrition deficiency from the feed? And I’m also only getting 2-5 eggs a day from 18 birds. I’m going to try switching to a local feed mill which will actually be a little cheaper than TSC

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I would think there was something to this if people were reporting their hens stopped laying in March and started again in May when the feed changed.

What makes this look like internet hysteria to me is the fact that one would expect older hens to stop laying after the summer solstice in July and expect them to start again any time around or after Christmas. What is biologically normal is exactly what people are reporting as abnormal. I think its mostly reports from people who had pullets last year that didn’t slow down much in winter and are being shocked by how much laying changes after the 18 month molt. The change in feed is so conveniently dovetailing with the lengthening of days there’s no way I see as of now to rule out it all being natural.

To put it another way, if your classic buff Orpington lays 200 eggs a year, that’s 165 days, or 5 1/2 months out of the year she isn’t laying an egg. Much of that will occur during her late summer thru fall molt which will then morph into the shorters days before Christmas and her winter break. So yes, most hens that have hit maturity at 2 years old are going to take a long break from summer to winter.

 

[Ascholten]

We have a mill down here, and the guy who i get that feed from is a really good guy, I just was avoiding it because there is a component to it, that the girls just absolutely refuse to eat, no matter how much i try to mix it and give them no choice. I may end up going back to it anyways because it's non gmo and i am pretty sure it's good stuff and not adulterated with god only knows what they put into the food.

I have 5 birds, 1 stopped laying about october, the other two stopped laying about mid november, I have not seen an egg since. That's awfully early for florida. The remaining two, are younguns who were supposed to START laying about the first week in december. Have not seen an egg out of any of them either, they are two different breeds. TBH they are not even acting like they are wanting to lay eggs yet either. Normally they start acting like they want to be broody or hanging around the egg box in the week or so before they start laying. Not happening.

Ive switched over to the new food, that natures food, I forget the name right now to see what happens, and I am also going to get some milled feed from the place i KNOW is good food and see if egg laying starts back up.

Like I also said, the consistency of their crap changed a TON as well. They used to, well, make turds that looked like chicken shit. Brown lumps, white creatine outsides, typical turds. Now it looks like you took the pellets, just soaked them, squished em up and added liquid ass smell to it, the consistency is not really changing, like it's just pure fiber or something, passing thru but not really being digested. Their stool is not diarrhea but softer, more peanut buttery, not solid defined lumps like it normally is /was. I noticed this but just figured it was from the food, but nothing to worry about. The coop has been thoroughly cleaned, they are NOT sick from pathogens. When I DO feed them table scraps or they do an extensive free range / feeding or I give them a bunch of treats, the consistency changes to suit the diet.

Hysteria or not I see what I am seeing, and am trying to figure out why. I changed their food a few days ago, lets see what change that brings on and go from there.

Aaron

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

We have a mill down here, and the guy who i get that feed from is a really good guy, I just was avoiding it because there is a component to it, that the girls just absolutely refuse to eat, no matter how much i try to mix it and give them no choice. I may end up going back to it anyways because it's non gmo and i am pretty sure it's good stuff and not adulterated with god only knows what they put into the food.

I have 5 birds, 1 stopped laying about october, the other two stopped laying about mid november, I have not seen an egg since. That's awfully early for florida. The remaining two, are younguns who were supposed to START laying about the first week in december. Have not seen an egg out of any of them either, they are two different breeds. TBH they are not even acting like they are wanting to lay eggs yet either. Normally they start acting like they want to be broody or hanging around the egg box in the week or so before they start laying. Not happening.

Ive switched over to the new food, that natures food, I forget the name right now to see what happens, and I am also going to get some milled feed from the place i KNOW is good food and see if egg laying starts back up.

Like I also said, the consistency of their crap changed a TON as well. They used to, well, make turds that looked like chicken shit. Brown lumps, white creatine outsides, typical turds. Now it looks like you took the pellets, just soaked them, squished em up and added liquid ass smell to it, the consistency is not really changing, like it's just pure fiber or something, passing thru but not really being digested. Their stool is not diarrhea but softer, more peanut buttery, not solid defined lumps like it normally is /was. I noticed this but just figured it was from the food, but nothing to worry about. The coop has been thoroughly cleaned, they are NOT sick from pathogens. When I DO feed them table scraps or they do an extensive free range / feeding or I give them a bunch of treats, the consistency changes to suit the diet.

Hysteria or not I see what I am seeing, and am trying to figure out why. I changed their food a few days ago, lets see what change that brings on and go from there.

Aaron

I am also in Florida, far north central near the Georgia border. My chickens normally stop laying in July and don’t start again until December or January. But it also varies by breed. I regularly change out my feed from month to month. I use TS Producer’s Pride, Dunmor, Purina, and various local north Florida and south Georgia mills. I don’t see a difference. Its just normal for them to shut off months at a time summer through late fall and then concentrate their laying from late winter through early summer where they’ll lay 4-6 eggs per bird a week.

 

[Ascholten]

I am also in Florida, far north central near the Georgia border. My chickens normally stop laying in July and don’t start again until December or January. But it also varies by breed. I regularly change out my feed from month to month. I use TS Producer’s Pride, Dunmor, Purina, and various local north Florida and south Georgia mills. I don’t see a difference. Its just normal for them to shut off months at a time summer through late fall and then concentrate their laying from late winter through early summer where they’ll lay 4-6 eggs per bird a week.

I have not had this problem at all except for when they were molting. one is coming out of a molt, is over due to be out of it, her feathers are grown back and after giving her a good petting down yesterday, the feathers are pretty much in. I have not had this problem before and have had them a number of seasons now. I get it older birds slow down, the new one is the same breed as one of the older ones, black austalorp, so if acting per breed, should be laying now as the other one when it was in this time period and age, ironically I bought them on the same month, not really intending to it just happened, but should be laying like crazy. My friend down the block, who owns a farm and his chickens get fresh stuff he grows, are laying pretty darned well and did not slow down much at all. I bought him some chickens when I got mine, 2 austalorps and 3RIR's all of which are laying now. All the BA's came from the same batch, only mine are not laying. hmmm

correlation is not always causation but it sure is stacking up to look like there is a bit of cross over.

and no his food is not something i can really get, he sells stuff from his farm and what his chickens eat is him basically pruning stuff, and throwing it in there, so they compost it and once every few months, take the tractor and scrape the top layer out to mix for soil, and continue dropping the cuttings in there for them, with only a very rare tossing of scratch.

Aaron