want a tip that will make your hens lay like its spring in the winter

[pdirt]

not to stir the pot.... but isn't that part of why we want our own eggs? because we know the chickens were just allowed to be chickens?  If they were meant to lay year round their environment wouldn't have to be manipulated.  Honest question.....

I read this entire thread....hoping someone would answer the same question posed above by Lorije1. 

I'm new to keeping chickens, so still have a LOT to learn.  That said, I have read on this site more than once that a hen is born with all the eggs she will ever produce (like a human female), so if we feed them cayenne pepper to "increase" egg production, aren't we really just shortening the number of years they will lay?  In other words, 300 eggs a year x 7 years vs. 360 eggs a year x 5 years - or something like that? 

We bought these girls with the intention of keeping them for egg production.  That said, once they stop producing eggs for us, we will continue to love and care for them as we do the rest of our pets.  So unless you plan to eat your hens once they stop laying for you, I don't see how this is useful, as you are not going to get MORE eggs, you are just going to get them SOONER.

Correct me if I am wrong, please, but that's my understanding...

Michelle in Massachusetts

An old post, I know. My hunch is most folks on this thread are not raising their chickens for pets. It's an issue than can create misunderstandings. It's just a matter of personal preference. Nearly our whole flock are not pets to us, though we love them dearly. Just not the same way we love our dog.

Aside from that, I have fed our flock, free choice in a separate dish, crushed red pepper flakes. They gobble it down like candy. Since the capsaicin acts as a worm control and many birds in the wild will eat hot peppers, perhaps they know a good thing when they find it.

We raise a lot via natural methods, but when it comes to egg laying, we do choose to manipulate. We use lights during winter. We can really fathom paying a LOT of money for the premium organic feed they get and not getting any eggs for it. They seem to take a break for about 2 months anyways even with the light. I'm curious though if the hot pepper thing here might be a pseudo-alternative to the light.

 

[cypressdrake]

I have used crushed red pepper sprinkled on the ground next to the food pan. The hens payed more attention to the pepper then the grains, and fresh greens. They always peck in it until it's gone. I never force it on them, or put it directly in they're food.

Crushed red pepper / cayenne pepper helps the blood flow. Good blood flow helps keep them warm. Good blood flow can also help prevent frost bite from setting in as bad. I Noticed the combs that were pale were red within a few days.

Crushed red pepper also has helped kick start the hens in winter months. Another good thing is to add Red Cell liquid vitamins for livestock. it is about $24 a gallon at Tractor Supply. I add 1/8 cup to 4 gallons of water, twice a month. Within a week I went from no eggs to 8 a week from 4 English Orpington hens that haven't layed in almost 6 months. or Since June.

I had red peppers, green peppers, chili peppers, & banana peppers all planted in my garden. One day the gate was left open and the hens were pecking in all my peppers. They also tore up several tomatoes. I noticed they ate all the seeds out of the peppers. They had plenty of other veggies to chose, but never passed up the peppers, so in my opinion, peppers are not hot to chickens, or chickens just like peppers.

 

[darina]

Chickens are tough, I can just see them are having pepper-eating contests when we are not looking, just to establish the pecking order.

Heehee.

"Getrude just gobbled down 10 GIANT pepper seeds and didn't even bat an eyelash. She definitely earned the best roosting spot!"

Just kidding, I know that they have different taste/smell receptors. I had a Thai Chili plant that that they would sample, brave gals I tell 'ya. Oh yes, and I've given them spicy hummus that was just over a week old, you would've thought it was ice cream they way they went after it.

This is a good tip, thank you for sharing.

 

[darina]

The day after I read this thread, I got up really early in the morning and started to make biscuits and gravy. I was starting to brown about a quarter of a pound of ground pork sausage in a skillet, and I thought I would add some red pepper flakes because I wanted to make it spicier. I got out the big bottle of flakes and unscrewed the lid and dumped about 1 cup of pepper flakes top of the sausage. ( I had forgotten that it had a flip top for the shaker portion, so unscrewing it was were I went wrong.) I started sneezing like crazy, but I had to save my meal because I didn't want to waste any of that good stuff. I used a spoon to scoop the top where the pepper flakes were so thick they were not in contact with the meat. Then when I got down to the meat, I pulled out the big pieces of half raw sausage, and even ended up rinsing it under running water. All the bits of pepper flakes that had touched the raw meat or had little tiny chunks of meat went to the chickens. They LOVED that stuff! I'm sure they don't even taste it because they see it and it is gone! Oh, and I had to add a lot of milk to that gravy to make it edible for me. Good thing my husband my likes spicy stuff. Our noses were running, haha.


So, all that to say, thanks for the tip!

 

[gilcamp4]

I actually put it in their scratch just enough so you can see a little bit of it so like two table spoons in 50lbs of scratch. And they layed their first full dozen in an ice storm!

how did you feed the scratch? we just put it all over the run, we also feed them pellets so i don't see how to mix it in the feed, i would like to try this. we have i ee that gave use an egg last mth and have not laid any since. we have 43 hens and right now we only getting 15 to 20 eggs a day. we do use the light for 3 hrs in the morning, they never did lay more then that in the summer.

 

[gilcamp4]

i fixed my babies a pie tonight and put it in the long feeder so they could all get some, i put greens, some soup, oats, scratch and some red pepper they went crazy eaten it well post bed time, hubbies had to make them go in. they can finish it tomorrow if the weather is good, we have 43 hens and 2 roost, but today only got 15 eggs never got more then 22 so we will see if the pepper works, we went to food lion and they had a whole bag of hot peppers they said were old, so we got them for chickens tomorrow i will have to go out and cut them all opened to get seeds out then put them in a jar.

 

[gilcamp4]

cleaned peppers and put seed in with scarch cut up peppers and added to laying pellets so we will see if it helps, i mixed it up real good in feed so they don't get it all at once, let you all know if i get more eggs, got 16 today from 43 hens

 

[cypressdrake]

I tried it. From 8 eggs a day to 20-22 a day in a week or so. I saw a big difference in a week.

 

[chiknhurder]

I know this is an old post but I just happened upon it and wanted to correct some misleading info. Chili is not spanish for pepper. Pimienta is the spanish word for pepper and chili refers to HOT peppers.

 

[margkap]

Chile refers to peppers. Chili is a spice mix comprised of ground chile peppers or red pepper flakes, tumeric, paprika, salt etc. We then also make chili out of beans. So the language is confusing for chili/e.