What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

[Dagirls]

I have a Kapuna coop here. Kupuna is Hawaiian Grandparent elderly. It is a large area that needs to be weeded. Will move it with maybe some poultry fencing. I will decrease the feed to 16% and let them eat bugs and grass. Now check me later when my 250 hens become Kapunas and maybe it may change. I would like to use the manure and possibly bag it and sell so they can pay for their feed. That is the plan anyways.

 

[brownhousefarm]

I called the people of purina and asked if feeding flock raiser to my laying hens would cause them to lay bigger eggs because of the increased protien. They said that the amount of protien had nothing to do with egg size. After some experimenting I can tell you that extra protien causes lots of big eggs. There is also increased manure production. I turned down the protien untill I can figure out what the best percentage is.

 

[Foggy1]

Some breeds like Orpington's lay better then others in the winter since they have extra feathers. However, Artificial lights like heat lights, high protein snacks like legumes & nuts, as well as greens & fruit help egg production since the vitamins help their health as well.

 

[Fryars11chicks]

Hey newbie here. Just wondering what little things I could do throughout the day to help my chickens lay some more eggs, and thats' reasonable. Thanks for any responses! Any help is better than what I'm doing now!

 

[jkhenry]

hi i have 8 chicks 4 leghorns 3 black australorps and 1 back sex link if i understand correctly i can switch from chick start and grow to game bird feed ?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I called the people of purina and asked if feeding flock raiser to my laying hens would cause them to lay bigger eggs because of the increased protien. They said that the amount of protien had nothing to do with egg size. After some experimenting I can tell you that extra protien causes lots of big eggs. There is also increased manure production. I turned down the protien untill I can figure out what the best percentage is.

We have 5000 hens for shell egg production and I can tell you that the amount of protein absolutely does affect egg size.

Since large eggs are the top retail seller we get a premium price for lots of nest run eggs where the average egg size is in the large weight range. To maximize our profit it behooves us to keep that average egg size at "large". We do that by adjusting the level of protein fed to the hens to control their weight gain, and thus egg size. We feed higher levels of protein when the birds are coming into lay to allow them to gain their adult weight rapidly and come into peak production. Once the eggs have reached an average of Large we reduce the protein to a level that allows the hens (and the eggs) to gain weight slowly. You can't regress egg size without losing production though. If the protein is lowered to the point where the average egg size starts going down, then production numbers also suffer.

Furthermore, oversized eggs reduce the number of eggs laid over a period of time. You'll find any number people here marveling at the huge eggs laid by their commercial brown layer hens when they are fed high protein feeds, but they don't realize they are actually getting less eggs over the course of a year. A hen can only produce a certain egg mass, for the best commercial brown layer hens that's about 40 lbs of eggs the first year of laying (about 300 Large eggs). For each gram that the average egg size is above that large egg size a hen will lay 4-5 five less eggs over that first year. For us, losing a half dozen eggs per hen means losing $5000 in eggs.

 

[jkhenry]

what is a good ratio feed to feed 6 week old layingchicks once i put them in the coop
i have leghorns australorps and sexlinks

 

[Mac in Wisco]

what is a good ratio feed to feed 6 week old layingchicks once i put them in the coop
i have leghorns australorps and sexlinks

You'll need to feed a high protein grower, around 18-19%. Too little protein won't give them enough for good growth and too high a protein causes them to grow too fast. They need time to build a sturdy frame for that increasing weight to be a good layer. Once they start laying you should feed a high protein layer feed, say 17 or 18%. Once they are laying at peak production the protein can be reduced some. For adult hens, a 16% layer feed is good for the fall, winter and spring months when they are eating a lot due to cooler temperatures, whereas a higher protein layer feed, say 17-18% can help through the heat of the summer when consumption is down.

 

[jkhenry]

thanx mac in wisco i will use all that info i want my first time around with my girls to b productive

 

[jkhenry]

so do i mix laying pellets with grower pellets ?