What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

[Missy W]

Make sure your chicken house is water and airtight. We put several heat lamps in the chicken house that run all the time and when it is cold and nasty we only open up the south end of the chicken house and leave the north end closed up to keep the wind and wet off of them.

 

[PimentoPlymouth]

What about feeding a little bit of cat food. It is higher in protein than chicken feed obviously. I used it a little when I had a couple hens who were going through a rough molt and it seemed to help them through it a little better. I also try to sell some of my eggs as we couldnt possibly eat all we get and in the summer at $2 a dozen the chickens more than pay their way for feed.

 

[The Momma]

I feed layer pellets to my pullets and my cockerel also eat it. I have 4 pullets and 2 cockerels all 6 months old. They are mixed breed and the most beautiful and sensible chickens I have ever seen.

They have taught me a thing or two. First, I leave a hose on VERY light on each tree daily and the chickens love to find the hose for water. Of course they also have water in their ear but NOT in their coop. They are free ranged 7 - 8 hours per day as soon as the last hen lays. They are in the coop at night and then in their yard by 7:30 am.

Okay going back to feed. I feed layer pellets in the morning from a local feed store. Local brand. About 2 1/2 cups. Not much for laying hens. However, they get hot oatmeal on cool mornings and all our leftovers including meat with the exception of pork. They love yogurt. I also feed peanuts and sunflower seeds which they love love love. Watching them crack open the shell is hilarious. They get mealworms, cheerios, all types of fruit, cottage cheese and veggies. Again, all leftovers. We waste NOTHING at our house. I also put a compost pile in their yard and they have done an excellent job for me. The soil is teaming with earthworms that i use for the garden and other soil areas of the yard. I pile the compost pile with leaves, coffee grounds, hay from their nests, their poo, food scraps and they churn it up. Someone told me not to do this bc of spoiled food. My chickens don't touch spoiled food.

I am averaging 3 eggs per day with 4 pullets. I'm figuring this is good. They have oyster shell available as well as sand bottom coop that they love and is EASY for cleaning up their waste. Keeps their coop clean.

 

[Be-lee518]

Things to not feed them are fruits, they can make egg production go down. I was a owner at a fresh eggs production farm and all we fed was grass and Purina chicken layer pellets. We got a very good production, but it also depends on the breed. Black Austrolopes hold the record for most eggs in a year(364 eggs in one year).Also- the feeding of cat food will make their feathers nicer, I've never heard of it increasing egg production but it makes sense.

 

[AngryRooster]

Oyster shells are great for hens that still lay eggs...not sure about a higher egg laying rate though. Lots of nutrients helps too!

 

[8girls]

I will check the grain bag to see whT my husband bought last time. How about ground up egg shell for calcium?

 

[missnu01]

Newbie question here. If hens appear to produce more eggs on higher percentage feed (18 to 20%), why do feed companies make layer feeds at 16%?

Because while the higher protein does create more eggs, and larger eggs it also wears your hens out faster. I noticed when I got turkeys that when the hens ate the turkey food they laid huge eggs, so I switched everyone to the game bird feed and all my buff orpington hens turned inside out. They were laying me 70 ish gram eggs every other day...then they started laying me 90 something gram eggs everyday...sometimes with no missed days for a few weeks at a time. This was right after they started laying, and I figured great! Look at all these huge eggs. Then around 4 months into my amazing discovery I walked out of the house to a blood trail on the steps followed it all over the yard to a BO hen happily scratching in the dirt with her insides hanging out her back side. We culled her because whether she seemed happy or not something obviously wasn't right..then it happened to another, and another, and another...so once all but one of my BO hens had had to be culled for leaving her intestines in the nesting box I realized what was happening, and switched all the flock over to flock raiser at 20% protein and never had any more issues. The 20 was better than the 16 in the layer, but nobody else turned inside out like they did with the 28 game bird feed. So there is a thin line. Especially with piggy hens that lay really big eggs to begin with. I notice my eggs are larger than most. I have have a bantam that lays medium eggs, I have an EE that lays jumbo eggs... I am incubating some eggs not my own and am amazed at the size difference. So free range and slightly higher protein will net you some big honking eggs.

 

[missnu01]

I've recently seen LF eggs smaller than my bantam lays... I've got some stout hens I'll tell you that.

The largest brown egg is my EE. The white egg is a store jumbo. The next 2 are from my salmon faverolles why they don't lay the same eggs I'm not sure. But one lays squat fat dark eggs while the other lays the long skinny torpedo eggs, and the smallest is from barnyard bantam mix. She is a good bit smaller than my 10 week old RSLs...so. I'm also thinking something they eat on our property must be pretty darn good for them because I only feed them 3 days out of any given week...

 

[missnu01]

I feed layer pellets to my pullets and my cockerel also eat it. I have 4 pullets and 2 cockerels all 6 months old. They are mixed breed and the most beautiful and sensible chickens I have ever seen.

They have taught me a thing or two. First, I leave a hose on VERY light on each tree daily and the chickens love to find the hose for water. Of course they also have water in their ear but NOT in their coop. They are free ranged 7 - 8 hours per day as soon as the last hen lays. They are in the coop at night and then in their yard by 7:30 am. 

Okay going back to feed. I feed layer pellets in the morning from a local feed store. Local brand. About 2 1/2 cups. Not much for laying hens. However, they get hot oatmeal on cool mornings and all our leftovers including meat with the exception of pork. They love yogurt. I also feed peanuts and sunflower seeds which they love love love. Watching them crack open the shell is hilarious. They get mealworms, cheerios, all types of fruit, cottage cheese and veggies. Again, all leftovers. We waste NOTHING at our house. I also put a compost pile in their yard and they have done an excellent job for me. The soil is teaming with earthworms that i use for the garden and other soil areas of the yard. I pile the compost pile with leaves, coffee grounds, hay from their nests, their poo, food scraps and they churn it up. Someone told me not to do this bc of spoiled food. My chickens don't touch spoiled food. 

I am averaging 3 eggs per day with 4 pullets. I'm figuring this is good. They have oyster shell available as well as sand bottom coop that they love and is EASY for cleaning up their waste. Keeps their coop clean.

I compost all our waste in a big open pile and the only thing hat actually gets composted is the old bedding when I clean out the coop. The chickens eat everything else long before I can spoil, peels, wilty lettuce, coffee grounds banana peels...anything I put in it they follow me and eat it before it can possibly start to break down. I've not gotten lazy and just open the door and toss out the things that I used to walk the 50 feet to the pile. No sense is wasting steps stepping on chickens the whole way. Eat a banana, just drop the peel and in seconds it is a game of chicken tag football. Makes dinner clean up easier...yell chick chick chick and just toss whatever out the door. Love my velociraptor clean up crew.

 

[Aliceamoe]

Hi,

I am a newbie too and I have 4 chickens. I feed mine elite layer crumble and scraps and I get 2 - 6 eggs a day!

Hope this helps