What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

[minnehaha]

I I mix 1 part chops and 1 part scratch--makes the yokes rich

What are chops???

 

[Little momma]

I live in SC....I got 4 laying hens at the Jockey Lot Flea Market about 3 months ago. The women told me they layed everyday.
There were eggs in their pen.So I don't think she lied. They won't lay for us. We have them in a 10X20 pen and keep food and clean water for them all the time. The chicken house is about a 2X6 with 4 nest. I feed them the laying grains, stuff from the table like veg and watermellow......please tell us what we are doing wrong.

 

[KeepOnClucking]

Hmm... Difficult to say. Try giving them some scratch, make sure they have access to some grasses to eat and put out a dish of oyster shells too. That seemed to work to help boost my egg production.

 

[missnu01]

I live in SC....I got 4 laying hens at the Jockey Lot Flea Market about 3 months ago. The women told me they layed everyday.
There were eggs in their pen.So I don't think she lied.  They won't lay for us. We have them in a 10X20 pen and keep food and clean water for them all the time. The chicken house is about a 2X6 with 4 nest. I feed them the laying grains, stuff from the table like veg and watermellow......please tell us what we are doing wrong.

Are you sure they aren't laying their eggs somewhere strange? And also that you got them 3 months ago? Also you may have fallen prey to the lie about a hens age trick... Also I'm going to assume your chickens get a fair amount of sun or light. I only ask because our chicken coop stays dark most of the time and if I were to actually pen them in it I probably wouldn't get any eggs... but if you can post some pictures of these hens I can tell you if they are old or not usually. The first time I bought chickens I was lied to... He man had said they all laid that one had just started and that the other 2 were great layers... and one of them did lay like a champ, but one was way too old and one was months away from starting...I was alright with the too young one, but I felt a little cheated that he pawned a super old hen off on me. Oh well she was the first yard chicken my family ever ate. She was mostly fat, but tasty. Just like people chickens hold more fat as they get older. Anyway... it could be an illness, could be a lie...

 

[magdalene74]

Exactly! What works for me may not work for the next person. I have my own documented results when feeding different types of feed. I did an experiment when I noticed the decline in egg production when I fed my hens Lay Pellets and switched to Game Bird. I did this on 3 different occasions to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. I fed my hens Game Bird pellets and documented EVERY DAY the number of eggs that they layed. I did this for an extended period of time. I switched them back to Lay Pellets and I documented EVERY DAY the number of eggs that they layed. I did this 3 times and EVERY SINGLE TIME, the results showed the when I fed them LAY PELLETS, there was a drastic decline in egg production. And when I fed them GAME BIRD PELLETS, the egg production increased DRASTICALLY and the size of the eggs were HUGE with an increased amount of protein with the Game Bird Pellets. Egg production almost doubled. So, my documentation is based on an actual experiment. So, I don't listen to what people tell me what to feed and I don't pay attention to or listen to theories. I listen to my hens and their egg laying tells me that they do better on Game Bird Pellets at 26% protein.

I notice you have a LOT of different birds in your signature, do you feed them all the game bird pellets?? Seems like that would make life MUCH easier... heh. I keep reading about keeping birds separate from eachother and feeding them different stuff but i want to free range with a good safe coop at night so how do you keep them all separate during the day???

 

[Chris14]

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%?

To be all honest the amount of protein isn't all that important when it comes to egg production, more importantly are the amino acids and the quality of those amino acids that make up the amount of proteins with in the feed. If one feeds a less than ideal feed with low quality amino acids they will most likely need to feed a feed that is a little higher in proteins than a feed that is made up of higher quality amino acids.

As for the protein amount, a lower protein laying feed (16-17 percent) are meant for hens that are not in prime egg production (70-75% or less). A higher protein laying feed is meant more for bird that are in there prime (75% or better) and also when the birds are in molt.

Chris

 

[ethan1111111111]

my chickens lay an egg 4 and half days ago what do I do to get them to lay again?

 

[cafarmgirl]

my chickens lay an egg 4 and half days ago what do I do to get them to lay again?

How old are they? This time of year it is typical for egg production to slow down as they get ready to molt and also due to shortened daylight hours.

 

[5jays]

Ok, my chickens are costing me a small fortune..... It costs $20 a bag for lay mash, and I go through 2 bags a week and I'm feeding 25 chickens and the worst part is I'm not getting any eggs
All my chickens are hatched out this year except for a 10 roade island reds that are last years. I let them out around 11 in the morning to free range to try and save a little on food and put them back in at 7 any help or suggestions would be great.

 

[patti17340]

That seems like a lot of feed. I have 15 hens and I use one bag of feed in two weeks. My hens free range at least 8 hours each day. I think you may be over feeding your chickens and than when they feed range they are not hungry. What kind of feeder are you using? I like a hanging feeder I found you do not loose as much feed with them getting into it and scratching it all around . I also put my feeders in a trash can at night so that I am not feeding mice .