What to feed chickens to lay more eggs.

[Angel16]

Hello, how would i install a light timer in the chicken coop if i were to run a extension cord from a outlet right by the coop to the light in side??

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Hello, how would i install a light timer in the chicken coop if i were to run a extension cord from a outlet right by the coop to the light in side??

There are any number of lighting timers available for general use. Basically they plug into a wall receptacle or extension cord and then your lights would plug into the timer. Any hardware store can hook you up with what you need for about $20-$30.

 

[Angel16]

okay thank you very much!!

 

[ms4runr]

Thanks!! do you know were i might get a timer from??

Be sure to get one that is suited to outdoors. I went through 2 before I found one on Amazone for $14.95, s/h included.

 

[onebigglo1]

I had an old lady tell me you can feed them Rape greens and it will make them lay better. I found some seed at our local seed store and have it coming up in my flower beds. It say to plant it in the fall or spring.

 

[westler]

I turn light on at 4am and off at 7:30am. Feed 20% (mixed from game bird starter and layer) feed and my layers lay almost everyday.

 

[jkhenry]

when is a good time to start with a timer light ? when they
look like they gonna lay or when they start laying

 

[Mac in Wisco]

when is a good time to start with a timer light ? when they
look like they gonna lay or when they start laying

We use commercial brown layer strains and we start extending the lighting at 18 weeks old. We start at 13 or 14 hours of light (depends upon the season) and add 30 minutes per week until we reach 16 hours. They come into lay pretty rapidly and reach a peak at about 28 weeks old.

But... these birds are raised from 0-18 weeks to meet a target weight and then be put into production. If you have mixed breeds I'd wait until you get a few eggs to ensure that they are ready to lay before stimulating them to actually do so. It is possible to start them too early.

With your birds coming into lay in the spring they will see the natural day length getting longer anyways and lay when they are ready. Sometimes it takes a little longer in the summer or the fall for them to come into lay naturally when the days are getting shorter. Then, it's usually their increasing weight that triggers it, versus the day length.

 

[walbarbsa]

I bought more chickens! Seriously, though, I do throw a handfull or two of dog food out to them as I'm filling the dogs' bowls...could that help?

 

[Dagirls]

This sounds very interesting. I believe there must be multiple varibles here. I do not have 5000 O my busy chicken friends.

But I have a med large flock of different ages. I have a majority say 150 one breed and 25 of another breed, 20 of mixed. Amongst my largest number of hens the productions hens, I get up to a dozen over 80 gram eggs from 2 hens a week. These hens are bigger hens visually same breed. The others all lay large but different weights. I give the all the same food 20% layer. The mixed hens lay all sizes but consistanly the eggs weight the same. What about chicken genetics? Thats why I think I get those jumbo eggs from those hens? With this thinking then their egg production will drop off or we would have to remove them and decrease protien to get a smaller eggs and keep them laying longer? Do bigger hens have bigger eggs? Thanks

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.