I had a downturn in laying in the past few weeks that I attribute to several factors,
Do you have a Southern States in your area? I'm using https://southernstates.com/products...medicated-crumble?_pos=2&_sid=d93060a58&_ss=r which isn't perfect, because it's got bacitracin (which is perfectly safe, just not desirable to me), but it's 21% protein and less expensive than anything other than the cheapest 16% layer so I'm gritting my teeth and tolerating the antibiotic.
If I didn't have enough birds to be going through 50# a week I'd cough up a few more dollars a bag for unmedicated chick feed.
Any feed store *ought* to carry some kind of "All Flock" feed in the 18-22% protein range.
I found this an interesting read. 100 years ago, this book was aimed to help farmers get a then-profitable 100 eggs per hen per year -- from LEGHORNS. The worst bird I've had, a Brahma, did better than that.
Thread 'Poultry for the Farm and Home'
*Gives my 5 broodies an accusatory look*
One of them is back to laying now. Not sure about the others because they all lay very similar eggs.
- Five broodies. That means 5 less eggs per day.
- Repecka getting out. I would not be surprised to stumble across some eggs somewhere at some point. She's repeatedly hidden nests in the coop "clutter". Repecka's Hidden Collection!
That's another missing egg. - Too many cockerels in the flock. Girls are getting stressed and rooster-worn. Stress reduces laying.
- Black rat snakes. It's the season and there's very little I can do about it but to move snakes to the back of the property when I can catch them.
- The spring hormonal surge is over so some drop is natural.
Do you have a Southern States in your area? I'm using https://southernstates.com/products...medicated-crumble?_pos=2&_sid=d93060a58&_ss=r which isn't perfect, because it's got bacitracin (which is perfectly safe, just not desirable to me), but it's 21% protein and less expensive than anything other than the cheapest 16% layer so I'm gritting my teeth and tolerating the antibiotic.
If I didn't have enough birds to be going through 50# a week I'd cough up a few more dollars a bag for unmedicated chick feed.
Any feed store *ought* to carry some kind of "All Flock" feed in the 18-22% protein range.
I found this an interesting read. 100 years ago, this book was aimed to help farmers get a then-profitable 100 eggs per hen per year -- from LEGHORNS. The worst bird I've had, a Brahma, did better than that.
Thread 'Poultry for the Farm and Home'
*Gives my 5 broodies an accusatory look*
One of them is back to laying now. Not sure about the others because they all lay very similar eggs.
I had forgotten too many roosters could affect them that way. 
Next time I'm at my feed store I'll see what they might have in the way of gamebird or all flock. We are running a farm on a tight budget and the goats have cost waaaay too much money the last two years. Depending on the price difference, I may switch feeds. I'll probably calculate how much it costs to do layer feed plus cat feed and compare.
