Do you own CHICKENS? If so, is this happening to yours?

Twenty seven years ago I had chickens in VA. We kept one rooster to motivate the hens. We fed them cracked corn, and they free ranged the woods during the day. We got eggs…. Somebody would get into the coop and kill a chicken and eat the whole bird leaving the hips and feet. Bizarre and heart breaking. Building a perfect coop is one answer. In Ireland a lady fed them in her horse stall at five pm and closed the door. They had poles going across the stall for the chickens to roost on at night. In my current suburban neighbor hood three families are keeping chickens. I just buy the eggs and quit buying beef so much.

My girl is in the Philippines, her chicks lay eggs every day they should, it’s how they survive, that n rice

a reply to: shaemac

Dude, Chickens don't lay eggs in Winter... If it's cold where she is, and the sun goes down early w/o supplemental or artificial light the chickens won't lay eggs(they are biologically not meant to, they are meant to conserve energy during the cold winter weather and developing eggs eats a lot of nutrients that they usually don't have access to in winter). Winter is suppose to be the time where the chickens actually rest, anyone who didn't just go out and grab a handful of chickens w/o researching would know this.


If she wants chicken eggs in winter, she needs an artificial light to act like the 'sun'. Vitamin D is crucial in the development of eggs in chickens, and they don't get it in winter time. You can use certain bulbs, but for healthy eggs you'll want full spectrum. Otherwise your just robbing the chickens during their rest period. If you give a crap about the hens, let them rest. If you want sick hens use the light - that is what the big industries do.

Literally zero conspiracy here, these are just a bunch of people who went out and bought chickens cause of an egg shortage w/o really doing much research on how to take care of them.. They probably the same people putting sweaters on the chickens and crying when their hen dies (cause they think it's cute&warm) W/o realizing it's not for warmth (keeping it on for warmth actually screws up their feathers, and undercoat and will kill your chicken in winter weather) but to prevent the rooster from oversexing a 'favorite' hen: and killing said hen.

a reply to: mtnshredder

Yeah, Philippines don't have cold winters like other parts of the world. These people complaining about the chickens don't understand how to raise chickens. Unless you literally trick them with a fake light, you don't get eggs in winter months. They aren't suppose to lay eggs in the winter - because their bodies realize that food is scarce. So most of the energy goes into feathers and keeping them warm and alive.

a reply to: BlackArrow
My friend told me yesterday that he got 4 eggs from his 3 chickens in one day.......and it's freezing here.

a reply to: shaemac

Strange, now with Bill Gates talking he wants to get rid of chickens on his million of combined acres of property. He's also been going hard with meatless and eggless products based on either plant or insect proteins. I guess one way to make sure his business venture goes as planned is to make sure real eggs are far and few between.

a reply to: BlackArrow

Yep, and people forget, that they are born with all the eggs they are going to lay. So, if they lay, all year long, then that shortens the amount of years they will lay.

I learned from a farmer long ago, that you need to have all different ages of chickens. Those born in the spring, will generally start laying 6 months later, and lay more their first winter. The older hens, that don't lay, or lay very little, are great for raising and teaching the babies.

If you live where there is snow, the old saying is "they stop laying when their feet hit snow".
My 6 month olds just started laying. They are getting store bought feed in the winter.

here's a good conspiracy albeit an old one about chicken feed. I think the recipe was changed before this study was done..back in the day they put something in the feed to make them eat more, not because they were hungry but because it drove the 'pecking' instinct

recipe change

an except from the study..

The focus of the present paper is an intriguing myth that has been in circulation since the middle 1960s (Hall, C, personal communication). This story has it that since the late 1950s, feed companies have mixed stimulants such as amphetamine, methamphetamine and/or ephedrine into the laying meal feed for chickens. The addition of the stimulant was supposed to help increase the egg output of the hens. It is not uncommon occasionally to run across a known violator purchasing, or in possession of, several hundred pounds of laying meal, probably with the intent to extract the stimulants chemically. In a recent Federal trial in Sacramento, California, the defendant maintained he had purchased and possessed a large quantity of ephedrine to feed to his chickens (Simpson N, personal communication). Another suspected clandestine chemist attempted to purchase large quantities of ephedrine for chicken feed from a chemical supplier in Salt Lake City, Utah (Filmore C, personal communication). A third suspected clandestine chemist justified his possession of nearly 250 pounds (113 kg) of ephedrine as being "...like an antibiotic..." for hogs when mixed 1 part in 10 with hog feed (Freelove D, personal communication). l-Ephedrine has an oral LD50 in mice of 400 mg/kg2.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: shaemac

Got eggs this morning.


Use feed from the local TSC.


FWIW.

I too use the TSC scratch grains and I get 4-6 eggs everyday from 8 pullets born last March. The eggs are huge but they do need some source of calcium this time of year. TSC sells some feed to help them lay that gives them some calcium. Just a little bit every few days is what I give them.

Way back when I raised a flock from free un-sexed spring time chicks you'd get if you bought the bag of chick feed, you would buy laying mash to feed them when they were old enough to lay. I used to go to a nearby farm co-op to get feed, back when there was one in just about every town around here.

The regular feed (or "chicken scratch") I got from the co-op was supposed to contain mostly oats, but when I grew it to grow my own feed, the grain turned out to be rye, not oats.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Rye is a fine grain. I noticed wheat too in the scratch grains. Mostly they used cracked corn in the TSC feed I buy.

a reply to: Justoneman
I buy a big cheap bag of oyster shells (crushed, but I crush them a bit more) and just fill up a little hanging tray for them in the barn.
In the winter, they (25 girls) will go through a tray in about 2 weeks (2 cups or so). But in the summer, they don't hardly touch it, so I'm guessing they get more calcium from whatever they are eating, bugs, plants, and other things.

My girls stopped laying during the shortest days. It has little to do with the cold. I should not say stopped completely. I was getting an egg every day or so for around a month.

They are pretty much back to normal.

I feed them layer pellets that are soy free. They get table scraps and scratch feed daily. They love apples and I get them from the wounded vegetable cart in the grocery store, the marked downs. In the summer when we are canning they get all the scraps we produce. And we let them free range when we are outside. We have threats of hawks. One was tangled in our netting we have over the run this past week. It was lots of fun getting that fellow free and on his way. But our chickens are safe!

I think one of the problems is the age of people's chickens. If you have first year girls and they start to lay at the end of the summer chances are they will lay right through the winter. Once they are past that first year and they molt in late fall, they take a break.

We discussed putting a light on a timer in the coop but opted not to. We love our girls and wanted to give them a break.
There are only so many eggs each chicken will lay in a lifetime.

We are planning to get 6 more chicks this spring, bringing our total to 17 chickens. And I will water glass eggs this year. We eat a lot of eggs and I actually had to buy a few dozen over the holidays.

My advice is to vary their feed sources so they get all the nutrients they need to be healthy.

And enjoy them! Everyone loves our beautiful girls.

In is not unusual for them to get a dry spell during the winter every few years.
Also, the hens age plays a large role on how often she lays.

a reply to: shaemac

I believe this is a hoax that has been circulating for the past several months, accusing TSC, Dumor, and Pride of not adding a certain type of amino to their feed.

Not sure exactly what feed my dad tosses out for his chickens, but he's is over a dozen eggs. Every time I visit I end up going home with more eggs than I can eat lol. I'm no chicken expert, but don't they typically lay less eggs when it's winter? I believe they rely on the sun to stimulate the ovary to release a yolk.

I Feed my Chickens non GMO Feed.
They stop Laying near Winter and start back in the Spring.
When Spring comes around i Feed them Laying Mash.
Only Cracked Corn in the Winter.
a reply to: shaemac

During the pandemic the feed producers changed their recipes and it influenced the large egg producers to lose significant production.
I am rural and visit many farms in 4 valleys on a weekly basis.

Everyone's chickens stopped producing.
Everyone.
TSC is suspect on everyone's mind.
Unless if you have ISA Browns
If you know then you know.

An egg requires 20 hours of light.
And temperature helps.

But something most definitely did happen.
The goat lady had everyone of her goats stop milking almost overnight.
She had never seen that happen.
Something is most definitely happening.
The feed producers went to cheaper ingredients during the pandemic and they have not switched back and they will not switch back.
In every country that was taken over by a communist regime the first thing they do to begin citizen comiance is to kill all the chickens.
To test for bird flu they use the PCR testing just like COVID.
Most diseases are almost always in big factory farming conditions.
I suspect it is feed related and can and will be regional.
I do not believe it is just the feed though.
It could be passed genetically and I hope of nothing this sinister( staring at the mRNA experiment ongoing).

Chickens are Uber resilient though.
And something aerosolized is possible.

I consider myself the Johnny Appleseed of chickens though.
Buy more chickens.
Protect your chickens.
Be counterintuitive and figure it out, because someone has to.
If you have enough chickens and feed you can weather blackouts quite easily.
It is the milk goats that dried up all at once, for the first time ever, that has me concerned with chickens ATM.
Look for local sources of feed.
Grow some squash and pumpkins and leafy stuff.
And above all have compassion for all those that have no idea of how good a yard egg is.

a reply to: TheRedneck

If someone is having trouble getting their chickens to lay, try feeding them the old eggshells (crushed up)

It's a good trick, to add the extra calcium.
Make sure the shells are dry, as sometimes when there is some egg on the shell they get a taste for egg, which is very counterproductive.

You can also trick them by providing artificial light so they get at least 12h per day of light, as some breed are still natural enough to stop laying during winter...