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Starting Member
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Last Login: 5/22/2011 12:21:36 PM
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My chickens have not been laying well most of the summer and now into the fall. I have 25 hens and im getting 5 eggs a day. in the spring i was getting a dozen a day at least. A friend said i should sprinkle hot sauce on there food that it would make them start laying like crazy. I feed my hens 16% layer pellets and they have access to oystershells and i throw a cup or two of scratch grain to them everyday. Im getting frustrated and my egg customers are starting to look elsewhere. I dont want to damage my hens by hot sauce, just wondered if anyone knew anything about it. Thanks
B....Fleming
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| Any signs of molting? Do you ever worm them? Do you use a light in the coop? During the summer do you use fans for ventilation? Have you tried putting out some cat food or fresh pecans for them to eat? I boil some soy beans and chill and give them a hand full for treats. How old are they? You may need to bring in replacement hens, too.
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Starting Member
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umm, my hens free range in a pen thats about, 60x60 up until 1 or 2pm then we let them out to roam our 4 acres. havent tried worming, I have 6 older hens that are molting. The rest are not molting. they are up and about around 6am and wont go to roost until 5 pm. I make sure there is feed to eat when they first fly down.
B....Fleming
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| How old is "older"? Chickens older than a year or two start slowing down in laying to a drastic degree. 12 eggs a day in the spring out of 25 hens is not very many - a hen that is only a year old should be laying nearly every day in the springtime. Down to 5 eggs a day is definitely not a good situation.
Karen http://www.facebook.com/MrsKsCreations
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| Don't know if this is good or bad. But it seems that we never feed P2's flock the same brand lable of food. Have you tried changing their feed? Is it pellat or crumble? Our ratio is this 1 bag of crumble, 1 bag pellat, 1 bag of cracked corn, 1 5 lb bag of chicken grit and then a bag of chicken scratch or sunflowers mix and feed out. Oyster shells are given in an outdoor hopper. Do you give them scraps of any kind? When you don't force molt it may take a full month (+/- days here)for the entire flock to molt. We found out when 1 starts the rest will follow in due time. What breed of chickens do you have? P2's Barred Plymouth Rocks lay every other day since they started to lay. His sex links lay every day, as well as his Production Red, but his Americana laying is off. Lets see he's down to 8 now we get on an average 4 eggs a day from them. They are easy to notice because they are green compaired to the white and brown eggs. If they are free ranging you also my have eggs else where. A favorite place for our Barred Plymouth Rocks is on top of the lumber in the lumber shed. Also if they free range that's more energy going to walking than egg production. Just a thought. But take a look at the feed label and try another brand or give them a scoop of cat food and see if they need more protein or some kind of fat. If the egg production doesn't pick up come this spring contact your ag department or your local FFA chapter and see what they say. Our light in the coop goes on at 6 in the morning and isn't turned off until a little after 8 in the evening and we are in Louisiana.
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thanks for all advice, im going to try the cat food thing. I have 6 barred rock hens around 2yrs..they are nearly done probably....12 aracona/barred mixes about a year old....and 10 aracona hens around 9 months old. Then i have 15 mixes that are around 6 months old..not expecting much out of these till spring. kinda changing subjects... what about worming them, can i eat/sell eggs while worming, and what is the best wormer. I live in central AL. thanks everyone
B....Fleming
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| I've never found a chicken dewormer that can be used after a chicken starts laying eggs. I think that the dewormer probably gets into the ovum, so will be present in any eggs that the chicken lays from then on. I've heard recommendations for using cayenne pepper to help with worms in chickens and also diatomaceous earth. I've put a tablespoon of cayenne pepper in about a quart of clabbered milk and mixed it in well and the chickens eat it right up. I've read that chickens don't have any capsacin (sp?) receptors, so they don't register the heat of the pepper. You could also mix diatomaceous earth into milk (clabbered or not) and pour it over their feed. It's worth a try, anyway. It really could be that your 2 year old hens are worn out. I think your 1 year olds are probably going through a moult. The 6 month old birds should be just starting to lay just about now, and the 9 month old ones should be laying really well. I don't recall if you supplement their lighting at all. As I have several 6 month old pullets that I really don't want to overwinter without getting any eggs from them, I have a light go on at 5am, then off at 9am (when the sun gets over the trees). It goes on again at 5 pm, then off at 9pm, so that my birds are getting 16 hours of daylight, which is about what they need to keep laying well. My Cuckoo Marans that hatched out in May have just started laying within the past week, so I know that's working. Good luck! If you change anything and get some results (good or bad), please let us know.
Karen http://www.facebook.com/MrsKsCreations
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| Like MrsKK said the DE (IF FOOD GRADE) has no withdrawls and you can add it to your feed. Pumpkins seeds are a natural way of deworming, too. You can take a old hose or sock and peel a head of garlic and let it stay in your water for an entire week and then take out and do it every three weeks. There is a dewormer that has a "V" at the strart that has no withdrawls. Can't think of it right now. (I had post the name of it on another post, but the name excapse me right now). You all so can put some black sunflower seeds in with their feed and the oil from the seeds will help with the molting. P2 has a flock of 29 now. I just take a four oz cup of cat food once a week to them. His flock loves the chilled cooked soy beans. When pumpkins are for purchase I buy two a week and busted them in their yard. They clean it up just not as think of a rhyne left from a watermelon.
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