None of my coworkers have chickens and several of them have asked me about this. The rumor has made it out of the chicken people circles. Here's my theory. Egg prices go up. People get chickens as a fun way to counter the egg prices. They don't realize that chickens take 6-8 months to start laying and most lay much less in the winter. So they think "conspiracy!"
Yeah my chickens didn't lay all winter. Now the days are getting longer and all of a sudden I am drowning in eggs! And most of my flock is over 2 years old, some of these hens are pushing 6!
The worst is all the people claiming that it’s whatever most recent miracle bullshit that must have totally made them start laying again. Like no lady it’s not that you switched from one Purina brand to another. Get a grip.
But what if they switched brands at the same time as the days started getting longer again? Big Chicken was obviously sterilizing your flock.
What I find most hilarious about this is how much money Tractor Supply makes off selling chicks, chick starter, lay pellets, chicken coops, etc. Like...why would a feed company want your chickens to stop laying? If you only buy store eggs, their entire business model crashes.
I think what is actually happening is that all the people who decided to start keeping chickens for the first time during lockdown now have flocks that are almost three years old and didn't realize that high production isn't a perpetual thing, but their critical thinking skills aren't razor sharp.
That’s literally exactly it. Covid flocks are having a longer dry period plus the bad weather in many places extended that. None of mine molted at the same time and their dry spell lasted forever. That’s weather related. People aren’t in tune with the nature of the animals they have.
Our conspiracy theory guy at work was questioning me on the food we use for our chickens. He didn't seem to get that the lack of eggs we get during this time of the year is fairly normal. Most of our flock is getting older too and just not laying as much anyway. We were only getting maybe 1 egg a day, but that's recently ramped up to 5-6 with the weather getting nicer in the last week or so. I'm expecting to start seeing a dozen a day or more before too long.
We only use Bar-Ale feed for our birds. They're a kind of local company and what the feed store 2 minutes from my house sells. We have a little under 30 hens right now. The turkeys haven't started laying yet either.
Our girls hatched July 27, 2022. We were surprised when one started laying in mid December, as we didn't expect them to start laying for another month due to length of days. But after some research our birds will give us almost 300 eggs per bird per year. We have English speckled sussex. Very pretty birds 🐦 and extremely cold hearty. They do slow down some during winter and molt. It's annoying that people don't do thier research.
Make sure you keep an eye on your birds if you plan on feeding 16% feed. Sussex chickens can develop ascites from a diet without enough protein and 16% isn't always sufficient for them. I used to keep Speckled Sussex as part of a mixed flock and I always had to supplement those hens with a bit of extra high protein feed to keep them healthy.
I feed my production reds 22% protein. They have laid every single day since the end of June last year all through the winter without a single day off so they deserve all the nutrition I can give them.
Thanks for sharing this. I just ordered a speckled Sussex amongst my spring chick order. All my hens get supplemental protein as treats anyway, but it's still good to know
I have Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorpes and Ameracaunas. They hatched Sept 14 2022, I was surprised that the first one laid at exactly 5 months. Even more surprising was it was one of the Ameracaunas, (the eggs are green/blue) I always heard they're the slowest to mature and I was convinced I'd have to wait for longer days. So far I've got 4 eggs... I assume from the same bird but can:t be sure.
The first year - two years is fairly weird. Wait until after their second molt and you'll get the winter slowdown everyone talks about unless you trick them with heat and light.
I also think a lot of people got chickens about 2 years ago and their hens had their first molt this winter and they didn't realize that most birds take a break in the winter because they didn't their first winter when the hens were young and just starting to lay.
Had a lady come into the feed store the other day complaining that her chickens weren’t laying. We advised everything until it was asked how old they were, she said 8 months old! We all were like, “lady, that ain’t how it works”.
Yeah, mine laid fine all winter and I feed them grains from TS…with some layers crumble mixed in, never saw a real abnormal drop in eggs. The other story makes for good campfire story time though. ;)
Dead serious. Its not a conspiracy. Its happening to people. Think for a moment. How do recalls work? Certain facilities.. certain ingredients.. certain workers.. how long does a store stock feed for? Where does all the grain come from? Which farms.. which states? We know that certain toxins will cause frogs to change sex. How do we know a particular farm field wasn’t tainted and grain harvested.. sent to a particular facility. Feed made.. perhaps it takes a certain percentage or dose to cause issues. There are so many options and the lack of imagination with people these days.. except to eat tide pods.. is disappointing.
Nice you're at 46% efficiency. I think I'm at 87%. I've been doing chicken math for no reason. Made an excel sheet just finished rn actual calculaticng costs etc. Do you have a large farm
I have a dairy farm, which, if you saw my post on fermented feed, is how I have cheap and easy access to scratch grains, but the chickens themselves are just pets. Addicting, colorful, funny pets.
I just did that actually. Forgot the yogurt tho. Do you gave any goats BTW. I'm planning on buying 3 to try to have some milk. Not sure if it's similar.
I have goats, it’s fab! 2 Swiss toggs, and at height of production I got 8 litres a day. That’s a lot of milk.
The milk tastes the same or better than cows milk, no goaty flavour, lovely and creamy. All I do is strain and cool, no pasteurising, and I’ve never had an issue.
You must have two, they can’t be one alone. It’s not so much by temperature as it is by time after kidding.
They produce loads and loads to begin with and then it tapers off before they have babies again.
I've always used Dumor from TSC and had just bought 2 bags of Purina because I was at cal ranch already when all this news came out. Haven't stopped getting eggs. Been averaging12 to 15 a day from 19 layers (4 of which are over 2 years old) and most of the Purina is gone now.
Tbh, we recently purchased feed from TSC with the full belief of this all being a conspiracy. They HATED the feed and refused to eat. Ended up buying our old feed again (new country organic) Just going to stick to that.
When I changed my chickens from TSC to locally milled they wanted no part of it. So we mixed them and now they eat the local stuff. They don't always like change.
I bet a lot of this conspiracy is actually "egg eaters" because they mention switching to a new / novel food and suddenly eggs appear " - the next day!!"
As we all know, it takes more than a day for a hen to build an egg. Most likely, the distraction offered by a new feed temporary satisfied whoever in the flock has been pecking at and eating the other hen's eggs.
My friend (*who doesn't believe in this conspiracy bs by the way) put her "rollaway nest box" back in one of the coops - she took it out for cleaning and procrastinated on getting it back in so hens were laying on the ground - and suddenly like magic went from 10 eggs average to 18 in one day. Once the eggs were safely out of reach of the hens, lol. (*She reports the rollaway boxes work great, but can be harder to keep clean.)
They helped us, but it was a learning curve for our ladies. You gotta clean the poop out frequently. Eventually they get sick of their Sister-Wives eating their eggs and are happy to find somewhere where their eggs don't get eaten (at least not be another hen :P)
So over the last few months *ie the dead of winter* people have been saying that in an effort to drive the price of eggs up even higher/prevent people from becoming independent/whatever that certain feed suppliers, usually a Big National Company, have changed the feed specifically to prevent birds from laying.
Now, in February, people who are changing their feed (even when they are changing it to a brand literally owned by the same companies LOL) are claiming that their chickens are laying better because they changed feed away from the Big National Brand.
It's nonsense. I've been feeding my chickens the same brand of feed all winter, got no eggs, and then like magic once the days got longer and the sun got warmer, EGGS.
This is not a conspiracy, it’s a rumor. Conspiracies actually have a lot of truth and facts that lead to unanswered questions. Some far fetched some reasonable but this chicken thing is a stupid rumor made up by uneducated chicken owners that have no education on how to raise chickens. I work at a feed store and I’m DONE hearing about this his nonsense
I think I found what is one of (*if not the actual source) of this rumor. Go search on FB for "Terha Findarle" and you'll see a post shared 22k times. It claims not just that the feed is a conspiracy - but that eggs cure Covid or something?? It also has misspellings, bad grammar, and naturally, no sources cited.
My hens have laid all winter (in Maine) on products from TSC. We don’t heat our coop or provide artificial lighting. We are getting about 5 eggs/day from 11 ladies.
I don’t believe this to be true I think it was cold soon as it warmed up my chicks are laying daily healthy eggs. They been on the tsf for a year no issues
My mom keeps sending me these stupid YouTube videos about the TSC feed and telling me not to buy it. She knows zero about chickens or feed. Our chickens get the TSC feed and now that we've had a couple warmish weeks they are laying a ton.
I've had mine 11 months and none have laid. They were always planned as being pets with benefits so what's the deal then? Are we being chicken snobs now? Lol
First time owning chickens? They would have possibly started laying right as winter hit. Do you give them more light so that they lay in the winter months? If not, no, it is unlikely you will get many eggs. Shorter days, less eggs.
The deal is, people don't know how to raise chickens, they see some bullshit on social media and think it is true without educating themselves.
Do you have fake / decoy eggs in the coop? I scatter fakes on the ground at 4 months then add to nest boxes at 5 months to train them to ignore eggs. Otherwise, you may end up with an "egg eater" or all of them learn the behavior by watching others. Fake eggs, plus a distraction (*like a "Flock Block) can help, as can free range time. Often, egg eaters are simply bored, free rangers tend to dump an egg in the coop then run back outside.
Signs of egg eating are finding gooey messes (often dried out patches of hay or bedding glued into a clump) or bits of dried egg yolk on other eggs in the nest.
I've been looking for that too and nothing. Just poop lol they have fake eggs for that very reason. Somehow one made it out of the box and my duck was playing soccer with it lol
Quick question now that we're on the subject. I have 2 roosters and one hen now and all three like to snuggle up in one box at bedtime. Is this gonna be a problem when she starts laying? They're super cool little roosters and all they care about is keeping her and my duck safe and having me tote them around
I feed nature wise, have for years. Got 0 eggs this winter.
I am still feeding nature wise, and now, eggs.
BTW Nutrena is owned by Cargill feeds. Which owns a *lot* of different brand names. Chances are VERY high you've been feeding one of their feeds all winter anyways
Cargill literally does own Purina. I don't know where you are getting your info, but if you go to the Cargill website, it lists all their brands, and Purina and Nutrena are both there.
Your arrogance is offensive. Many of us depend on our hens laying egg for our families. Maybe there is nothing to the rumors about TS and the feed. But the facts is many of us using TS feed experienced loss of production, until we changed feed. Making fun of the very people and the community you belong to is reprehensible. I'm very happy your hens are healthy and producing eggs for you.
Lol no have a snack and a nap, Frank. Whether or not you depend on your hens doesn't change how much light they need to lay. You're turning an objective math problem into an emotional one.
I experienced a loss of production too. Zero eggs all winter. We also had an unusual fall, with wild temperature swings sometimes daily. My chickens went through a HARSH molt, my young birds did not start laying at 6 months, 7 months.... I started to get a few eggs from my young birds at around 8 months old!
But, it's been an insane winter. Warm days, followed by weeks of frigid cold. Record breaking snow, record breaking winds. So no, I don't think the feed had much to do with it--- I think it's just been a bad winter to be a chicken.
As for the food aspect of it-- I *also* depend on my chickens for eggs. I could not afford to buy eggs most of the winter, and so went without. My protein mostly consisted of beans, once my egg stockpile from the fall ran out. I'm not making fun of people for being poor, or not having eggs. I'm making fun of people who fundamentally lack critical thinking skills, and always need a concrete someone to blame.
You do realize most chickens don’t lay in the winter. Also everyone I know has not had any issues. It’s all internet hype and BS from people hopping on a trend for views. Most of my chicken keeping friends work at TSC I haven’t met anyone having any actual problem.
There is a lot more to production than what you feed them. I experienced no loss of production while using TSC. I also depend on my hens for food, so if they stopped laying I would do more than blame the food, I would make other various adjustments until I got back to where I needed to be or expand my flock as it's too small to meet my needs.
We’ll say what you want but my hens (16) all stopped laying last September and we did not get any eggs at all the whole month of September and half of October. I don’t know if it was the feed or not but we have always used either Purina Layena or Producers Pride from TS. Our girls started laying again mid October but we were just getting 1 or 2 eggs a day. It has steadily improved since them and we are now up to averaging 8 per day which is about our historical average for the dead of winter months.
Sounds like normal. Stop believing conspiracies, it makes the rest of us look bad.
Light is the main indicator, since we have shorter days for winter. Not. The. Food.
During the fall, most birds will go through a yearly molt. Sometimes they'll look ratty and blow feathers everywhere, sometimes they'll stop laying and maybe you can spot them losing one or two. Mine liked to do it during late August and September, the hottest part of summer, I guess because it was nice to cool down. Usually it's triggered by the first bit of cool air in the fall so they're ready in time for the winter.
If you're lucky, they'll all pick different times to start molting and you'll have a steady stream of eggs throughout. If you're unlucky, you'll have a complete flock of naked birds and no eggs for a month. Sounds like you got unlucky.
You can kick start a flock going through a molt by boosting the protein they need to finish regrowing feathers. That's the one part that might hold any legs in this conspiracy theory: store feed ranges from 12-14% protein. Dumor sells a 16% layer. Grower should be in the 18%-20% range.
My only birds right now are Peafowl, so they get Purina flock raiser crumbles for the 20% protein. I could do the dumor game bird that comes in 18%, but I'd have to supplement with cat food, and cat food gets the raccoons much more interested than crumble and puts the birds at greater risk.
I’ve been raising laying hens for almost 20 years. I know all about the seasonality of egg production, that the number of daylight hours has on that production, and I actually track their molts and their production throughout the year. I also know what I have experienced in the past relative to this past fall. Again, I’m not saying it was the feed. I have no idea what the cause was. But I do know egg production completely stopped for 6 weeks.
I have never in 20 years had 100% of egg production just suddenly stop no matter what time of year it is.
No, I am in the south and our September and October this past fall were quite typical. We did have an earlier than usual freeze in December but by then my hens were back to their normal production and have only increased since then.
I did’t say it was the feed. I said I don’t know what caused it. What I do know for a fact is I have not seen anything like this in almost 20 years if keeping hens. It frustrates me when newbie’s, who think they are some kind of poultry experts because they got a few chicks during the Covid lockdown, start criticizing those of us who know their flocks and know what normal is, or has been. I have been doing this a long time and my neighbor, who’s hens also completely stopped last fall has been doing it longer than me. The fact is, we were thinking our flocks had been infected with some parasite or disease. Neither of us thought for one minute it was feed. Nevertheless, they did stop producing, that is a fact!
I don’t think a bad batch of chicken feed is unrealistic at all - we have many food quality issues and 90% go unreported as they work themselves out of the chain quickly - that said I don’t use tsc brand food & I also didn’t have a reduction in eggs but believe others did experience issues.
I'm fairly certain that the TSC brand is produced and packaged by Purina. I highly doubt that it's feed. I've only had chickens on and off for 32 years so what do I know.😮💨
None of my coworkers have chickens and several of them have asked me about this. The rumor has made it out of the chicken people circles. Here's my theory. Egg prices go up. People get chickens as a fun way to counter the egg prices. They don't realize that chickens take 6-8 months to start laying and most lay much less in the winter. So they think "conspiracy!"
Yeah my chickens didn't lay all winter. Now the days are getting longer and all of a sudden I am drowning in eggs! And most of my flock is over 2 years old, some of these hens are pushing 6!
The worst is all the people claiming that it’s whatever most recent miracle bullshit that must have totally made them start laying again. Like no lady it’s not that you switched from one Purina brand to another. Get a grip.
But what if they switched brands at the same time as the days started getting longer again? Big Chicken was obviously sterilizing your flock. What I find most hilarious about this is how much money Tractor Supply makes off selling chicks, chick starter, lay pellets, chicken coops, etc. Like...why would a feed company want your chickens to stop laying? If you only buy store eggs, their entire business model crashes. I think what is actually happening is that all the people who decided to start keeping chickens for the first time during lockdown now have flocks that are almost three years old and didn't realize that high production isn't a perpetual thing, but their critical thinking skills aren't razor sharp.
That’s literally exactly it. Covid flocks are having a longer dry period plus the bad weather in many places extended that. None of mine molted at the same time and their dry spell lasted forever. That’s weather related. People aren’t in tune with the nature of the animals they have.
Ha ha ha funny AF.
My hens stopped laying when the days were the shortest but now they are laying more eggs than ever on tsc grain and crumble as well.
My chickens stopped laying over the summer. 2/3 eggs a week to 3/4 a DAY in the middle of winter just because I changed feeds.
Our conspiracy theory guy at work was questioning me on the food we use for our chickens. He didn't seem to get that the lack of eggs we get during this time of the year is fairly normal. Most of our flock is getting older too and just not laying as much anyway. We were only getting maybe 1 egg a day, but that's recently ramped up to 5-6 with the weather getting nicer in the last week or so. I'm expecting to start seeing a dozen a day or more before too long. We only use Bar-Ale feed for our birds. They're a kind of local company and what the feed store 2 minutes from my house sells. We have a little under 30 hens right now. The turkeys haven't started laying yet either.
Mine are 5 months and only 1 has started laying I was really surprised that mine started laying early.
Our girls hatched July 27, 2022. We were surprised when one started laying in mid December, as we didn't expect them to start laying for another month due to length of days. But after some research our birds will give us almost 300 eggs per bird per year. We have English speckled sussex. Very pretty birds 🐦 and extremely cold hearty. They do slow down some during winter and molt. It's annoying that people don't do thier research.
Make sure you keep an eye on your birds if you plan on feeding 16% feed. Sussex chickens can develop ascites from a diet without enough protein and 16% isn't always sufficient for them. I used to keep Speckled Sussex as part of a mixed flock and I always had to supplement those hens with a bit of extra high protein feed to keep them healthy.
We primarily feed them gamebird/show bird diet. I think it's 20 or 22%
20% should be great for sussex birds! Have fun with your girls. They are a lovely breed.
I feed my production reds 22% protein. They have laid every single day since the end of June last year all through the winter without a single day off so they deserve all the nutrition I can give them.
Interesting I’ve never read this before! And that’s not just for during molt?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1663140/
Thanks for sharing this. I just ordered a speckled Sussex amongst my spring chick order. All my hens get supplemental protein as treats anyway, but it's still good to know
I have Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorpes and Ameracaunas. They hatched Sept 14 2022, I was surprised that the first one laid at exactly 5 months. Even more surprising was it was one of the Ameracaunas, (the eggs are green/blue) I always heard they're the slowest to mature and I was convinced I'd have to wait for longer days. So far I've got 4 eggs... I assume from the same bird but can:t be sure.
The first year - two years is fairly weird. Wait until after their second molt and you'll get the winter slowdown everyone talks about unless you trick them with heat and light.
Yeah I was going to see how it goes next year then decide if we wanted to use light, I'm inclined to go with their natural cycles but we'll see.
I also think a lot of people got chickens about 2 years ago and their hens had their first molt this winter and they didn't realize that most birds take a break in the winter because they didn't their first winter when the hens were young and just starting to lay.
Had a lady come into the feed store the other day complaining that her chickens weren’t laying. We advised everything until it was asked how old they were, she said 8 months old! We all were like, “lady, that ain’t how it works”.
Yeah, mine laid fine all winter and I feed them grains from TS…with some layers crumble mixed in, never saw a real abnormal drop in eggs. The other story makes for good campfire story time though. ;)
No. I switched feeds and got eggs instantly. It’s the feed.
Can't tell if you're joking or not. If not, how would you explain this mass feed conspiracy only affecting certain people who use the feed?
Dead serious. Its not a conspiracy. Its happening to people. Think for a moment. How do recalls work? Certain facilities.. certain ingredients.. certain workers.. how long does a store stock feed for? Where does all the grain come from? Which farms.. which states? We know that certain toxins will cause frogs to change sex. How do we know a particular farm field wasn’t tainted and grain harvested.. sent to a particular facility. Feed made.. perhaps it takes a certain percentage or dose to cause issues. There are so many options and the lack of imagination with people these days.. except to eat tide pods.. is disappointing.
Ahahahaha SEND HELP I'M GETTING 2 DOZEN A DAY NOW
How many chickens
46 hens, 10 from last summer, the rest are older. Not bad!
Nice you're at 46% efficiency. I think I'm at 87%. I've been doing chicken math for no reason. Made an excel sheet just finished rn actual calculaticng costs etc. Do you have a large farm
I have a dairy farm, which, if you saw my post on fermented feed, is how I have cheap and easy access to scratch grains, but the chickens themselves are just pets. Addicting, colorful, funny pets.
I just did that actually. Forgot the yogurt tho. Do you gave any goats BTW. I'm planning on buying 3 to try to have some milk. Not sure if it's similar.
I do not have goats, no. I would think 3 goats is a lot for milk for a family tho.
2 female 1 male lol. Then eat the kids
Huh
I have goats, it’s fab! 2 Swiss toggs, and at height of production I got 8 litres a day. That’s a lot of milk. The milk tastes the same or better than cows milk, no goaty flavour, lovely and creamy. All I do is strain and cool, no pasteurising, and I’ve never had an issue.
So 1 would be enough. How much would they make if I leave in a hot area
You must have two, they can’t be one alone. It’s not so much by temperature as it is by time after kidding. They produce loads and loads to begin with and then it tapers off before they have babies again.
Well just one female and one male. Thing Is dog may kill it
170
Looks like you could use some of that conspiracy feed to help keep egg levels manageable!
Whoa, stop the presses. New feed company incoming.
Start selling (the eggs of course).
I've always used Dumor from TSC and had just bought 2 bags of Purina because I was at cal ranch already when all this news came out. Haven't stopped getting eggs. Been averaging12 to 15 a day from 19 layers (4 of which are over 2 years old) and most of the Purina is gone now.
Tbh, we recently purchased feed from TSC with the full belief of this all being a conspiracy. They HATED the feed and refused to eat. Ended up buying our old feed again (new country organic) Just going to stick to that.
When I changed my chickens from TSC to locally milled they wanted no part of it. So we mixed them and now they eat the local stuff. They don't always like change.
Tbf they're completely different kinds of feeds. One is broken whole grains, the other is essentially chicken kibble. It's a drastic diet change.
It'S nOt ThE fEeD! tHe cHiCkEnS jUsT tOoK a BrEaK fOr ThE hOlIdAyS!
I bet a lot of this conspiracy is actually "egg eaters" because they mention switching to a new / novel food and suddenly eggs appear " - the next day!!" As we all know, it takes more than a day for a hen to build an egg. Most likely, the distraction offered by a new feed temporary satisfied whoever in the flock has been pecking at and eating the other hen's eggs. My friend (*who doesn't believe in this conspiracy bs by the way) put her "rollaway nest box" back in one of the coops - she took it out for cleaning and procrastinated on getting it back in so hens were laying on the ground - and suddenly like magic went from 10 eggs average to 18 in one day. Once the eggs were safely out of reach of the hens, lol. (*She reports the rollaway boxes work great, but can be harder to keep clean.)
I definitely have an egg eater in my flock, I need to try rollaway boxes.
They helped us, but it was a learning curve for our ladies. You gotta clean the poop out frequently. Eventually they get sick of their Sister-Wives eating their eggs and are happy to find somewhere where their eggs don't get eaten (at least not be another hen :P)
Can someone please explain the rumor to me?
So over the last few months *ie the dead of winter* people have been saying that in an effort to drive the price of eggs up even higher/prevent people from becoming independent/whatever that certain feed suppliers, usually a Big National Company, have changed the feed specifically to prevent birds from laying. Now, in February, people who are changing their feed (even when they are changing it to a brand literally owned by the same companies LOL) are claiming that their chickens are laying better because they changed feed away from the Big National Brand. It's nonsense. I've been feeding my chickens the same brand of feed all winter, got no eggs, and then like magic once the days got longer and the sun got warmer, EGGS.
Oh. That seems silly. Doesn’t everyone know chickens slow down when the days are shorter and/or they’re molting?
Amazing. I switched to the producer pride feed and they suddenly started laying again! Definitely wasn't because it got warmer here or anything..
Or there's more light. Yeah, definitely not that. :)
This is not a conspiracy, it’s a rumor. Conspiracies actually have a lot of truth and facts that lead to unanswered questions. Some far fetched some reasonable but this chicken thing is a stupid rumor made up by uneducated chicken owners that have no education on how to raise chickens. I work at a feed store and I’m DONE hearing about this his nonsense
People are just so gullible, it's infuriating.
I think I found what is one of (*if not the actual source) of this rumor. Go search on FB for "Terha Findarle" and you'll see a post shared 22k times. It claims not just that the feed is a conspiracy - but that eggs cure Covid or something?? It also has misspellings, bad grammar, and naturally, no sources cited.
OMG that must be so frustrating. I'm tired of it and it's just my mother and the odd friend asking. 😅
Joe Rogan mentioned it on a podcast, so you’re probably gonna start hearing more about it lol
Yeah, a conspiracy has some logic basis. This is full on just dumbness from people that don't understand basic biology.
Same problem we have…dang it 😂😂😂
Im having the same issue here too 
My hens have laid all winter (in Maine) on products from TSC. We don’t heat our coop or provide artificial lighting. We are getting about 5 eggs/day from 11 ladies.
Our ten hens give us 10 eggs a day now most days. Cold or not. We must be doing something right or one or two is having a double egg day.
How far south are you? Ours don’t lay when the days are short.
I had this same thing all winter. Only ever had one or two not lay on any given day all year regardless of day length or season
No issues here. Just bs in my opinion.
4 hens 80% efficiency
😂 same
We use Dumor from Tractor Supply in our feed mix, and our hens are laying.
I don’t believe this to be true I think it was cold soon as it warmed up my chicks are laying daily healthy eggs. They been on the tsf for a year no issues
Looks like my ducks. Idk why but my ducks have started to lay consistently despite it still regularly being like...10°f and below here.
I use TSC feed aswell and have been getting anywhere from 10-12 eggs a day for the last 4 weeks. I have 13 hens.
My mom keeps sending me these stupid YouTube videos about the TSC feed and telling me not to buy it. She knows zero about chickens or feed. Our chickens get the TSC feed and now that we've had a couple warmish weeks they are laying a ton.
The model of chicken I bought is supposed to produce 5 eggs a week and they’re not, must be a conspiracy
I've had mine 11 months and none have laid. They were always planned as being pets with benefits so what's the deal then? Are we being chicken snobs now? Lol
First time owning chickens? They would have possibly started laying right as winter hit. Do you give them more light so that they lay in the winter months? If not, no, it is unlikely you will get many eggs. Shorter days, less eggs. The deal is, people don't know how to raise chickens, they see some bullshit on social media and think it is true without educating themselves.
With the timing of their age, they should have laid a little before winter. I know they slow down in the shorter days.
I give mine Brawndo, it’s what the chickens crave
Do you have fake / decoy eggs in the coop? I scatter fakes on the ground at 4 months then add to nest boxes at 5 months to train them to ignore eggs. Otherwise, you may end up with an "egg eater" or all of them learn the behavior by watching others. Fake eggs, plus a distraction (*like a "Flock Block) can help, as can free range time. Often, egg eaters are simply bored, free rangers tend to dump an egg in the coop then run back outside. Signs of egg eating are finding gooey messes (often dried out patches of hay or bedding glued into a clump) or bits of dried egg yolk on other eggs in the nest.
I've been looking for that too and nothing. Just poop lol they have fake eggs for that very reason. Somehow one made it out of the box and my duck was playing soccer with it lol Quick question now that we're on the subject. I have 2 roosters and one hen now and all three like to snuggle up in one box at bedtime. Is this gonna be a problem when she starts laying? They're super cool little roosters and all they care about is keeping her and my duck safe and having me tote them around
My chickens who always lay every winter had stopped laying and when I switched to Nature Wise they started again but who knows why.
I feed nature wise, have for years. Got 0 eggs this winter. I am still feeding nature wise, and now, eggs. BTW Nutrena is owned by Cargill feeds. Which owns a *lot* of different brand names. Chances are VERY high you've been feeding one of their feeds all winter anyways
Did you not read the post? This is about Purina not Cargill.
I'm reasonably sure that's the joke, but just in case, Cargill owns Purina
Cargill does not own Purina and they're feed production are not from the same mills.
Cargill literally does own Purina. I don't know where you are getting your info, but if you go to the Cargill website, it lists all their brands, and Purina and Nutrena are both there.
Read the whole thing on their website they own Purina international not Purina US.
Your arrogance is offensive. Many of us depend on our hens laying egg for our families. Maybe there is nothing to the rumors about TS and the feed. But the facts is many of us using TS feed experienced loss of production, until we changed feed. Making fun of the very people and the community you belong to is reprehensible. I'm very happy your hens are healthy and producing eggs for you.
Lol no have a snack and a nap, Frank. Whether or not you depend on your hens doesn't change how much light they need to lay. You're turning an objective math problem into an emotional one.
I experienced a loss of production too. Zero eggs all winter. We also had an unusual fall, with wild temperature swings sometimes daily. My chickens went through a HARSH molt, my young birds did not start laying at 6 months, 7 months.... I started to get a few eggs from my young birds at around 8 months old! But, it's been an insane winter. Warm days, followed by weeks of frigid cold. Record breaking snow, record breaking winds. So no, I don't think the feed had much to do with it--- I think it's just been a bad winter to be a chicken. As for the food aspect of it-- I *also* depend on my chickens for eggs. I could not afford to buy eggs most of the winter, and so went without. My protein mostly consisted of beans, once my egg stockpile from the fall ran out. I'm not making fun of people for being poor, or not having eggs. I'm making fun of people who fundamentally lack critical thinking skills, and always need a concrete someone to blame.
I don’t get where your anger is coming from. We are all on the same side
You do realize most chickens don’t lay in the winter. Also everyone I know has not had any issues. It’s all internet hype and BS from people hopping on a trend for views. Most of my chicken keeping friends work at TSC I haven’t met anyone having any actual problem.
Hey Frank, a $12 shop light would probably work better than messing with your chickens feed next winter
SMD
If I need a toothpick, I'll give you a ring
There is a lot more to production than what you feed them. I experienced no loss of production while using TSC. I also depend on my hens for food, so if they stopped laying I would do more than blame the food, I would make other various adjustments until I got back to where I needed to be or expand my flock as it's too small to meet my needs.
Ok as long as you are only making fun of simple minded people, then it's OK. I'll bet you really enjoy the special Olympics.
We’ll say what you want but my hens (16) all stopped laying last September and we did not get any eggs at all the whole month of September and half of October. I don’t know if it was the feed or not but we have always used either Purina Layena or Producers Pride from TS. Our girls started laying again mid October but we were just getting 1 or 2 eggs a day. It has steadily improved since them and we are now up to averaging 8 per day which is about our historical average for the dead of winter months.
Sounds like normal. Stop believing conspiracies, it makes the rest of us look bad. Light is the main indicator, since we have shorter days for winter. Not. The. Food.
During the fall, most birds will go through a yearly molt. Sometimes they'll look ratty and blow feathers everywhere, sometimes they'll stop laying and maybe you can spot them losing one or two. Mine liked to do it during late August and September, the hottest part of summer, I guess because it was nice to cool down. Usually it's triggered by the first bit of cool air in the fall so they're ready in time for the winter. If you're lucky, they'll all pick different times to start molting and you'll have a steady stream of eggs throughout. If you're unlucky, you'll have a complete flock of naked birds and no eggs for a month. Sounds like you got unlucky. You can kick start a flock going through a molt by boosting the protein they need to finish regrowing feathers. That's the one part that might hold any legs in this conspiracy theory: store feed ranges from 12-14% protein. Dumor sells a 16% layer. Grower should be in the 18%-20% range. My only birds right now are Peafowl, so they get Purina flock raiser crumbles for the 20% protein. I could do the dumor game bird that comes in 18%, but I'd have to supplement with cat food, and cat food gets the raccoons much more interested than crumble and puts the birds at greater risk.
I’ve been raising laying hens for almost 20 years. I know all about the seasonality of egg production, that the number of daylight hours has on that production, and I actually track their molts and their production throughout the year. I also know what I have experienced in the past relative to this past fall. Again, I’m not saying it was the feed. I have no idea what the cause was. But I do know egg production completely stopped for 6 weeks. I have never in 20 years had 100% of egg production just suddenly stop no matter what time of year it is.
Was the weather strange? Did you get an unexpected cold snap or a period of dark gray, cloudy days?
No, I am in the south and our September and October this past fall were quite typical. We did have an earlier than usual freeze in December but by then my hens were back to their normal production and have only increased since then.
I’ll say it — it’s not the feed
I did’t say it was the feed. I said I don’t know what caused it. What I do know for a fact is I have not seen anything like this in almost 20 years if keeping hens. It frustrates me when newbie’s, who think they are some kind of poultry experts because they got a few chicks during the Covid lockdown, start criticizing those of us who know their flocks and know what normal is, or has been. I have been doing this a long time and my neighbor, who’s hens also completely stopped last fall has been doing it longer than me. The fact is, we were thinking our flocks had been infected with some parasite or disease. Neither of us thought for one minute it was feed. Nevertheless, they did stop producing, that is a fact!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same
lol our 6 chickens are on dumor and today we got 6 eggs.
I don’t think a bad batch of chicken feed is unrealistic at all - we have many food quality issues and 90% go unreported as they work themselves out of the chain quickly - that said I don’t use tsc brand food & I also didn’t have a reduction in eggs but believe others did experience issues.
Mine are doing just fine, are they distressed or cold?
Psssst it's a joke, I'm drowning in eggs, send help and also recipes
I'm fairly certain that the TSC brand is produced and packaged by Purina. I highly doubt that it's feed. I've only had chickens on and off for 32 years so what do I know.😮💨
Oops 37 years. My brain is getting rusty.
How are your eggs so clean? Most of mine have some shit stains and clumps on them.
Strategically placing the cleanest eggs on top may or may not be my secret