Increased Egg Production

[GRUMPA]

Just thought I would pass this along

Since the neighbors dogs decreased our chicken population by half we have fewer layers. So for grins we've been giving them 2 cups of wet dog food a day that they seem to go nutz for. But holy cow talk about better producing chickens, now we get almost double the production out of them.

Now it seems the trick of the matter is to find that really cheap dog food compared to chicken feed it's more expensive.:veryconfu

[Blammer]

interesting, I'll have to try it on my chickens.

[GRUMPA]

After re-reading my post let me rephrase it a tad. That's dry dog food (2 cups) with hot water mixed in and let stand for about 20-30 minutes. Kinda turns mushy, and for them they act like it's free food day at an all you can eat joint.

[montana_charlie]

We used to leave a full bowl of dry dogfood out at all times, for our dog.
That worked fine until the magpies discovered the 'free food'.

If I had 30 minutes to kill, I could have observed the gang as they hauled off every chunk in the bowl.
Whatever it is in dogfood that provides nutrition ... birds can use it, too.

CM

[ph4570]

What production rates do you all get?

Ours get about 2/3 egg per chicken per day, i.e. we get on average 4 eggs per day from 6 chickens. They get standard chicken feed and free range in our yard for grass, weeds and bugs.

[GRUMPA]

What production rates do you all get?

Ours get about 2/3 egg per chicken per day, i.e. we get on average 4 eggs per day from 6 chickens. They get standard chicken feed and free range in our yard for grass, weeds and bugs.

We don't get that much from our chickens, we have more or less the somewhat exotic breeds and not leghorns. Leghorns are famous for good production but to name a few we have Silkie, Ameracana, Cochins, Buff Orpington, Favoralle, Coukoo maran, Banties. And we let them free range as well but never get that much in the way of eggs from them.

During the winter months we're lucky to get 2-3 a day with 16 hens. Now we get easily double that using the dog food. Summer time we get a lot more and then we decrease the dog food.

[Blammer]

4 hens 1 rooster, 3 eggs a day until they turned 3yrs old now we get none or, maybe one a day. For the past month, none.

[waksupi]

Just to experiment, try cat food. Higher protein, and may make them produce even more.

[GRUMPA]

Well that's a thought, but I wonder which of the 2 are cheaper for us tight folk.

[scrapcan]

waksupi has it, higher protein content. And to boot much sheap dog food has chicken bi products in it ( think feather or bone or soft tissue meal)

[Duckiller]

Check around, your hens may be hiding their eggs. Brother has a young flock but was getting too few eggs. Watching them closely he discovered a nest with 43 eggs in it. All were fresh. Chickens can be sneaky, especially free ranging.

[starmac]

A light in he henhouse and a full feeder helps too.

[Simonpie]

Chickens often pause laying in the fall for a molt. Even if they haven't dropped feathers, they may pause a bit. Be sure your feed change didn't happen right as they were coming off this molt. I'd say time for a little animal husbandry experimentation.

[Jailer]

I'd say time for a little animal husbandry experimentation.

I think we have a couple guys locked up for that.......


:bigsmyl2:

[GRUMPA]

Oh the molting part for us anyway is rather will known. Lighting for the coop isn't going to happen because we live on solar power and will not waste the power on that. It's just after feeding them dog food for a week it really helped out.

[Bret4207]

Yeah, chickens go for meat like Rosie O'Donnell goes for ice cream cakes. I don't know if you've seen it yet, but if a frog or snake or something like that gets in the coop it's torn to pieces in seconds. Chickens are omnivores, but they seem to prefer meat. I used to catch a mess of little bait fish down in my sand pit and mash them up and let them cook in a pot into fish mush. the chickens went crazy for it. All they require is it being soft enough for them to tear it into bite sized pieces.

[waksupi]

[smilie=6:[smilie=6:[smilie=6:[smilie=1::redneck:



I think we have a couple guys locked up for that.......


:bigsmyl2:

[blackthorn]

When I was a kid on the farm in Manitoba we would hang a skined/gutted Jack rabbit in the chicken pen for them to pick at. Dad said it kept them from picking at each other. We had a milk cow that had a tumor? growth on her jaw. We had the vet remove it and it grew back! In the summer, the cow would lay in the yard and the chickens would pick at it. They cleaned it all off and it never grew back.

[GaryN]

Ducks like meat too. Back in the seventies I use to clean my ducks in the yard and put the guts in a plastic bag. Then the ducks found out what I was doing. I started feeding some of the guts to them. They had tug-a-wars with the entrails. The white one had blood all over it's face. It got pretty gross so I quit. But the ducks loved it.

[GRUMPA]

Indeed Bret is right, I don't care what it is they will try and eat it. The mrs and I get a laugh when they get a mouse or rat and it ends up like a scene in Finding Nemo Mine Mine Mine.

[DIRT Farmer]

From my observation a chicken will eat anything, including chicken. After Dad passed in October, I cleaned out his freezer, there was some ground meat dated 1991, a bunch of fish from that era to 2003. I dumped it out and the chickens ate it as fast or faster than it thawed. I shot a possom in the chicken house and it dissapered except for the major bones. These chickens are 3 to 4 years old, not many eggs ever.

[sundog]

raptors...

[Alchemist]

3 to 4 yr old hens are getting old...might be time for some pullets. Those old hens will make some good chicken & dumplings.

[Mk42gunner]

Since the primary ingredient in dry dog food is corn, with maybe a little meat flavoring; it is not suprising that chickens will eat it. Nor is the fact that chickens will eat anything they can get in their beak; any chicken pen that has grass in it when the birds are introduced, will resemble a desert shortly.

Robert

[contender1]

Interesting info. I've been thinking about building a coop & getting a few layers. I like brown eggs, and the larger the better.

[OBIII]

Chickens are cannibals. Just flip them a piece of KFC one time and watch the fun.

[gray wolf]

This is Wise Owl (Julie ) typing here.

Chickens when they are allowed to will free range to eat protein containing bugs/worms/ ect....

Corn is mostly protein also that's why they go crazy over cracked corn. In order fo them to lay eggs, they need LOTS of protein. That's why they pick at each other if they are not getting enough.

I know some folks who also supplement with meal worms in the winter to give them extra protein and keep them laying.

And light is very important to them to keep them laying. It gets dark around 4 in the afternoon now and doesn't get light again till about 7 am. If they don't have a source of light, even a small 40watt bulb will help to do this, then they will quit laying daily.

Signed Wise Owl, old farmer from Michigan. We always kept a light on at night for the hens.

And to the one who like nice big brown eggs, get some Rhode Island Reds. They are the sweetest, quietest hens. And they lay HUGE eggs and will produce longer than most other breeds, up to 5 or 6 years old.
They are my favorite breed. I actually think they have more brain function than the other breeds also. :mrgreen:

[fishnbob]

I buy eggs from the Amish and I asked how they get them to lay in the cold of winter and she said "Put a little warm water in their food and drink and they will lay".

[Dale in Louisiana]

4 hens 1 rooster, 3 eggs a day until they turned 3yrs old now we get none or, maybe one a day. For the past month, none.

three years is OLD for a chicken. Grandma used to turn the old ones into gumbo. Took all day, cooking in a simmering pot to turn those stringy old things edible, but man, they tasted great!

It's time to replace them with new stock. And next time, don't wit three years.

dale in Louisiana

[Simonpie]

three years is OLD for a chicken. Grandma used to turn the old ones into gumbo. Took all day, cooking in a simmering pot to turn those stringy old things edible, but man, they tasted great!

dale in Louisiana

As my French mother says "If you're going to simmer it in wine all day, it doesn't matter how tough the meat started out."

[Montana Ron]

Kill the dogs and leave them in with the chickens, they WILL eat them all up less bones......I'v done it with coyote carcasses..............

[pipehand]

Our girls have slowed down laying with the shorter daylight hours, and the fact that they are not fed Black Soldier Fly larvae since its too cold for the flies to lay eggs either. I would be leary of feeding dog or cat food because I like to minimize the amount of cannibalism that occurs. Mad chicken disease anyone? The girls like yogurt- good protein plus the calcium for the egg shells. The hen house is a chicken tractor, and they get to free range outside it a few hours a day. We don't have the insect and fire ant problems we used to have before the chickens.

[Iowa Fox]

This is Wise Owl (Julie ) typing here.

Chickens when they are allowed to will free range to eat protein containing bugs/worms/ ect....

Corn is mostly protein also that's why they go crazy over cracked corn. In order fo them to lay eggs, they need LOTS of protein. That's why they pick at each other if they are not getting enough.

I know some folks who also supplement with meal worms in the winter to give them extra protein and keep them laying.

And light is very important to them to keep them laying. It gets dark around 4 in the afternoon now and doesn't get light again till about 7 am. If they don't have a source of light, even a small 40watt bulb will help to do this, then they will quit laying daily.

Signed Wise Owl, old farmer from Michigan. We always kept a light on at night for the hens.

And to the one who like nice big brown eggs, get some Rhode Island Reds. They are the sweetest, quietest hens. And they lay HUGE eggs and will produce longer than most other breeds, up to 5 or 6 years old.
They are my favorite breed. I actually think they have more brain function than the other breeds also. :mrgreen:

For large brown eggs we get Comets. They are a smaller chicken that eats less and lays well. We get new day old chicks every year to keep egg production at its peak. We are only talking about 10 chickens now, nothing like the 5-600 a year like when I was a kid.

[quilbilly]

got this from a friend who has had chickens for at least 20 years:
I know they like cat food but it costs a bit to much to feed it to them all the time. the problem with high powered feeds is that they will burn out faster....they will only lay so many eggs in their life span. Of course ours are usually culled by predators so that shortens the life span a bit too. we lost our jersey giant rooster last night to a coon. Will have to fix that problem soon.

[contender1]

Wise Owl & Gray wolf, thanks! Interesting info. I used to raise Game Roosters, and sell, (not fight) them. I was thinking my memory told me Rhode Islands were the ones to get. I'd forgotten about the light aspect of layers. It has been a long time since I raised any birds. (early 1980's.) It's one of my future projects to get a few birds and enjoy good eggs again.

[ph4570]

Our egg production decreased by 1/6 yesterday thanks to a bobcat taking one of our six layers. I need to keep a weapon at the ready.

[MikeS]

In the county where I lived in TN there were 2 separate cock fighting arenas. When it was fighting season (I forget when that is) the local truckstop always had specials on chicken dinners! When they (the arenas) got busted the ASPCA (or was it PETA?) came in, and euthanized over 400 chickens! Among those arrested were the Sheriff, and the Judge, along with I think 500 or 600 people, many of them non-residents. Most of the owners of the chickens sued the folks that euthanized their birds - everyone was convinced that their bird would have won, so didn't need to be killed! That county had so much dislike of the government (fed, and state) that they routinely didn't enforce several federal & state laws!

I really miss living in east TN!

[redriverhunter]

wow after reading this post what do you all think, i got hog head from a feral hog. do you think it would be ok to give it to the chickens only got five.

[7br]

Just thought I would pass this along

Since the neighbors dogs decreased our chicken population by half we have fewer layers. So for grins we've been giving them 2 cups of wet dog food a day that they seem to go nutz for. But holy cow talk about better producing chickens, now we get almost double the production out of them.


Wouldn't have been easier to give the dog food to the neighbor's dogs before they ate your chickens?

[Alchemist]

Our egg production decreased by 1/6 yesterday thanks to a bobcat taking one of our six layers. I need to keep a weapon at the ready.

Keep that shooter handy...I betcha he'll be back for seconds.

[DLCTEX]

Feeding the dogs would not have prevented them killing the chickens. They do it because it's in their nature.

[timbuck]

I think we have a couple guys locked up for that.......


:bigsmyl2:

A guy walks into a bar in West Virginia and orders a white wine.
All the hillbillies sitting around the bar look up from their beer and whiskey, expecting to see some pitiful Yankee from the north.

The bartender says, "You ain't from around here, are ya?"

The guy says, "No, I'm from Canada ."

The bartender says, "What do you do in Canada ?"

The guy says, "I'm a taxidermist."

The bartender says, "A taxidermist? What in the hell is a taxidermist? Do you drive a taxi?"

"No", says the Canadian "A taxidermist doesn't drive a taxi, I mount animals."

The bartender grins and hollers,
"It's okay boys. He's one of us."

[mroliver77]

Feed the hog head to the chickens! If you look at layin mash it has lots of protein and fat in it.

My dad could feel a chicken under the vent between it's thighs and tell if'n it was laying or not. He tried to teach me but I couldn't get it.

We always fed them meat scraps and other "garbage". One time somebody gave us a bunch of frozen bread dough shaped into loaves. Just let it thaw, raise and cook! :) After a year or so there was some left but had freezer taste. Wifey threw it out in the garden. Later I found some dead chickens with dough expanding out of their mouths! My Dad said that birds do not burp, fart or pass gas in any way. The expansion blew their guts out similar to the old trick of giving seagulls alka seltzer. It was traumatic for the wife as the farm animals WERE HER "PETS" FOR SOME TIME UNTIL SHE LEARNED THE FACTS OF Farm life. Oops cap lock!

I agree that the Rhode Island Red is the best all around chicken!

We always let a hen that got "broody" set a batch of eggs every year to renew the "herd". This would give some young roosters to eat and some old hens to cook down for chicken and noodles.
Jay

[DLCTEX]

That reminds me of giving a flock of my chickens some weevil infested flour that my Dad got from the school he worked for. I thought the chickens would just eat the weevils, but they ate the flour and it turned to dough on their crops. I had to catch each chicken repeatedly and massage their crops for two days before it worked through.

[contender1]

I know where those two cock fighting pits were in east Tn. And, I recall the hoopla over them after the raids.
My family roots are from that area,,,,!