We've been getting this certain brand of chicken feed that was completely organic, corn free, soy free, etc, etc, etc... and it was based on raw split peas and legumes. Sounds pretty good huh? These chickens were living the dream; at least I thought. For years the spring chicks would get to about 12-15 months and stop laying eggs altogether. Why? Why do the girls always go on strike when they get that old? Do they reach some know-it-all, rebellious teenager stage at this point? I didn't think so.
What do you know about raw legumes and digestion for humans? Raw legumes are an anti-nutrient; they pull nutrients out of the body as you digest them. And I knew that. But the thought hadn't exactly translated over to chickens. Poor girls. A friend of mine brought that to my attention. She brought it on herself as a personal task to figure out why the chickens weren't laying.
So we sought out a different feed for the poultry products. And we found one that will work for now. It's not organic, but it will do for now.
The chicken are laying more than 2 dozen eggs a day. Even though we've been trying to be creative with egg uses (lots of hard boiled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, mayonnaise, etc), we have quite the surplus of eggs right now. I think that the chickens are happy now.
Wow! Never thought about this as applied to chickens before, but I do know that the feed mix Mama wants to use 4 the goats has raw legumes in it and must always be soaked for 24 to 48 hours first or their milk production will go down. Interesting concept!
ReplyDeleteThis post is quite interesting. Most people wouldn't even this about the diet of chickens would affect their egg laying.
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