I've posted this over and over - this is not happening only with feed from Tractor Supply. I've seen several brands cited by people whose chickens stopped laying. Mine stopped and our feed didn't come from Tractor Supply (or Purina.) This is not simply one brand or one store. This is happening across the country from many sources.
It looks suspiciously to me like the dog food that was sickening or killing dogs several years ago. Many brands, many sources. It turned out to be a protein powder from China that was adulterated with melamine and other poisons to fake the protein content. It was being used by many different companies in their dog foods. I'm speculating something similar is happening here.
Is it deliberate? It looks mighty fishy to me considering the timing and the fact that egg prices have gone sky high.
Glad it helped. Your post reminds me - it's not just chicken feed either. I've seen one person saying all their rabbits died from bad feed. Some are posting about a study saying egg yolks fight spike proteins. I really believe this is aimed more at stopping us from raising our own food more than anything. Guess we'd better make sure fertilizers for our gardens are safe. Hopefully the organic ones like Espoma and Dr. Earth will be okay.
We switched our chickens to mostly a good scratch grain mix. They were already getting mealworms and that made no difference but the scratch had them laying again in a day. And that has considerably less protein than the layer feed, which makes me think the layer feed protein listing was actually far lower. Of course the junk they use to fake protein content is also poisonous to animals.
Do you mind if I ask what brand of scratch you’re feeding them? I imagine that the mealworms were desperately needed by my duck to get an egg that fast. We were using Age Old Organics for fertilizer but my husband just told me he thinks they quit making it. He can’t find it anywhere.
Country Road scratch grains, 50 lb bag at Rural King. We're rotating around at various feed stores which I think will be safer. Last one was from Southern States. If my speculation is right, these feeds probably have minimal protein. So anything with some protein would help. Scratch grains only have about 7.5% protein compared to supposedly 16-18% in layer feed. I also give them fresh greens and vegetables, raw not from the table. I just buy them a bag of kale or some turnips, bok choy, etc. Espoma and Dr. Earth are organic. One year I put a handful of Dr. Earth in the bottom of each hole when planting tomato plants, except one which I missed. That plant was smaller and had far fewer tomatoes. The others were like Jurassic tomato plants.
Thank you! I’m guessing you’re not near the west. I like your approach to the varied feed. At least if you get a bad one, they’re not sentenced to another bad bag of food. I’m going to do the same. The ducks get romaine and apples ground up on top of 0duck pellets and regular scratch grains, which are soaked with a little water to soften them up.The scratch grain is more for the little birds outside who come to dine with them😊. I put two spoonfuls of cat food on top and that’s what they usually get twice a day. This week I added a small bowlful of mealworms in the evening. I fed them that twice and she started laying. She eats them like she’s starving to death which makes me wonder if she’s not getting necessary nutrients from all of the other stuff. Btw, my romaine looks funny at times as well.
Not near the west. LOL If I was a little over 100 miles further east I'd be treading water in the Chesapeake Bay. I'm in Virginia. I think all birds love bugs. Ducks apparently need grit just like chickens. It's their "teeth" to help grind up things like seeds in their crops. Mine also go crazy for the grit. They don't need a lot but if you're feeding anything like scratch they need some.
Just saw this other post after I posted this post...
"And now you know why they targeted eggs" - Chicken Egg Yolk Antibodies (IgYs) block the binding of multiple SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants to human ACE2.
So, you guys got me to thinking. My duck hadn’t laid since last summer. I was feeding her Purina’s duck pellets, romaine, apples and cat food. I read this post and decided to feed her some dried mealworms. Viola!!!! I have my second egg this morning! That was one or two feedings of the worms as snacks before she finally laid. They sell these worms at Walmart. Thank you everyone!
Fwiw, hens do lay less in the winter due to shorter daylight, as days are lengthening they ramp up production. I have layers, in January we were getting 2-3 eggs/day from 13 hens. I did switch to feed mill mash for cheaper feed, but as days are getting longer again we are up to 8-9/day. I am planning to get more hens, but they will take 16+ weeks to start laying.
All of us who have chickens know about the drop in laying in winter because of daylight changes. This is NOT what this is about. We're talking about people across the country whose hens stopped laying altogether for many weeks. My chickens were also not doing well but obviously were feeling better after the feed change.
Can watch whole 18 minutes, which the first half leads you up to what Doug (from Off grid with Doug & Stacy) wants to show us that a young woman found out by doing some digging, or you can skip to the young lady (Keeleys Coladas) at 7:50 mark.
Edit: Found more on the young lady - KeeleysColadas.
Here is another youtube channel that has all her parts of her chicken feed rabbit hole tiktok videos, which has a little bit more information.
I'm not a homesteader and certainly not a grifter. The people I saw posting about this were not homesteaders or even egg farmers - just, like me, someone who has a few backyard hens.
I've posted this over and over - this is not happening only with feed from Tractor Supply. I've seen several brands cited by people whose chickens stopped laying. Mine stopped and our feed didn't come from Tractor Supply (or Purina.) This is not simply one brand or one store. This is happening across the country from many sources.
It looks suspiciously to me like the dog food that was sickening or killing dogs several years ago. Many brands, many sources. It turned out to be a protein powder from China that was adulterated with melamine and other poisons to fake the protein content. It was being used by many different companies in their dog foods. I'm speculating something similar is happening here.
Is it deliberate? It looks mighty fishy to me considering the timing and the fact that egg prices have gone sky high.
Thank you for posting about purina. Your post is what switched the light on for me regarding my ducks. See above post
Glad it helped. Your post reminds me - it's not just chicken feed either. I've seen one person saying all their rabbits died from bad feed. Some are posting about a study saying egg yolks fight spike proteins. I really believe this is aimed more at stopping us from raising our own food more than anything. Guess we'd better make sure fertilizers for our gardens are safe. Hopefully the organic ones like Espoma and Dr. Earth will be okay.
We switched our chickens to mostly a good scratch grain mix. They were already getting mealworms and that made no difference but the scratch had them laying again in a day. And that has considerably less protein than the layer feed, which makes me think the layer feed protein listing was actually far lower. Of course the junk they use to fake protein content is also poisonous to animals.
Do you mind if I ask what brand of scratch you’re feeding them? I imagine that the mealworms were desperately needed by my duck to get an egg that fast. We were using Age Old Organics for fertilizer but my husband just told me he thinks they quit making it. He can’t find it anywhere.
Country Road scratch grains, 50 lb bag at Rural King. We're rotating around at various feed stores which I think will be safer. Last one was from Southern States. If my speculation is right, these feeds probably have minimal protein. So anything with some protein would help. Scratch grains only have about 7.5% protein compared to supposedly 16-18% in layer feed. I also give them fresh greens and vegetables, raw not from the table. I just buy them a bag of kale or some turnips, bok choy, etc. Espoma and Dr. Earth are organic. One year I put a handful of Dr. Earth in the bottom of each hole when planting tomato plants, except one which I missed. That plant was smaller and had far fewer tomatoes. The others were like Jurassic tomato plants.
Age Old here https://www.amazon.com/Age-Old-Natural-Fertilizer-32-Ounce/dp/B007TFT8IE Maybe ask your local supplier what the heck happened to it.
Thank you! I’m guessing you’re not near the west. I like your approach to the varied feed. At least if you get a bad one, they’re not sentenced to another bad bag of food. I’m going to do the same. The ducks get romaine and apples ground up on top of 0duck pellets and regular scratch grains, which are soaked with a little water to soften them up.The scratch grain is more for the little birds outside who come to dine with them😊. I put two spoonfuls of cat food on top and that’s what they usually get twice a day. This week I added a small bowlful of mealworms in the evening. I fed them that twice and she started laying. She eats them like she’s starving to death which makes me wonder if she’s not getting necessary nutrients from all of the other stuff. Btw, my romaine looks funny at times as well.
Not near the west. LOL If I was a little over 100 miles further east I'd be treading water in the Chesapeake Bay. I'm in Virginia. I think all birds love bugs. Ducks apparently need grit just like chickens. It's their "teeth" to help grind up things like seeds in their crops. Mine also go crazy for the grit. They don't need a lot but if you're feeding anything like scratch they need some.
Just saw this other post after I posted this post...
"And now you know why they targeted eggs" - Chicken Egg Yolk Antibodies (IgYs) block the binding of multiple SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants to human ACE2.
https://greatawakening.win/p/16a9v1Ajhx/and-now-you-know-why-they-target/c/
So, you guys got me to thinking. My duck hadn’t laid since last summer. I was feeding her Purina’s duck pellets, romaine, apples and cat food. I read this post and decided to feed her some dried mealworms. Viola!!!! I have my second egg this morning! That was one or two feedings of the worms as snacks before she finally laid. They sell these worms at Walmart. Thank you everyone!
Purina is dogshit. Thata all.
That it is!
Nature's Variety...Mercola health recommended it.
Thank you❤
Lol although taking a recommendation from that username is a bit disconcerting🐸
Fwiw, hens do lay less in the winter due to shorter daylight, as days are lengthening they ramp up production. I have layers, in January we were getting 2-3 eggs/day from 13 hens. I did switch to feed mill mash for cheaper feed, but as days are getting longer again we are up to 8-9/day. I am planning to get more hens, but they will take 16+ weeks to start laying.
All of us who have chickens know about the drop in laying in winter because of daylight changes. This is NOT what this is about. We're talking about people across the country whose hens stopped laying altogether for many weeks. My chickens were also not doing well but obviously were feeling better after the feed change.
Can watch whole 18 minutes, which the first half leads you up to what Doug (from Off grid with Doug & Stacy) wants to show us that a young woman found out by doing some digging, or you can skip to the young lady (Keeleys Coladas) at 7:50 mark.
Edit: Found more on the young lady - KeeleysColadas.
Here is another youtube channel that has all her parts of her chicken feed rabbit hole tiktok videos, which has a little bit more information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhpynTVxuO4
Here is her tiktok page, you can see all her chicken feed rabbit hole videos she has done so far.
https://www.tiktok.com/@keeleys.coladas
I'm not a homesteader and certainly not a grifter. The people I saw posting about this were not homesteaders or even egg farmers - just, like me, someone who has a few backyard hens.