The “Hens Not Laying Conspiracy” | The Survival Gardener

Many reports have been coming in from chicken owners that their hens quit laying recently, or that their chickens stopped producing eggs in recent months.

The cause, according to many, is feed that was either too low in protein or contaminated with something.

This is very possible, and I don’t have enough data to confirm or refute it.

However, I do know that many other possibilities can affect egg-laying.

In my recent video, I help new chicken-owners eliminate the likely causes, before immediately assuming it was something wrong with their chicken feed.

We’ll see what shakes out with the chicken feed conspiracy. My bet is that we had a batch or multiple batches of chicken feed that were too low in protein.

It really brings home the need for producing as much as we can on our own homesteads – including chicken feed. For city chicken keepers, however, that may be impossible.

Finally, here’s another note on the conspiracy – a friend writes:

“Friends at church bought feed from TSC and their hens completely stopped laying the day after they gave them that feed. They took 400lbs back to TSC and are hitting the local co-op for feed. Not saying conspiracy (because ineptitude and a host of other things can explain it), but just a data point to add as it seems there is actually something going on.”

These are truly weird times.

Share this post!