Chicken Conspiracy Hour

Good morning, Chics!

I LOVE a good conspiracy theory. JFK? Princess Diana? Moon landing? Count me in! So when the news broke about Tractor Supply's involvement with chicken feed meant to stop egg production, I stopped what I was doing and started reading. I'm eager to tell you what I think about it and will lay out a few caveats before beginning as well as leave a few receipts at the end.

First, we have owned and raised chickens since March 2022. So just under a year at the time of this writing. We started with six and ended up with forty-five last year. Chicken math is real! Second, I'm not writing this blog to convince anyone about the facts of the case regarding Tractor supply and chicken feed because frankly, there don't seem to be any. Third, we used Dumor for all of our chicks and then switched to Producer's Pride for our layers. Those are the two feeds in question by mainstream media and alternate news personalities/YouTube influencers and their uproar is in tandem. That last sentence caused my conspiracy theory radar to go off.

*Note: this is the definition of a conspiracy theory per Merriam-Webster online:
    a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators

We currently have forty chickens in the chicken yard (twenty-nine hens and eleven roosters) and fifteen babies in the brooder in our guest room. Last year our hens hatched ten babies but only five survived. Out of the five, we gained only one hen and she has just started laying. My daughter came in earlier and announced we have a half egg. Yay! Another layer. The roosters our hens hatched are pretty, y'all, but some will have to go because I have too many roosters. 

I've spent the past few weeks reading articles and watching YouTube videos about this alleged connection between Tractor Supply chicken feed and decreased egg production. Since then I've had several people reach out to me asking questions about chicken feed and my thoughts on the suddenly decreased egg production. I told each person that chickens naturally drop their egg production during decreased daylight hours and when molting. 

Let's start with some facts about chickens. 1) Chickens can begin molting at six months of age and may do so twice a year. While they are molting they may not lay at all or their production may just decline. 2) The ideal amount of daylight for egg laying is 14-16 hours. Chickens begin laying eggs between 18-22 weeks of age and their egg production will decrease with each year. Chickens can lay up to 600 eggs throughout their lives. 3) Ovulation occurs every 24-26 hours and it takes 26 hours for an egg to fully form. So if you do the math you will quickly realize that one chicken can only lay one egg every 26 hours. 

We have hens that began molting a few months ago. They look awful. But it's normal. We still get eggs every day. The amount has dropped off steeply. For example, in November our chickens laid 502 eggs and in January they laid 249. That's a pretty big drop in egg production but we expected it due to the decreased daylight hours and molting. 

So now I hear that it's the chicken feed causing the issue. The solution from many people crying wolf is to change your chicken feed and see if you get more eggs. That's disingenuous at best and blatantly meant to mislead at worst. Why do I say that? Have you noticed the daylight hours getting longer? If you have chickens I'm sure you have noticed. If I were to change my feed right now and my egg production went up it would not prove or disprove that the feed made the difference because I cannot take away the increased daylight hours. 

There's a website that proclaimed recently that they had proof that Producer's Pride chicken feed had two times as much glyphosate as the other feeds they tested. That's bad news, folks, and as usual, people began to panic without thinking. First, it's just something that has been said thus far. No further information has come out about the numbers. Second, if you think about the statement it means that other chicken feed tested had glyphosate. Why aren't people worried about other feeds? That's easy...there's a conspiracy theory in place and it's easily digestible by most people.

So what's the conspiracy theory? It is being said that Land O' Lakes, Purina, and Tractor Supply all got together and decided to force hens to stop laying eggs. A big part of this conspiracy theory involves the dreaded Black Rock. (If you don't know about them you should look into it. Make up your own mind but personally, I think they are bad for the economy.) They've drawn all of the lines for us and now it's time to panic, right? No. Now is the time to ask a lot of questions and do some research.

YouTube is flush with alternate news sources and homesteading-type channels. That's great! I appreciate the first amendment and feel that everyone should be allowed to speak out. It gives different perspectives and allows for interesting conversations. Regarding chicken feed, the mainstream news and alternate sources are saying the same thing. Why? What is there to gain? I'll let you know when I figure it out. What I can tell you is that for some reason there is a concerted effort to stop people from using Dumor and Producer's Pride chicken feed. 

I will continue to watch this story as it progresses and come back with relevant updates. For now, we will continue to use Dumor for our chicks and Producer's Pride for our layers. Check out the attached chart to see our egg production from last summer to the end of January. And spoiler alert: this afternoon I'll share with you a piece of information no one is discussing via our YouTube channel. I'll list the link in the comments. 

Don't get caught up in the hype, Chics! See you next time.