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Thread: Question for the egg experts

  1. #11
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    You can substitute other sources of protein, and you can still produce eggs; but not at the same levels as what you produce using soy. Per week you will produce less eggs because without the soy you would be lacking the estrogen.

  2. #12
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    I'm really curious - are your chickens producing more than 1 egg per hen per 24-hour period?

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatlady View Post
    I'm really curious - are your chickens producing more than 1 egg per hen per 24-hour period?
    No.

    From what I have read hens can be 'pushed' up to 6 egg/week and that is about the limit.

    With sufficient protein 3 to 4 eggs/week each.

    Add soy and you get 6 eggs/week; but the stress of constant laying shortens their lifespan on the back end.

    Companies like Purina have done a lot of studies on this topic, showing the benefit of including soy in layer-feed. [of course it does not hurt that soy is a subsidized crop, so it can be purchased for less than what is costs to produce.]

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatlady View Post
    Ah, gotcha - but soy contains the estrogen hormone Precursor which in a mammal body IS converted to estrogen, but not in avian or reptile bodies. I personally have NO soy products on my homestead, never have, never will. especially since now days almost ALL soy is GM soy and the extra protein is not worth purchasing organic soy meal. My layers get cracked corn only in their feeder in the coop and they free range from dawn to dusk and produce a egg every 24 hours per hen at their present age of 5 years! They do range in the goat barn and scarff up dropped alfalfa from the goat feeders plus turning the compost pile for me cleaning up any insects and/or seeds in the compost plus they range all over the pasture and woods. They only need 17% protein to maintain good egg production. Plus in a pinch I can grow the corn necessary to keep them producing.
    Goatlady, corn is THE most genetically modified food crop in the United States! Where do you get your corn?
    IF you are willing & obedient , you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse & rebel, You shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20

  5. #15
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    There are only 2 registered GM corn varieties and those are only sold to the large Ag business farms. I purchase my corn and other grains at a local grange mill who buys locally produced grains and processes and bags on site here in my town. When I lived in SD I specifically asked the feed sellers there who hauled in bags of feed from out of town about GM corn and I was standing in the office when they called the mill and inquired. The smaller feed mill do not and basically cannot mill and bag both GM and non-GM grains because Fed. regulations are very stringent about having totally separate storage bins, totally separate grinding mills, totally separate bagging areas as GM grain MUST be kept totally separated from non-GM grains and most all small independent mills cannot afford to have 2 entire mills set up plus all the FEd inspections required for processing GM grains. I remember one GM type name was Star* but cannot remember the other. Those 2 varieties constitute 100% of the GM corn grown which IS used for the human food industry more than for livestock feed though some IS livestock feed.

  6. #16
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    85% of corn grown in USA is GMO.

    "Attribute" is the dominate brand name for GMO Bt sweet corn in the USA.

    "StarLink" is GMO Bt corn licensed for animal feed in the USA.

    "Cry3Bb1" was developed to carry a delta endotoxin which protects the plant from corn rootworm. It is licensed but no longer being used.

    "MON 863" [a variation of "Cry3Bb1"] carries a delta endotoxin which protects the plant from corn rootworm. And is approved for use in Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

    "MON 810" [also called YieldGard] is poisonous to insects in the order Lepidoptera, such as the European Corn Borer. It is approved for use in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and Uruguay.

  7. #17
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    With 500 birds per acre, your not going to get anything more nutricious than what they sell in the grocery store. Especially since corn isn't really that healthy. It's all calories and no vitamins. (Or not many.)

    I don't feed soy to my birds, mostly because of the cost. I'd rather cobble together a mix of grain screeings (wheat, peas), farm produce, clover from the pasture, and all the goodies that they find in the cow pies. I still get plenty of eggs, especially when the pasture is growing. Of course mine have acres to roam over, and I don't have 500.

    There are actually some farmers who have to 'drag' their pasture to break up the cow pies so that they decompose better. I simply feed a little wheat a couple of time a year to the cows. Their stomachs can't deal with whole wheat well, so there are lots of 1/2 eaten and 1/2 digested bits of wheat left in their cowpies. Chickens go nuts over things like that.

  8. #18
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    Thanks, I knew it was named "Star" something. Interesting that all the GM corn varieties have been modified with the Bt genetic which specifically targets plant eating worms. Bt is a bacteria that kills plant eating worms and interestingly enough, I'm pretty sure it is approved as a spray for use on certified organic farms. Will have to double check on that. I use it at least once a growing season on my brassicas to deter those cabbage worms. It works overnight and disapates in the first rain or overhead watering of the plants.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatlady View Post
    Thanks, I knew it was named "Star" something. Interesting that all the GM corn varieties have been modified with the Bt genetic which specifically targets plant eating worms. Bt is a bacteria that kills plant eating worms and interestingly enough, I'm pretty sure it is approved as a spray for use on certified organic farms. Will have to double check on that. I use it at least once a growing season on my brassicas to deter those cabbage worms. It works overnight and disapates in the first rain or overhead watering of the plants.
    I think there was one strain of Bt that was allowed for organical use to control caterpillars, but the caterpillars quickly developed resistance to that strain.

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