Did you know that egg quality and quantity are linked to nutrition? Our innovation and technology lead for Nutrena®, Mark Eggers, has completed some research and the results are impressive. If you’re in it for the eggs you won’t want to miss this video.
Advanced Chick Nutrition: The Secret to Great Laying Hens
by Jennifer Murtoff, Home to Roost LLC
You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” Nutrition matters when it comes to human, kids and adults alike. Quality food is important for our growth and health. The same goes for chickens. Your birds put a lot of energy into creating tasty, nutritious eggs for you, and their food affects egg quality, size, and nutrients. Similar to human children, the right nutrition for baby chicks helps set a solid foundation for your adult laying hens.
Chick Feed with Advanced Nutrition Yields More Productive Hens
What’s in a chick feed, and how does that feed’s quality affect your adult birds? There are a lot of chick feeds out there at different price points, but they are not created equal. A lower-cost feed might seem to be a better value, but your chickens will ultimately be healthier if they start life on a nutritionally advanced chick diet. Not only will they thrive as chicks, but as adults they will lay higher-quality eggs in a shorter span of time. In short, chick feed with exceptional nutrition will cost less when you look at the end result: healthier birds and better eggs.
At Nutrena we believe what’s inside counts: quality ingredients mean healthier, happier birds. We formulated our NatureWise® line of feeds with the best ingredients in balanced proportions.
Our customers from across the United States provided rave reviews of our NatureWise® Poultry Feeds with FlockShield™:
My flock loves it! My chicks just started laying, and their eggs speak for themselves!
—Temecula, CA
Two weeks ago I started my new chicks on this feed and have noticed how happy, healthy, and perky they are. No instances of sick chicks or poopy butts. So thankful!
—Madison, WI
I recently switched to feeding exclusively Nutrena to my whole flock, including this chick starter. I’ve noticed my chicks are much more active, almost never have pasty butts, and are looking so good this year!
—Montello, WI
We switched over to this feed about a month ago. We are now huge fans of Nutrena. I have seen a tremendous difference in egg production and overall health in my chickens. My ladies run to the feeder every time! Of course, I can’t forget, their plumage looks amazing! If you have been on the fence, try this feed out. You will not be disappointed.
Here is a 2.5-week comparison:
—Greenville, SC
I started feeding my girls this 2 weeks ago, and their egg production has been amazing. I was getting only 3 to 4 eggs a day from my 8 girls, and now I’m getting 8 eggs a day. A few even have had double yolks. They have had nice, hard shells and weight to them as well.
— Northern WI
Since switching to Nutrena NatureWise® feed, our girls haven’t had any more problems with soft-shelled or shell-less eggs. My girls love the soy-free Hearty Hen. I appreciate the soy-free option as I have a soy food sensitivity. I’ve also noticed that the yolks are stronger and darker as well. We love golden yolks here.
—No location given
See more customer reviews here.
The Scientific Proof
But how do we know pullets started on chick starters with advanced nutrition experience higher egg production? We put our feed to the test using a scientific experiment.
We observed 84 Speckled Sussex pullet chicks from the same hatchery. The birds had been started under identical conditions on two brands of feed at our Cargill Innovation Campus in Elk River, Minnesota. We divided the 84 birds into two groups of 42 birds each. Group 1 had been fed NatureWise® Chick Starter Grower, and Group 2 had been started on a leading national brand of chick starter/grower.
When the birds were 18 weeks old, they were transported to a farm in Wisconsin for an in-field trial. The birds were placed in identical controlled environments (housing, lighting, and amounts of food and water). At the farm, all of the hens were fed NatureWise® 16% Layer feed. Once they started laying, we observed them for 14 weeks.
Eggs Laid Between 1 and 14 Weeks
Birds from both Groups 1 and 2 started to lay six weeks after arrival at the facility, at 24 weeks of age, which is typical for Speckled Sussex. Then the remarkable results came in. Over the next 14 weeks, the 42 birds that had been started on NatureWise® Chick Starter Grower laid more than twice as many eggs as the birds fed the national competitor, 499 to 205!
On average, the NatureWise® hens produced 34.3 eggs per week compared to 11.6 eggs per week for the national competitor, and the eggs laid by the NatureWise® hens were larger and had stronger shells. In addition, fewer birds died in the NatureWise® group. The farm’s owners also noted the birds in Group 1 laid more eggs and were heavier than those in Group 2. We think you will notice the difference, too!
What’s the Difference?
Why is NatureWise® such a good choice? What’s inside counts, in both the quantity and quality of the ingredients. First, let’s look at typical ingredients that are found in most chick starter/grower feeds.
- Proteins and amino acids help build body tissues. They also assist with metabolic function, conduct specific biological reactions, build hormones, and coordinate functions of different cells within the body.
- Carbohydrates power cellular activity. They are the body’s preferred source of energy. They make up the largest percentage of a chicken’s diet and come mostly from grains.
- Vitamins and minerals perform many functions in the body: they encourage healthy growth, create strong bones, and form blood cells. They also support energy use and muscle function.
The quantity of the ingredients affects the health and growth of your chicks. For example, too much calcium can damage your chicks’ kidneys, and too little protein can cause them to process feed inefficiently.
Feed quality is also important: the quality of the all the ingredients—the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and carbohydrates—matters. NatureWise®’s high-quality ingredients make a difference!
Finally, the kind of ingredients is key. Some premium feeds contain extra ingredients that provide supportive nutrition for your birds, such as pre- and probiotics, yeast culture, and essential oils. These extra ingredients boost the immune system, support healthy growth, promote optimal digestion, and cut down on odor in droppings. Our NatureWise® products contain a proprietary blend of these additional ingredients called FlockShield™.
Our team at Nutrena has worked hard to create a chick starter/grower feed that improves the health and well-being of poultry, and the results from our study demonstrate in scientific terms how these efforts have paid off in the overall health, vitality, and productivity of the birds.
In addition, better performance equals better value, and you can calculate the savings! Over the 18 weeks of the initial chick study, NatureWise® Starter Grower provided better results than the national premium competitor and cost $1.35 per bird less to feed the chicks over the 18-week period.
Now you can give your birds an exceptional start for less money, providing them with an affordable diet that will support them from chick to adult. They will live their best lives and produce an abundance of the eggs you love!
How a Hen Makes an Egg
The laying cycle is an important part of a hen’s life. An egg, or ovum, starts in the ovary, high in the bird’s body, near the spine. The ovary looks like a cluster of grapes, with some ova larger than others. As the ova mature, they are released into the reproductive tract or oviduct. If there is a rooster in your flock, the egg will be fertilized soon after entering the oviduct. The various structures are added to the egg by the oviduct: egg white, chalazae (“twisters”), and membranes. The final step is the secretion of a calcium coating in the shell gland. Then the fully formed egg passes from the body. The whole process takes about 25 hours. Most hens begin laying at between 16 and 24 weeks of age. Their peak productivity is between 1½ and 2 years of age. While they continue laying throughout their lives, their output decreases by about 10 percent per year after they turn 2 years old.
Eggscellent Layers!
You love getting tasty eggs from your hens, so how can you keep them healthy, happy, and laying? There are a number of factors that can influence how many eggs a hen lays in her lifetime.
Breed
The breed you choose is related to the number of eggs you can expect per bird. Certain breeds or hybrid strains can produce large numbers of eggs.
- Heritage, dual-purpose breeds, including Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, Australorps, and Wyandottes, are bred for both meat and eggs. They produce a good number of eggs over their lifetimes.
- Hybrids offer high-powered laying ability because they are crosses between two pure breeds that are good layers. They include ISA Browns, Red Stars, Gold Stars, and Amberlinks.
- Henderson’s Breed Chart online provides more information on chicken breeds and their laying abilities.
Diet
Did you know that egg quality is closely linked to diet? Many people assume that brown eggs are healthier than white eggs, but shell color makes no difference in the quality of the egg. Your birds’ diet influences the content of their eggs.
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Free ranging helps your birds produce eggs with better nutritional content, including higher levels of vitamins A, D, and E; omega-3 fatty acids; and deep orange-yellow yolks from beta carotene. They also get activity while looking for bugs, worms, and other tasty goodies!
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A good commercial diet should provide a large majority of what your birds eat. A good layer ration should support egg-laying and supply essential nutrients that are not easy to find in nature. These nutrients include carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins, as well as amino acids.
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Extra ingredients that benefit your hens include enzymes, probiotics, essential oils, and yeast culture. These additives help keep your birds’ digestive tracts healthy, support healthy growth, and benefit the immune system. You can find these ingredients in our Nutrena Naturewise feeds.
Water
Eggs are 75 percent water, so having a clean, fresh source available to your birds at all times will help keep them happy, healthy, and laying.
- Clean waterers to prevent disease. This is a necessity, especially in summer, to prevent the growth of toxic blue-green algae and other harmful microorganisms.
- Prevent freezing in winter. Cold weather and shorter days provide enough of a challenge for your ladies.
Stressors
Your birds should have a stress-free environment to lay their best! Stress can cause hens to stop laying until the source is removed.
- Know their stressors. Some common stressors include extreme temperatures, a move to a new coop, change in feed, the presence of predators, new flock members, or construction projects.
- Stick to a routine! Any changes are stressors. Chickens like daily routines, which are dictated by the time of day. It’s best to let them out at dawn and close them in at dusk.
- Make changes gradually, like switching to a new diet or moving your birds to a new coop.
Give your birds their best lives so they give you great eggs – and make NatureWise layer feeds part of your flock’s diet!
What to expect when chickens begin to lay
New to chickens and wondering what to expect when your hens start to lay? Twain Lockhart, Nutrena Poultry Expert, lays it out in this short video.
NatureWise Feeds with Vitamin D for Healthy, Strong-Shelled Eggs
By Jennifer Murtoff, Home to Roost LLC
At Cargill we’re working hard to help your hens live their best lives—and lay great eggs! Our NatureWise feeds now contain more Vitamin D3. What is this vitamin, and why is it important for your birds—and you?
What is Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble nutrient that helps the body absorb calcium. It also aids in muscle movement, strengthens the immune system, and improves nerve function. The two main forms of Vitamin D are
- Vitamin D2, which comes mainly from plant sources, and
- Vitamin D3, which is produced by animals (including humans) in response to sunlight.
Although the liver can convert both of these into forms that the body can use, it processes Vitamin D3 more easily. That’s why we’ve chosen Vitamin D3 for our NatureWise feeds.
Human adults should get 800 IUs (20 micrograms) of Vitamin D per day, which is the same amount found in 1 Tbsp of cod liver oil or 3 ounces of farmed trout. Other natural sources of this important vitamin include salmon, red meat, liver, canned tuna, and egg yolks. Because egg yolks are a source of Vitamin D, let’s look at how this vitamin affects your chickens.
How Your Hens Use Calcium and Vitamin D
Just like humans, hens need Vitamin D, too, and their bodies use it in similar ways. In a chicken’s body, Vitamin D does the following:
- Aids absorption and metabolism of calcium
- Improves quality of bones and eggshell
- Helps calcium move quickly through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream
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Decreases early embryo death by up to 30%
The blood carries calcium to the shell gland, which secretes the calcium onto the outer membrane of an egg to create the shell. The blood also transports calcium to the rest of the body, where it contributes to bone health and helps power the muscles, including those that expel eggs.
Appropriate levels of Vitamin D can improve the hardness of eggshells, resulting in less breakage and a longer shelf life for your eggs. In addition, your older hens can benefit from Vitamin D. As hens age, they lay eggs with thinner shells. A little boost from Vitamin D can result in thicker, more healthy shells.
Chickens and Vitamin D Deficiency
So what happens if hens don’t get enough Vitamin D in their diet? A deficiency in this nutrient can reduce calcium absorption, which results in the following:
- Brittle bones: Hens without enough calcium pull the mineral from their bones, reducing bone strength.
- Thin-shelled eggs: A Vitamin D deficiency can result in less calcium in the eggshells.
- Higher feed consumption: Lower levels of calcium in feed lead hens to eat more, resulting in higher feed costs overall.
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Mineral-deficient embryos: Hens fed a low Vitamin D3 diet produce embryos with low levels of calcium and phosphate.
Because of the close link between Vitamin D and calcium, your birds’ diet should include healthy levels of both of these nutrients.
Find Vitamin D on a Feed Label
You can easily compare the levels of Vitamin D in different feeds. Commercial layer feeds have a Guaranteed Analysis, like the one pictured below, on the back of the bag. Locate the amount of Vitamin D and compare NatureWise to other brands. You’ll find that the NatureWise has 2500 IUs of Vitamin D3 per pound.
Get More Vitamin D! Feed Your Hens NatureWise Feeds
If you’re feeding your hens our NatureWise line, eating their eggs can increase your own levels of Vitamin D. In a recent study conducted by Cargill, eggs from hens fed the improved NatureWise 16% Layer feed contained 37% more Vitamin D than hens fed the standard layer feed as a control.
If you are a backyard poultry owner who values healthy eggs with optimal Vitamin D levels and strong shells, the NatureWise layer feeds are the best choice for your chickens. Learn more about our feeds with added vitamin D3 at the following links:
What to expect when your chickens begin to lay?
New to chickens and wondering what to expect when your hens start to lay? Twain Lockhart, Nutrena Poultry Expert, lays it out in this short video on what to expect when your hens begin to lay.