The rising egg prices in America have affected millions of homes. The cost of eggs in California has risen 550% in the last month, going from roughly $1.34 a dozen to $7.37. The state blamed it on an outbreak of bird flu, but others are not so convinced. In fact, several people have come out to say that their chickens did not produce eggs for months - until they changed their feed.
One man (@urbanchickenfarmer) uploaded a video on TikTok and theorized that something must be wrong with the feed. "Something is wrong with the chicken food we're buying, seriously," he said. "My chickens have not laid an egg since July, and nothing's changed. Then I was thinking, maybe it's because my chickens getting older, or maybe it's a bad winter. But, according to a lot of people on TikTok, they're having the same exact problem. And people are saying once they switched the food, their chickens are starting to lay again."
He continued, "So I'm gonna switch their food, and we'll see. Maybe something's wrong with the food, and was it intentional?"
The TikToker recently uploaded an update after switching his feed, explaining that one of his chickens has started "laying like crazy," but the rest of them haven't yet. However, he believes that they're doing okay and "things are improving."
@thehotmesshomestead was going through the same problem, and she was determined to find answers. "Is the commercial feed the reason so many people's chickens have not been laying at all?" she asked. "This is a question that I am asking myself, and I have seen all over TikTok, Facebook, everywhere." She then talks about the many posts on social media of chicken owners discussing how they ditched the commercial feed (specifically the brand known as "Producer's Pride") in order to get eggs.
@twosailorspotrero responded to the video above on January 14. "So, my chickens have not laid since, I wanna say, July 22. And I just switched their feed a week ago, and for the first time since July last year, I got eggs. It is the feed. It is definitely the feed," she repeated.
A woman from the Twitter clip below seemed to echo these findings by explaining how she got eggs after making the switch to goat feed. "I have to say, there's something to this," she said. "If I have to put my little tin foil hat on. It's kinda weird."
The government is telling us that the egg shortage is due to avian influenza - is it possible it's the chicken feed instead?
Reader Comments
i just purchased three 40 kg of layer feed for the ducks, emptied two bags into storage bins and good grief ! the powder !!
there is usually a small amount of dust ( powder ) from the processing mill, maybe 1/4 cup in a 5 gallon bucket give or take, but not more than a cup !
am going back to the feed store - the bags were dated 28 jan so it's possible the mill processed / bagged grower before pouring layer bags and the hopper just happened to collect a shit ton of dust but i haven't seen that much dust before; i'll give them the benefit of the doubt as it's a local mill using local feed.
will let you know, cheers !
Many consumers are trying to contact independent suppliers to obtain a cheaper product. One wonders, how long they will be able to maintain there business, if the government in BC decides, there flocks will have to be culled because, of the mysterious "Avian Flu". That so magically appears.
It's murder !