putting pepper in chickens feed or water?

[red reaper]

Had a mennonite tell me yesterday that he remembered his folks using pepper, maybe hot pepper in the chickens water or feed to increase or stimulate egg laying in hens that had quit laying. Has anyone heard of this? he thought it had something to do with the chicken tending to drink more water when it ate feed with pepper in it.

 

[crtrlovr]

There was an interesting post on here one time that referred to "burning the molt". I think it was done in the spring, and suggested putting a can of red pepper into a 5 gal. bucket of corn, cover with water, let sit overnight, then drain water out and feed the corn to the chickens. I've never done it, and don't know anyone who has, but the OP swore by it. You might look that up.

ETA -- BTW, the religious sect is "Mennonite" (at the risk of sounding facetious, it's spelled like the Deodorant!)

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I have no idea about how it would affect egg production, but FYI birds can't taste the "heat" of hot peppers, so I kind of doubt that it would make them drink more water. It may improve their blood circulation and thereby stimulate egg production, but my guess is that it wouldn't have a profound effect.

 

[red reaper]

Got that spelling fixed!

He said he remembered it working real well, said they went to town laying after they did the pepper trick,but couldnt remember exactly what or how they did it. Said they did it when he was a child at home. That is interesting that a chicken cant feel heat from food.

 

[tmb3fan]

I actually just read this last night in one of the Foxfire books (3).

Here is the quote exactly as written in the book: "In the sping after the warm weather started, my mother would grind up red pepper and feed'em - that'd make their comb turn just as red, and they'd go t'laying. "


I wonder if this will work on 20 week olds who aren't laying yet? I sure wish they would hurry up!


Teri

 

[hinkjc]

My understanding of this is the red pepper flakes help control the worm load, which aids in production. When worms are causing issues with the birds, production decreases. This helps alleviate that.

Jody

 

[newnanchic]

This is TRUE !!!!!! We had the same problem and my PawPaw who is 79 told me to buy cayenne pepper (you can get it at wal-mart on the spice aisle 2/1.00) and to mix 2 bottles of the ground pepper with 1 pound of cornmeal and put it out for them to eat . Then 2 weeks later do it again. And it does work. It is true the hens cannot taste the pepper it is supposed to heat their insides up. And it worked for us !!!!!!!

 

[ginasmarans]

I just sprinkle crushed red pepper on top of the feed. They love it and usually egg production does increase.

 

[Chookmitten]

I have added cayenne to my feed since I put my chickens out of my house and into theirs. I do it to keep the squirrels out of the feed.

Instead of gorging for several minutes, they take a couple of bites, their tails twitch, and they rocket back up the tree. It's too expensive to feed chickens and squirrels.

 

[rockislandgirl]

Will red pepper flakes hurt baby chickens? Or is it just meant for adult chickens?