The old farmer at the swap meet in Snohomish told me my hens were fat and lazy and he was right

Daniel Adams · 2026-10-14T01:40:06.70357+00:00

I drove out to the swap meet in Snohomish two months back looking for a used waterer and ended up talking to an old guy named Harold who had a folding table of nothing but barred rock pullets. He asked how many hens I kept. I said six. Then he asked what I fed them and I said the layer crumble from the feed store, free choice, all day. He just laughed and said my birds were fat and lazy and probably laying soft shells by now. I got defensive about it in my head but then I went home and counted. Four of my six were barely laying, one had a soft shell two days in a row, and they mostly sat under the coop all afternoon instead of scratching. Harold said he feeds his flock twice a day in measured scoops and lets them work for the rest, and he moves his feeder to a different spot in the run each morning so they have to search for it. I tried it for three weeks. Egg count went from 14 a week to 22, and the soft shell stopped completely once I put out a dish of crushed oyster shell next to the feeder. So now I'm wondering if I have been overfeeding my birds this whole time without knowing it. How much are you all feeding per hen, and do you measure it or just top off the feeder?

Discusd

Loading…

The old farmer at the swap meet in Snohomish told me my hens were fat and lazy and he was right | Backyard Chickens - Discusd