Online claims have emerged, corroborated by others, that the popular “Producer’s Pride” chicken feed sold by the Tractor Supply chain has been recently altered and that its new formulation is causing chickens to stop laying eggs. Some suggest a deliberate reduction in the amount of protein in the feed may be causing the reduction in egg production.
Hens do lay fewer eggs in the winter time due to reduced sunlight. Farmers have often used a light to expose hens to longer light so as to produce more egg-laying. Yet farmer sources report that they are seeing a much-greater-than-normal reduction in egg production, to the point where many report that hens are laying zero eggs instead of merely a reduced laying frequency. There is no word on whether this is a temporary or a permanent change among Tractor Supply feed.
This news comes as chicken and egg prices reach historic highs, caused in part by Avian Flu, but also as rampant inflation under the Biden regime causing prices to erratically jump among suppliers and subsequently among common consumer products. Egg prices have gone from $1.71 per dozen 18 months ago to an average over $7 per dozen today.
Not all hen layer feeds seem to be affected. In a quote to the Gateway Pundit, spokeswoman for Nature’s Best Organic Feeds Courtney Price said, “there have been absolutely no changes to our premium feed formulas” and that they have not heard any customer criticisms or complaints about their non-GMO chicken feed products. Price continued, “We pride ourselves here at Kreamer Feed on premium nutrition for animals nationwide, and all of the products in our organic, non-GMO brand Nature’s Best Organic Feeds line is no exception.”
The U.S. poultry feed market is $5 billion per year. Two of the most popular chicken feeds available for, and marketed to, backyard chicken homesteaders are “Producer’s Pride” owned by the Tractor Supply corporation and the “Dumor” brand owned by Purina.
These two layer feeds seem to be the primary brands mentioned by those experiencing chicken flocks who suddenly stop laying eggs.
Recent reports of chickens not laying comes in the wake of ongoing public concerns that the World Economic Forum is artificially causing food scarcity. The WEF has been widely criticized for repeatedly encouraging citizens to eat bugs in lieu of animal protein.
Tractor Supply’s CEO is Hal Lawton, based in Nashville, Tennessee. Tractor Supply is a publicly-listed company with $13 billion in annual revenue, 46,000 employees, and 2,003 locations in 49 U.S. states. Tractor Supply is specifically marketed to more rural Americans, where their company tagline is “for life out here.”
Tractor Supply has a board of directors composed of 10 individuals. One of them, Joy Brown, is a former executive for Vanguard, an index fund with $5 trillion under management. The three big index funds, Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street, substantially financially support the World Economic Forum for the western world, and sources say also for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for the eastern world.
These various funds are also behind the “social credit” and “ESG” left-wing movements among corporate America to force businesses into left-wing economic and cultural compliance. Another current Tractor Supply board member, Thomas Kingsbury, bragged about implementing ESG initiatives while an executive at Kohl’s.
Another Tractor Supply board member Andre Hawaux is a former executive with ConAgra, which has been criticized for using genetically modified organisms to change the genetic composition of its foods which dissident voices say causes sterility.
One Wyoming farmer described ConAgra to the Gateway Pundit as ‘a bunch of crooks’ that make seeds for farmers that eventually go sterile, and also make the soil sterile. Part of their motivation, he says, is to use gene splicing which is, he says, “bad for both plants and humans.” ConAgra and other companies were widely criticized 20 years ago for developing sterile seeds on purpose, which critics labelled ‘suicide seeds’ or ‘terminator seeds’, that would stop seeds from reproducing so as to force farmers to continually buy seeds only from licensed distributors rather than growing their own replacements.
Most shocking is that another board member, Mark Weikel, was the President of Victoria’s Secret from 2003-2007. Victoria’s Secret is owned by Leslie Wexner. During this period of time from 2003-2007, as reported by the New York Times, Jeffrey Epstein had a power-of-attorney document that allowed him to hire, manage, and fire all of Wexner’s employees and manage all of his finances and entities. The Gateway Pundit asked Mark Weikel point blank whether he reported directly to Jeffrey Epstein and he did not reply or deny as of publication time.
We reached out to Tractor Supply’s corporate media offices and they did not respond. We reached out to the Food and Drug Administration’s designated media contact Janet Goodwin and they also did not respond. We reached out to Mark Weikel on the board of Tractor Supply and he also did not respond.