Imagine My Surprise

We have a small flock of Golden Comets and another of Black Australorps. We also added 4 each female and one male Khaki Campbell and Rouen ducks and a pair of African Geese late last spring. We basically use Dumor feeds and scratch grain from Tractor Supply as we are too small to have feed delivered in and have no place to store it and have not found a good alternative source in our area.
I have seen multiple posts on this subject and read several articles posted. Our experience is that there is no validity to the claim. Did we see a drop of egg production as winter came on? Of course but we do every winter with less light and cold temperatures it always happens. Our coops and pens do not have electricity so no artificial light or heat. The drop in production was not out of the norm. We still managed to keep 5 other families as well as ourselves supplied with eggs as usual without an issue.
The ducks became old enough to start to lay in late December and we are getting a half dozen duck eggs quite regularly. The goose occasionally lays an egg but it is normal for them to not lay regularly until the spring when they first start laying. I would recommend Khaki Campbell ducks if you are interested in ducks which are a smaller breed but are prolific egg layers. My wife prefers them for baking as well,for making quiches.
We do not range the chickens any longer as the coyotes in this area have become very bold. A neighbor 2 miles back down the road had guinea hens taken in broad daylight from their yard while they were out on the side deck. The ducks and geese could have access to our pond but when left with the door open to their pen they are content to remain inside.
We do supplement the chickens with scraps meat and other foods suitable to them from the house. They all get greens year round from excess in season from the gardens and during the winter what I can get at no charge from a local market.
Are Purina and other companies messing with the feed they produce? Quite possible, but we definitely have not seen a drop in egg production out of the seasonal norm. In fact we are now looking for a second family to take eggs. We do not charge for our eggs and pick our customers carefully so we can barter for apples, honey, berries, firewood or labor and the like.We are looking at adding 6-10 more pullets if we can get them or will raise chicks. The closet Hatchery, Shooks, seems to have closed as their website and phone no longer are in service. Most likely from a combination of Covid and the Avian bird flu scare. .Of course YMMV…

Do we know what the ingredient it was that made the chickens not lay so we can avoid that ingredient on other feed?