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A friend of mine has a large flock, well to me it is large at like 20 layers and a few roosters, and has offered me advice throughout out journey with out three ladies. She mentioned that she puts oyster shells into the pen with her chickens and that they nibble on those to get good calcium to make their shells stronger. Made sense to me, but we move our hens around the yard in their pen/coop, and I don't want to have to pick up oyster shells (not to mention look at them) all the time.
My question is this, do the ladies need the extra calcium if they are eating a balanced diet of layer food and also foraging in the yard, and if so can I just crush up their own egg shells after we use them and put them in with their cracked corn?
Thanks in advance.
My question is this, do the ladies need the extra calcium if they are eating a balanced diet of layer food and also foraging in the yard, and if so can I just crush up their own egg shells after we use them and put them in with their cracked corn?
Thanks in advance.
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Re: egg shell calcium
Tue, January 1, 2008 - 7:23 AMare your eggs hard or fragile?
if they break to easily i would mix crushed shell with the mash
if they have good strong eggs, then no it isn't necessary. they are getting grit if the are ranged
i have never heard of giving them their shells--i keep mine in h20 for my plants -
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Re: egg shell calcium
Tue, January 1, 2008 - 11:33 AMmy mind is rambling with thoughts so bare with me
I buy the oyster shell from the feed store, doesn't look like shell, so I don't think it would be a big deal if you had it around your yard in the soil.
-I mix the shell into their feed, they will pick it out if they want it, otherwise, if its in a separate container it gets too hard and they ignore the ball of rock/shell
-it really helps when you have that one layer that drops an egg anywhere, the others won't be able to break the shell, and you can get the egg while not having your chickens go "looking" for eggs.
-most of the year they don't want the shell, right at the beginning of winter is when I see mine want it the most -
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Re: egg shell calcium
Tue, January 1, 2008 - 11:34 AMOh and I have around 50-60 hens and three roosters.
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Re: egg shell calcium
Tue, January 1, 2008 - 3:00 PMPart of what makes "lay mix" pellets lay mix is that they are formulated to include the extra calcium, all ground up and extruded so that the hens can't help but get the appropriate (highly-formulated) mix that keeps an average chicken healthy while laying under average conditions. Since my own girls are so clearly above-average I also make red-granite grit and oyster-shell calcium available in two "mason jar" feeders. Placing them in a semi-protected spot, I can then pretty much ignore them until they need to be refilled every four-to-six months. If the stuff gets scattered around, I've never noticed, and fifty-pound sacks of both cost me less than $20 three years ago.
If you like I can drop by a few containers of the stuff. If it is in a bowl near their lay pellets, I assume that hens can be trusted to eat whatever it is they think they need.
If your shells seem healthy they obviously don't need it, but having it available is simple enough and hurts nothing.
