Can adult chickens eat chick food?

[ChantelleLyn]

Thank you for the link and explanation, ChickenCanoe.

Confusingly, the bag I have is labeled as "shell grit". The ingredient list isn't any more useful either. It says "ingredients: shell grit". LOL. It looks like it is made of ground up shells of some sort- maybe it is oyster shell.

I think I'll try a different feed store. There are a few agricultural shops around here and I'm sure one of them will have what I'm looking for.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Because the shell is so hard, I imagine there are lots of people that think it will work for grit but by the time it goes through the crop and proventriculus it is already starting to dissolve.

Think of the 2 as soluble and insoluble.
Here's a UK site that uses the term oyster shell grit but they explain them pretty well.
http://poultrykeeper.com/keeping-chickens-faq/why-do-chickens-need-grit-oystershell

I just don't use the 2 terms together because I believe it confuses people.

from the Univ of Cal
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/feedingchickens.pdf

 

[hedz82]

Hi guys,
I am in South Africa and fairly new to chickens. I have 3hens and one baby cockerel, they are pets, really. They range around the 2acre garden, dust bathe, destroy my veggie patch regularly, etc. They have free access to layer pellets and they always get a bowl of treats for breakfast with 1-2 tbsp of cottage or feta cheese, some fruit they like, and some special fancy grain/weed seed for shiny feathers that I found in a pet supply store with added vitamins, mineral and calcium powder. I gather they now won't need extra grit and oyster shell, cause they find rocks and sand outside and should have plenty of calcium by now, right?

Does anyone know RECEIPES for homemade organic food for adult chickens I can feed my pet rooster??

I want to get him caponized (by a vet, and with anaestesia) so he doesn't turn into a menace and fertilize my eggs, but I dont want him to get fat on the laying pellets and his legs to suffer, either. We only have one brand of pellets here in South Africa and it doesn't even say the ingredients. Very suspicious. I suspect its just full of GMO corn, soy,and animal offcuts.

And whats the proper ratios of carbs, protein and fat, as well as which grains to use? Can I use any grains, such as millet, spelt, quinoa, etc?
I do get dried mealworms which I could add as animal protein instead of fishmeal and things like that.
It will be rather pricey, but as I said its just for the 4 of them, and I feed my dogs Acana, so its only fair my chooks get the best, too!

Again, I am fairly new to this so please direct me to the right place if I am in the wrong thread!

A note on the medicated chick feed:
I am a microbiologist, and trust me, you do NOT want to have antibiotics in your chickens or your eggs at any other time than absolutely necessary! Not because it could be harmful or poisonous (it isnt), but because you are breeding multiresistant pathogens. Antibiotic overuse is one of the main causes for why we have bugs that don't respond to any medication and people get septicemias from littel cuts and things. If everyone kept feeding sulfa drugs to all their chickens at all times, sulfa drugs would soon become absolutely useless to do the job they were originally designed to do, because all the bacteria would have had enough exposure and time to evolve resistance to it.

 

[TallChickMagnet]

I say just mix a little chick feed in with their lay mash until it's all gone. That way you won't waist anything...like money..

 

[stevetone]

My understanding is that large-particle oyster shell dissolves very slowly in the gizzard. That is why it is used by commercial operations, as it is dissolved overnight, during a time when the hens are not feeding. This causes overall calcium load to rise.

Here's a link to a source that describes this (link supplied by BYC member Chris07):

http://www.zootecnicainternational....aying-hens-.html?tmpl=component&print=1&page=

So there are differing opinions on oyster shell...

(me, I was wondering where a chicken would naturally encounter an oyster "in the wild," and eat it's shell...)

 

[Fred's Hens]

(me, I was wondering where a chicken would naturally encounter an oyster "in the wild," and eat it's shell...)

My thoughts exactly. Good one.

Of course, there are many sources of calcium in various foods. I have to also remind myself that the advent of the super laying chicken is a rather recent development. If a chicken only laid a few dozen eggs per year, the calcium draw wouldn't have been very high.

 

[stevetone]

My thoughts exactly. Good one.

... the advent of the super laying chicken is a rather recent development. If a chicken only laid a few dozen eggs per year, the calcium draw wouldn't have been very high.

Good point. And thanks for laughing at my humor!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Steve, not to get too far afield, but I find our birds prefer going over to the limestone gravel driveway and picking up bits and pieces. This no doubt gives them some natural grit, but the chips and pebbles of limestone likely provide a calcium carbonate source as well. But for sure, the pioneer chickens in the midwest would have had a heck of a walk to the Alabama shore to find any oyster shells.

 

[Den in Penn]

There were plenty of fresh water clams and bi vales in those streams in the Midwest before man started to silt up the streams and choke them out. So that walk at first, would only have been to the local watering hole for a drink and a bit of shell. I can imagine that the red jungle fowl could also find fresh water shells in their environment.

 

[hedz82]

There is no such thing as a natural chicken. Its a man-made thing. Fowl only lay eggs to have babies, I don't know, depending on species, a dozen maybe, once or twice a year? So the would use their annual calcium stores over that time and then replenish it by eating calcium-rich foods. Because we have bred chickens artificially to produce ridiculous amounts of eggs, we need to artificially provide them with the necessary calcium. I still do believe the more natural and balanced the food, the better, though, and as close to what their natural relatives would maybe have eaten.
But I like the thought of a chicken on the shore, wading through the breakers hunting oysters, would be cool to watch!