Alternative to oyster shell?

[Shamo Hybrid]

The only 'treats' my chickens get is a knuckle sammich!! They should be thankful enough just to have a roof over their heads!! Or that I didn't make little buffalo wings out of them!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't know.... but chicken feed is killing me!! Just got back from the feed store and I'd about lost 10 years off of my life! Lawd have mercy, why do I owe these chickens!!!

Why do you?

The only 'treats' my chickens get is a knuckle sammich!! They should be thankful enough just to have a roof over their heads!! Or that I didn't make little buffalo wings out of them!!

Perhaps you are one of those people that shouldn't own chickens.

Or are you just trolling us?

 

[GC-Raptor]

Another thing I would like to know is how much oyster shell do chickens get through? I have five small bantams and one large fowl hen. If I got a 1kg bag for example how long would I expect that to last?

My calculations estimate a large fowl hen needs 4 average size pieces of Oyster Shells daily if fed a feed with 1% Calcium.

.
My Pullets each consumed a pound of Calcium over a 11 month period when eating a layers feed. GC

 

[wyoDreamer]

My chickens don't eat much Oyster shell, but I feed them layer feed. I have used only 2 pounds out of a 5 pound bag in 3 years, with about 12 laying hens. I did have a time when the pullets were starting to lay that I was getting a lot of broken eggs that were eaten. Either they were stepping on them or just too rough moving them about trying to get set to lay and they cracked teh eggs already in the nest, I do not know. It was only for about a month.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

I'm fairly new but from what I've seen Shamo is more of a jokester than troll. Makes me laugh.

 

[aart]

I'm fairly new but from what I've seen Shamo is more of a jokester than troll.

More like a rude and annoying child, constantly disrupting the adults conversations, who should stay in the 'jokes' forum.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

More like a rude and annoying child, constantly disrupting the adults conversations, who should stay in the 'jokes' forum.

lol!

 

[rebrascora]

I think a lot of people probably go to more trouble than they need to processing egg shells.
When I crack an egg open, I place the shell in an open container on the bench to air dry. Every once in a while I put the air dried egg shells in a jam jar and use the end of a rolling pin to crush them up a bit (kind of like a DIY pestle and mortar but just roughly broken up into approx. 1/4inch pieces) and then throw them in the run, that way the chickens benefit from any dried egg white protein in the shells as well as the calcium.
I will say that I always use a finger to scrape most of the egg white out of the shells into the pan or bowl (a technique learned from my mother who lived through the war and rationing when food was precious), so whatever is left in the shell is minimal and dries quickly before bacteria has time to grow.

 

[aart]

(kind of like a DIY pestle and mortar but just roughly broken up into approx. 1/4inch pieces)

My DIY mortar and pestle is a metal one cup measuring cup and a thick glass with the same curvature on base.
I do rinse the shells then air dry, crush and mix with OS.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Do you like oysters to eat? You could buy entire oysters from the grocery stores, eat the oysters, put the shells in a bag, and attack the bag with a hammer. Or, if you have any kind of seafood place near you, you can probably ask them to save you the occasional bag of shells.