BarbaraW
In the Brooder
Hello I am new to raising chickens and have 14 almost 4 week old chicks. I noticed that they are now doing a lot of scratching in the pine shavings and appear to be eating the dust as well as spilled crumbles. I read that you can give them a little grit in their food if they are doing this so I sprinkled some on the top of their food and mixed it in as well as some in the area that they are doing this in and moved the feeder over to another spot. I also saw that you could (should) offer the chick grit by itself in another container so I tried that but when I put it down I had several immediately treat it like their feed so after a minute I picked it back up because I was afraid they would end up with crop issues. Now I am afraid that a couple had too much too much even though it wasn’t down for very long. How much can they have of the grit and should I even offer it if they are eating the pine dust/crumble they scratch up? They are still on crumble only and have not been offered any treats or other things yet so I have never given them grit before. Any advice is appreciated!