oooh maybe is should offer them a lower calcium feed....never thought of that, I just assumed what the feed store sold for laying hens was what they should get. I'm interested in mixing my own feed but I worry that somehow they won't get enough of something and I'll be to blame bc i "thought I could do better". So the chickens can tell the difference between feeds and will eat what they need??
That's how I know if a hen is getting ready to lay -- she'll start eating more of the oyster shell/calcium carbonate. Sometimes chickens can act so goofy but they're serious when it comes to their diet intake. I have a very small backyard flock of usually 4 hens and I offer a variety of feeds in different forms -- all organic and some with calcium and some without so that the hens not laying don't have to ingest the calcium layer feed. It's fun watching hens free-ranging in a field of weeds and somehow they know which ones are good and which ones are toxic so avoid those.