Calcium for my girls?

[heartwork city]

Hi chicken tribe! My hens (6 total) are almost 4 months. When do you suggest adding oyster shell/calcium? Also, do they stay on starter crumble through the entire first year? Lastly (aside from food questions), at what age do you let your flock free range? Thx!

 

[MeepBeep]

Feed them starter grower until they are laying, once they all start laying you can switch them over to a layer feed or even continue on the starter grower... If you continue with a non-layer feed you should provide a side dish of oyster shells, even if you feed them layer it's nice to offer the side of oyster once they start laying...

As for free range, that is really a loaded question, I would wait until they are of laying age...

 

[junebuggena]

You can free range when ever you feel comfortable with it really. But once they start laying, you may need to keep them confined to the coop/run for a few weeks to get them all in the habit of laying in the nest boxes.

 

[Mutt Farm]

Well HI! And WELCOME!

You could add the oyster shell now. They'll eat it if they need it. You can keep them on starter or grower permanently if they have free choice oyster shell but if you want to switch to layer, you shouldn't until they are all laying. At almost 4 months, you can let them out anytime with supervision. I suggest letting them out for a short time in the afternoon to be sure they learn how to put themselves up. While they are out, right before dark, put some tasty treats in the coop. (meal worms) and run them back in. Once you are sure they know how to get home and to safety you can lighten up a bit and leave them out longer provided predators aren't an issue

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I don't let my flock completely free range. I do use electric netting so they've a large area to range and move it every 2 to 3 weeks. It's a 164' fencing so basically 1600 square feet of range around apple trees. I let them in there at about 12 weeks of age for adequate size to integrate into flock and not be hawk snacks.

You can feed a non medicated starter or grower feed for the life of your birds if you want. The two main issues of feed are first and foremost protein content. Supplying appropriate protein amounts for birds at any given growth time or molt. I just use 20% from chicks to stock pot, what changes is crumbles when young and then a turkey finisher when large enough to take pellets. The second thing is calcium content. All feed has close to 1% calcium but layer feed has 3-4%. You can change over feed to layer when the birds start laying or at point of lay if you want. I keep my entire flock on the same feed and can't have chicks on layer (high calcium and in pellet form) and don't want my breeder cock birds to be on layer either as extended period of high calcium will shorten it's lifespan (bad for organs- kidney, liver). It's just easy to toss a handful or two of oyster shell to the layer flock each week and keep everyone on same feed for me.

Short answer of when to start oyster shell? Never if you use layer feed. Or once the girls start laying toss it to them free choice not mixed into feed if you use grower or an all flock type feed (turkey finisher).