the grounded calcuim i use is partly water souluable. i feed them it in a half cut tyre and fill it every week on sunday. when it rains this tyre fills with water and the water is a milky tinge. can i put it in my automatic water trough so when the water drips in it mixes with the calcuim and gives a greater effect than dry eaten. i will not put it in my tank as i will clog it and remove excess sediment every weekend when i replace the water. good idea or bad idea. will it make the shells stronger and i will have the normal calcuim available. it should be easier absorbed in the stomach as it is already diluted. thanks
Quote:The usual wisdom here on BYC is that chickens will eat extra calcium as needed. I would hesitate putting it in their water for a couple reasons. (This is a mixture of BYC and human nutrition) Too much calcium can be hard on a lot of the organs (kidneys, heart etc.) Roos, chicks, and a lot of hens do not need extra calcium. Different kinds of calcium are absorbed differently You must have a boatload of chickens if they are eating a half tire of calcium every week. Are they dust bathing in it and carrying it off? Are you having issues with their egg shells? I've only used about 4 lbs (2 kilos) of oyster shell in 7 years. Course I only have a few birds Imp
i have ten laying hens all in full swing and i put two or three handfulls in every week. on friday it is bone dry. my eggs are a little thin and it will only be a small amount. i don't have young chicks but a mature rooster and a ready for the table young rooster. i use about 25kg a year. i might try it in small amounts and see any changes in egg strength but if no change then back to normal. sometimes they cannot be bothered to go back to trough so they drink out of tyre when it rains. i have not noticed anything but the eggs being more firmer in those weeks
Why on earth would you give your chickens anything from a tire? Tires are laden with harmful chemicals. The fact that the grit is swimming in that chemical soup can't be good for the chickens OR you! ...The black color of tires comes from a chemical called carbon black, which is basically soot. And soot contains some chemical by-products that are known environmental pollutants. Tire rubber also contains hazardous sulfur and zinc compounds that are used to speed up the rubber-making process. The main ingredient in tire rubber is a synthetic polymer called styrene-butadiene, which is a big, stable chemical that doesn't break down easily. It's often assumed that chemicals like these are not as toxic because they don't leach easily into the environment. But Draper and her colleagues have studied chunks of rubber that are left in water, and they've noticed that some of the chemicals do, in fact, leach into the water..." http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.php?DocID=197 Why don't you get a more suitable container for the grit? If you want the chickens to be able to drink the grit water, at least make the container something like a stock tank or anything with a solid, stable surface.
Actually calcium dissolved in water is usually more difficult to absorb because much of it has already gotten bound up in to other compounds. You can only extract a very small percentage of the minerals found in water. Whatever isn't getting bound up in the water and is free floating as sediment is just as easy to absorb dry.
Agree with other posters, offer calcium separately and let them decide how much they want, do not feed out of a tire, offer calcium as oyster shell and not liquid.
i'll try to not feed out of a tyre. the tyre i'm using is about 25-30 years old and has been protecting a tree before it got cut in half. do old tyres do bad stuff? what if i cut holes in the tyre so water escapes and does not pollute my calcium? if i can find a alternative feeder than i'll use it and will not dilute the calcium
