Chickens not eating oyster shells

[chickengeorgeto]

Don't expect your hens to stand at the oyster shell bar and down bits of oyster shell after bits of oyster shell like a bunch of hungry drunks eating the oysters that the shells protected. It doesn't work that way. Anyway, all of the calcium that your hens use for the formation of their eggshells comes directly out of your hens' bones. The oyster shell is supposed to replenish the calcium found naturally in your hens' skeleton.

 

[IowaChickChick]

Ok thanks for the feedback that's what a lot of the responses seem to agree on.

I find that chickens are pretty smart. If they need the calcium they will seek it out. The quality of your eggs will indicate if there is an issue — if your eggs have good shells and all looks good, don't fret. If you start to see soft eggs or odd eggs, then it's worth paying attention.

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

We keep minerals and oyster shell in free choice containers for all our animals not just the chickens. That way if they want something they have access to it. We do give back the washed shells from the eggs by just tossing them into the enclosure and they usually rush in to eat the kitchen goodies including the egg shells. I've had the same bag of oyster shell for over a year now because they rarely use any of it. Our minerals are in the form of Sea-90 a non purified sea salt from the sea of cortez, it has 95 minerals in it. The chickens and hogs go through a full feeder every month (approx. 2 lbs).