Do I need grit?

[funny farmer]

My girls have a large dirt run. In addition, they are occasionally let out to free range in the wooded area behind our house. Do I still need to provide grit for them?

 

[lightchick]

No, I don't provide grit.

 

[iwiw60]

If your flock is of laying age then you should provide oyster shell and/or grit for them...helps the process. Relying strictly on what they get out free-ranging isn't a very good idea.

 

[funny farmer]

I always have oyster shell available to them. I just wasn't sure if I should be supplementing their diet with grit.

 

[iwiw60]

I keep two really large tuna-style cans in their coop...one with grit and one with oyster shell (when the time comes..they're not laying age just yet)....that way they have a 'smorgasbord' to choose from the spoiled little brats!!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It's really going to depend on the area they range in - our area, for example, is not a soil where there is much, if any, small rock materiel in the ground the chickens have access too - there is pretty much ZERO natural "grit" for them to pick up. If your area is heavy in small rock pieces, the need for supplemental grit will be less. *I* choose to go with it's better to need and not have than to have and not need - even in an area where natural grit should be sufficiently available the "cost" of providing some grit to them to take on if/when they choose is so minimal that really isn't something I would not do, because I'd rather be supplying it needlessly and have that small expense, than to have birds who are not getting what they need.

 

[funny farmer]

Great advice. I appreciate the responses.

 

[lightchick]

Yeah, I forgot to add that I have a place where the rain water washes down and there's lots of small rock there.

 

[dandread]

So natural dirt is not grit? The dirt would need ‘sones’ the size of store bought grit?

 

[lazy gardener]

*I* choose to go with it's better to need and not have than to have and not need -

Um... did you perhaps mean that the other way around?

So natural dirt is not grit? The dirt would need ‘sones’ the size of store bought grit?

Some soils are very silty, and do not have any insoluble stone in them. Some soils are nothing but clay, or a deep humus, and have no insoluble stone in them. So... it depends on what your soil is like. My soil is frozen solid from November through most of April, and is currently buried under 4' of snow.