Feeding Grit

[bonz4bon]

Do I feed grit in food or separate and at what age should I Start?

 

[SueT]

Welcome to BYC! Feed it separate, and start as soon as they begin eating anything other than their chick feed.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

Feed it separate and give chick grit right away.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I mix Chick Grit in with the Chick Start and Grow feed starting at 2 weeks in a ratio of 1 pound Grit to 40 pounds of feed, through 10 weeks. . 10 ounces to 25 pounds of feed.
At 7 weeks I offer Poultry Grit separately. . . GC

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do I feed grit in food or separate and at what age should I Start?

Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

Not sure where you are located, that might affect what you mean by "grit". Chickens don't have teeth but they eat things that need to be ground up, so they keep bits of rock in their gizzard to do the grinding for them. In some places like the UK they call that insoluble grit. In some other places the US we usually just call it grit. Hens laying eggs need extra calcium for the egg shells. In some places like the UK they call that soluble grit. Oyster shell would be one example, crushed limestone or crushed egg shell would be another. In the US and some other place I don't know that we have a specific name for it. I don't like to assume I know what you are talking about when I could easily be wrong.

If you are talking about Soluble grit (extra calcium) they don't need that until they start to lay, too much soluble grit can be harmful to growing chicks. If you are talking about false teeth they don't need it until they eat something that needs to be ground up. Processed chicken feed has already been ground up so as long as that is all they eat it is not necessary.

One of the first thing a broody hen does after her chicks hatch is to take them to a spot where they can peck at the ground. In addition to getting probiotics she has into their system (She and other chickens poop on the ground where the chicks can get to it) and starting them in flock immunities they may need, this also gets some grit into their system. Of course, she is going to be finding them food that needs grinding. So how soon they need to eat insoluble grit (false teeth) depends on what you feed them. I personally like to start them on the second or third day, just in case.

I do not mix either kind of grit with their food. I don't know how much they need so I leave that up to them to decide. I don't offer insoluble grit you can by (almost always granite) since mine have access to the ground so they can find their own. I offer oyster shell in a separate container they they can access as they desire.