Gah -- what's left that I'm not doing?!

[Uzuri]

Quote:
If I let them free range here, I won't have any egg problems, because I won't have any chickens. Too many loose dogs, and no protection whatsoever from hawks. Give it 20 years and the little trees might grow to mitigate the hawk problem; only the apocalypse will rid us of the irresponsible dog owners.

ChooksChick: I was thinking about calcium in the water. Of course I was just going to throw some TUMs in, but your idea is better XD.

 

[Orchid]

I buy my layer feed from a local mill where they mix the oyster shell right into the feed, and yet one of my girls is still at the oyster shell feeder at least once a day and often more; the other two eat from it but only sporadically. All of their eggs are as hard as a rock. I am guessing my BO hen maybe just doesn't absorb calcium as readily as the other two do.

We used a piece of 1 1/2" plastic ABS pipe with an elbow on the bottom and a cap on the top as the oyster shell feeder. It works really well.

 

[jrudolph305]

I put out oyster shell when they started laying and they didn't seem to eat it. So I now crush old eggs shells--put in food prcessor and pulverize--then mix in with oatmeal. Probably big 1/2 cup of shells to 5 cups off oatmeal--just pour it in by eye. I give them about 1.5 cups of this every morning and they finish it off so I know they are getting calcium. Now I only have 5 girls so it is not a big deal to feed the oatmeal every morning.