grit and shells?

[deejeff442]

i just got on this site the other day and cant stop reading. now i see grit and oyster shells? i tried to read on grit but what is it exactly? i am thinking sand? i keep sand in my coops.i dont see them eat it just take a bath in it. oyster shells? do i go to the local feed store for that? i have 20 hens and 4 roosters in 4 coops. i feed scratch,pellets and some seeds.also cut up alot of veggies which they tear into. but dont know about the grit and shells?
oh and we have a million grasshoppers here so i throw them in there too

 

[A Chicken Owner]

Shell grit is crushed oyster shells and is used to make egg shells stronger or if your hens have a calcium deficiency.

 

[chfite]

The girls need calcium to make strong shells for the eggs. Calcium can be provided from many sources, usually in commercial layer feed or crushed oyster shells. You might be able to provide this with green vegetables rich in calcium, although I don't know how much soy beans, okra, collards, or spinach it would take.

Grit is usually grains of sand, soil, dirt, small rocks, ground stone. Typically, chickens pick this up from the ground as they peck around. If they stay in a run all the time, they can get this from the sand in the run, if so equipped, or from a tray of commercial grit in a bowl. Commercial grit may be ground granite.

Chris

 

[deejeff442]

well found out the feed we give them has shells in it,i also put sand in the coops so i guess i am good to go. the eggs i get now are plenty thick shell wise. thanks everyone

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Shell grit is crushed oyster shells and is used to make egg shells stronger or if your hens have a calcium deficiency.

Chicken grit is normally crushed granite. Sometimes other hard minerals are used, like marble with added minerals. Either way it is nothing but limestone or calcium but it has a more uniform size than oyster shell and it works better as chicken teeth.

Either way, granite, marble, or oyster shell I am fond of using a Vienna sausage can with 3 small holes punched in the bottom for rain water to drain through. I then use electric fence wire to fix this cup solidly to the inside of the coop, somewhere close to the roost and about breast or crop high is best. This is usually enough grit to last several chickens for a year or two. Granit grit comes in 3 sizes, baby chick, chicken, and turkey.

The best use of baby chick grit in my book is as baby chicks first meal. Give them a teaspoon or two on a piece of clean cardboard 24 hours before you feed them the first time. That is all you need to do because ALL chickens have a built in peck response. Baby chicks come out of the shell pecking. In fact newly hatched baby chicks will spend hours trying to eat the commas off of a page of news print. What they like or they can pickup they eat. What they don't like or they can't get into their beaks, they soon learn to ignore. They will eat enough grit in this first sitting to last several weeks but I always like for my birds to have free choice grit at all times.

If you feed commercial layer pellets or mash there is usually plenty of added limestone or calcium already in the ration, but grit in a laying ration is as rare as hens' teeth.