Grit vs Oyster Shell Question

[Carson213]

That looks like a good option. I made a grit and calcium feeder out of a couple of PVC pipes and elbows. Just fill it from the top and it autofeeds the grit and calcium as the chicken eat it. I have it mounted in the coop so the grit and calcium is available 24/7 as needed. I only have to refill it maybe every 2-3 months.

I have 10 chickens. I still have about half a bag of grit and calcium I purchased 3 years ago. It's not expensive, and lasts forever. My chickens also are outside most of the day (in the non snow months) so they can get grit from the ground, and I will save our egg shells, crush them up, and feed them back to the chickens.

i pitch my egg shells into my garden. i don't crush them. i use the tiller in the spring...

 

[Sueby]

I find that first year laying pullets lay smaller eggs & they get bigger as they get older. So by the end of the summer & especially next year they will be much bigger.

 

[K0k0shka]

I make fermented food and have feeders for the pellets. I have been mixing grit on with both and putting it in their sand box. You said a bag of grit can last for years? Maybe I'm giving them too much. I have 53 birds.

Never mix grit with their feed! They need to be able to regulate how much grit they eat - they know exactly when they need more, and will seek it out. When mixed with the feed, it's harder for them to pick out only the feed or only the grit, they end up eating all of it, and if they eat too much grit it can kill them. Like I said earlier, grit is granite, it doesn't dissolve or get digested. If they eat too much, it will just accumulate in there, they'll end up with a system full of rocks, they'll get clogged, and will die. I once read a vet's account of doing a necropsy on a chicken whose owner mixed grit with the feed. He said the inside of the chicken's crop looked like the bottom of a fish tank... Offer the grit separately - the chickens will know when to eat it. How long a bag lasts you depends on the size of the bag and the size of the flock, obviously, but since it's not a food and something they eat very sparingly, it will last you much longer than anything else you feed them.

 

[3KillerBs]

I have been giving grit also I was just wondering about if it could be one or the other. What you said makes total sense.

I make fermented food and have feeders for the pellets. I have been mixing grit on with both and putting it in their sand box. You said a bag of grit can last for years? Maybe I'm giving them too much. I have 53 birds.

Don't mix it with their feed. Mount a dish to a convenient spot in the coop or run and let them choose what they need.

 

[gtaus]

i pitch my egg shells into my garden. i don't crush them. i use the tiller in the spring...

My egg shells end up in the garden, too. I just crush them up first, then feed them to the chickens, the chickens will poo in the coop or outside in the chicken run composting system, all that gets composted and the compost goes into the garden.

I don't plant in the ground anymore, only raised beds, so I don't do much tilling for the past several years. When I did plant in ground, I would load up the garden in the fall with grass clippings and leaves and then till them into the ground in the spring before planting. I live on a lake and have poor natural soil. So I switched to using raised beds, got better topsoil for the raised beds, and use the square foot method of gardening. I get better results that way where I live.

 

[TooCheep]

Don't mix it with their feed. Mount a dish to a convenient spot in the coop or run and let them choose what they need.

As noted above- Oyster shell and grit perform very different functions. Do not mix either with their food. The birds will be able to tell when they need either and mixing into their food forces it on them whether they need it or not.

Grit: Accumulates in the chicken gizzard and acts like teeth. The gizzard is just a muscular chamber that uses the grit to "chew" natural food (that is anything other than pellet feed which breaks down in water).
Chickens don't have teeth. Their beak can only grab or tear food. The food then accumulates in the crop (temporary storage) and then moves on to the gizzard for "chewing" before going to the stomach. Chickens naturally can pick up grit when free ranging, but if you have any concerns about them having sufficient access, then offering it on the side is cheap insurance for their health.

Oyster/egg shells: Provides supplementary calcium for laying hens. Much like you have a natural desire for salt (based on your body's need), chickens that need additional calcium will peck at the oyster/egg shell if needed. 4% is a minimum need for laying hens, but some will want/need more.
Also, please do not feed layer mix to non-layers (young pullets, old non-laying hens, roosters). Excess calcium can cause very painful conditions for them. If you have a mixed flock, then it is better to offer a regular feed and offer plenty of calcium on the side.

 

[drdoct]

I have a bunch of Speckled Sussex. Everything says that they lay large eggs.
My girls have been laying for about the end of January. They are almost 8 months old.
They are laying small eggs, with an occasional large egg but small seems to be their norm at the moment.
Someone told me I should give them oyster shell.
I had 2 shell-less eggs a few weeks ago it was 2 in a row but not since.

Then I'm wondering if I do give them oyster shell, do I need to give them grit?

My chickens won't eat either. But they are 100% free range with a small supplement of layer pellet when they want it. They'd rather have the compost worms though. I assume they get enough grit and calcium because even though their eggs are on the smallish side, they're very hard. You could also break up your old egg shells and sprinkle them around for the chix to eat. Some people dry them to make them almost a grit like consistency.

 

[TooCheep]

Some people dry them to make them almost a grit like consistency.

Please be careful when telling newbies this. Too many are confused by it and don't understand that grit and oyster/egg shells are very different and don't perform the same functions at all.

 

[gtaus]

they are 100% free range with a small supplement of layer pellet when they want it. They'd rather have the compost worms though.

I live on a lake, and we have hawks and Bald Eagles overhead all the time. I cannot let my chickens free range. So, I bring the free range to them in their bird netting covered chicken run. I bag all my grass clippings and throw that and just about anything else organic into the chicken run. In the fall, I mow up and dump all the leaves in the yard into the chicken run. Last fall I measured about 18 inches deep of litter in my chicken run composting system. It is full of good bugs and worms to eat. Like you, my chickens prefer to forage for food before eating their commercial feed.

My commercial feed consumption goes down by half or more during the summer/non-snow months when my chickens are outside foraging in the chicken run compost system. I personally think the eggs are better when the chickens have access to all the compost in the run. The yolks of the eggs are just a darker orange. But I still keep their commercial feed available 24/7 along with extra grit and calcium in separate small PVC feeders. The grit and calcium do get eaten, but for my 10 chickens, it takes maybe 2-3 months before refilling.

 

[gailbelanger]

I live on a lake, and we have hawks and Bald Eagles overhead all the time. I cannot let my chickens free range. So, I bring the free range to them in their bird netting covered chicken run. I bag all my grass clippings and throw that and just about anything else organic into the chicken run. In the fall, I mow up and dump all the leaves in the yard into the chicken run. Last fall I measured about 18 inches deep of litter in my chicken run composting system. It is full of good bugs and worms to eat. Like you, my chickens prefer to forage for food before eating their commercial feed.

My commercial feed consumption goes down by half or more during the summer/non-snow months when my chickens are outside foraging in the chicken run compost system. I personally think the eggs are better when the chickens have access to all the compost in the run. The yolks of the eggs are just a darker orange. But I still keep their commercial feed available 24/7 along with extra grit and calcium in separate small PVC feeders. The grit and calcium do get eaten, but for my 10 chickens, it takes maybe 2-3 months before refilling.

I'm the same. I have a nesting hawk on my property. The first week I had the chickens outside an owl showed up. We have coyotes, possums, raccoons, snakes, and now my neighbors are telling me some wild pigs have been tearing up the property behind us.
My chickens are closed in at night in a metal coop, and their yard is chain linked fence with chain link over the top. So hopefully this will help tremendously.
I have one of those zero turn lawn mowers. I'm going to see if they make something that will pick up the grass/weeds. I would think that they would because giving them that will be very good for them. My yolks are yellowish so maybe this will help with that.
I have 53 chickens and about 30 chicks that are in brooders. I am re-homing some of the outside chickens some to people who free range and have lost chickens, lol. I don't think my girls will leave the coop once there.