I'm Eggcited!!!!!

[KCalhoun]

I finally got my first egg today!!! I have been waiting for what seems like forever been watching my 2 Austrolorp girls get bigger and their wattles and combs growing and this morning when I went out to check on all my kiddos (something I do every morning!!) I noticed in one of my nesting buckets there was a small light brown egg!!! I was so excited that I got the egg went in the house, called hubby and took a picture of the new egg next to the store bought eggs I had just bought yesterday!!!!

After I calmed my excitement a little I knew I needed to put some shavings in their nesting boxes so they will be more comfy. I grabbed the bag of pine shavings and went in the pen. Ya'll it sounded like a bear was after all my chickens!!! They were terrified of that bag!!! Every chicken I have was cackling and sounded like they were all laying eggs!!!! I got out of the pen with that bag a quick as I could, started talking to them and trying to calm them all down. They finally settled down so I took the buckets out and put bedding in and took the buckets back in. The girls was checking it out this afternoon, so hopefully I will get another egg tomorrow!!!!

I gave them some layer feed and they don't seem to like it. I'm going to town and get some oyster shells tomorrow but I have Tank, my Austrolorp rooster, in the pen with them. Is it ok for Tank to eat the layer feed and oyster shells too??????

 

[RobertaD1]

Roosters should never eat Layer feed! Put your troop on an all-flock feed and put the oyster shell on the side in a separate dish. The calcium isnt good for him.

 

[KCalhoun]

Roosters should never eat Layer feed! Put your troop on an all-flock feed and put the oyster shell on the side in a separate dish. The calcium isnt good for him.

Thank you for the advice!!
I mixed the layer feed with Scratch feed so I don't know if he ate any of the layer pellets or not. What is all-flock feed? Is that the name of it??

 

[RobertaD1]

Thats the name! I use Purina All Flock. Pretty simple really.... My crew likes it better than the layer. Had to switch because I had 2 groups of youngins this spring and 2 cockerels

 

[RobertaD1]

OH... and CONGRATS on your first egg! It is egg-citing!!!

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

Congrats on your first egg!!

Normally chickens that don’t need excess calcium won’t eat oyster shells, at least not enough to cause any problems. Maybe a nibble every once in awhile, normally not going over their recommended intake of calcium. Feeding roosters, or non laying females layer feed is 100000% not good. It forces them to ingest pretty high amounts of calcium, way too much for them to stay healthy with. A good all flock, or flock raiser, or even a good grower would suffice for a flock, with oyster shells on the side if you have laying birds of course.