MJ's little flock

[Grammy60]

Good evening everyone

 

[BY Bob]

Hi micstrachan, thanks for your post. Sorted it out by reducing household scraps and dosing water daily with calcium and D3. I am now back to only a weekly addition of calcium and she is doing very well. No more soft shell eggs for 2 weeks now. Zucchini is a great idea. They love it and i have it growing so can easily add some in to boost the manganese. I should try crushing the eggs shells and see if they like that better than shell grit. Do you bake the egg shells first?

Baking them is how most people do it.

 

[micstrachan]

Hi micstrachan, thanks for your post. Sorted it out by reducing household scraps and dosing water daily with calcium and D3. I am now back to only a weekly addition of calcium and she is doing very well. No more soft shell eggs for 2 weeks now. Zucchini is a great idea. They love it and i have it growing so can easily add some in to boost the manganese. I should try crushing the eggs shells and see if they like that better than shell grit. Do you bake the egg shells first?

Sometimes I bake them at 250 for ten minutes, but I often don’t. I rinse them and store them in a little countertop oven, but don’t always run it prior to feeding.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Oh dear.

This morning when I went out to give the girls breakfast Edwina and Pepper were nowhere to be found. They didn't come when I called either.

When I cleaned out the coop, there was Edwina's little black head poking out of the nest box. I looked in the other nest boxes for Pepper but couldn't see her.

That's when I noticed that the black hen in the nesting box had two beaks! Didn't get a photo unfortunately. Once disturbed they decided to see if there was any breakfast left on the breakfast bar.

Too bad you couldn’t get a picture of that for chicken tax!

 

[RoyalChick]

Sometimes I bake them at 250 for ten minutes, but I often don’t. I runde them snd store them in a little countertop oven, but don’t always run it prior to feeding.

I keep mine in a little enamelware bucket on the kitchen counter. Whenever I use the oven, after I turn it off I put the bucket in the oven while it cools down.
Then when it is all cool I put them in a plastic canister and shake it so they crumble and store them in the coop until it is time to top up their dish.
They usually then scatter them all over the place and entertain themselves finding little pieces in the bedding on the coop floor. Table manners has never been their strong suit!

 

[MaryJanet]

Impressed with the kayaking mj. It does look beautiful and peaceful.
Your chickens are very entertaining. I cant believe they are happy sitting on top of each other like that in a south australian summer!!! I think Janet is the smart one!!

I know right!?!?

On hot days I've been using the sprinkler to establish an evaporative cooling system around the little coop where the nest box is. They sit in there, listening to the "rain" on the roof and thinking, "weather's very cold today, very cold for summer. Maybe get up? No. Stay sit."

One of the many reasons I'm looking forward to the big new run going up next week is that it will enclose the little coop and I'll be able to use a misting system instead of the sprinkler (much, much less water waste).

 

[MaryJanet]

Scientists are discovering that music can do amazing things for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s sufferers. We saw part of a doco at uni and it was astounding!

I saw that one too! So heart warming.

 

[LozzyR]

Sometimes I bake them at 250 for ten minutes, but I often don’t. I runde them snd store them in a little countertop oven, but don’t always run it prior to feeding.

I hadn’t thought of this before; so are you recycling the egg shells, baking them, crushing them and then feeding them back to your flock?

 

[RoyalChick]

I hadn’t thought of this before; so are you recycling the egg shells, baking them, crushing them and then feeding them back to your flock?

Absolutely!

 

[LozzyR]

Absolutely!

I might have to try that! Is that 250F? Do you wash them beforehand as well?