My Hens Gobble Up Oyster Shells like Candy!

[SnookumsGal]

I have actually given them grit at the same time as Oyster Shells and they eat that like candy too. Their pen is just dirt and pea gravel, so when I don't have grit out for them, they often peck among the pea gravel for small rocks as grit.

I think I'll wait until I see eggs before giving them shells again, but maybe I'll give them more access to grit in a bowl.

 

[pipAchick]

@thread
Where did you find your birds?

 

[SnookumsGal]

@thread
Where did you find your birds?

I'm a bit confused by your post. Are you just generally asking everyone who posted in this thread where they got their birds from?

 

[Donna R Raybon]

Grit in a bowl is good. Your birds might be bored. All kinds of toys to enrich their environment out there if you do a search on web. Often you see abnormal behavior in bored/stressed birds. Some breeds don't do well in confinement and have to free range.
At the age your birds are they need at least eighteen per cent protein ration.

When mine are confined due to weather or too small to free range I do things like give them a flake of alfalfa hay, which they go nuts scratching and eating. If you can't find alfalfa a flake of straw with a handful of wild bird seed on it works too. Put up a simple chicken swing in the run. Different height roosts in run, just be careful you don't help them over the top if an uncovered run. Chickens love to sit up higher than flockmates and watch what is going on.

Where do they dust bathe? Right there is hours of chicken bliss! I watched my dh's huge English Buff Orpington rooster, Basil, spend over an hour digging out, rolling and laying almost buried in his favorite dust spot yesterday.

 

[MyChickenCookie]

Mix the oyster shell in with their feed. They'll get the nutrients from the oyster shell as they eat and won't just eat the oyster shell.

 

[pipAchick]

I'm a bit confused by your post. Are you just generally asking everyone who posted in this thread where they got their birds from?

Yes.