I currently have two 2year old New Hampshire Reds, two- 1year old Barred Rocks, two 8 months old Americana's, two Black Sex-links & two Silver Laced Wyndotts. All beautifully healthy chickens that all have their own personalities. I feed them a well balanced diet of pellets and only a daily handful of treats consisting of lettuce, bread, and other kitchen scraps. My retired neighbor, who agreed to share the care and maintenance of the coop and chickens with me insists on feeding them large amounts of old rice and pasta that he has been hoarding away for days in his house.
Last year when his girlfriend visited from France they cleaned out his cupboards and cooked pounds of old rice and pasta and dumped it in piles into the coop and the chickens liked this food, but I didn't think it was healthy based on the fact that their eggs, which were once hard, were now thin walled and mushy. When I confronted him on the issues, he insisted that he had lots of experience as a child raising chickens and that "chickens eat garbage and engineered pellets are not necessary for chickens to produce hard eggs and they simply needed to eat clam shells for calcium".
He left for france for 3 months and I was in control of the feedings. I kept them on a diet of ground oyster shells and pellets with the occasional handful of treats as mentioned above.I was receiving anywhere from 2-6 eggs a day and as I gave the eggs to friends, the feedback was they were bright and healthy eggs with a hard shell. Since my neighbors return, he's back to feeding them large amounts of "garbage" food and they are now ignoring their pellets. Once again their eggs have become thin shelled and break from the lay. When I spoke with my neighbor again this morning he claims "it's not from what he's feeding them they just need more shells."
I worry about the health of my chickens as if one of the soft eggs breaks inside of the chickens they may get sick. I'm looking for advice from any avid barnyard members on this problem. Am I just being too cautious here?
Last year when his girlfriend visited from France they cleaned out his cupboards and cooked pounds of old rice and pasta and dumped it in piles into the coop and the chickens liked this food, but I didn't think it was healthy based on the fact that their eggs, which were once hard, were now thin walled and mushy. When I confronted him on the issues, he insisted that he had lots of experience as a child raising chickens and that "chickens eat garbage and engineered pellets are not necessary for chickens to produce hard eggs and they simply needed to eat clam shells for calcium".
He left for france for 3 months and I was in control of the feedings. I kept them on a diet of ground oyster shells and pellets with the occasional handful of treats as mentioned above.I was receiving anywhere from 2-6 eggs a day and as I gave the eggs to friends, the feedback was they were bright and healthy eggs with a hard shell. Since my neighbors return, he's back to feeding them large amounts of "garbage" food and they are now ignoring their pellets. Once again their eggs have become thin shelled and break from the lay. When I spoke with my neighbor again this morning he claims "it's not from what he's feeding them they just need more shells."
I worry about the health of my chickens as if one of the soft eggs breaks inside of the chickens they may get sick. I'm looking for advice from any avid barnyard members on this problem. Am I just being too cautious here?
Last edited:
