OK. My mind is totally blown! What is this!?!?

[casportpony]

It might be its vent

No, it's not the vent, it's a shell-less egg.

 

[NatJ]

I can never get her to eat the baked crushed egg shells that I give her. She is so disinterested. She wont eat the oyster shell I bought her and I suspect its because she is so pick and the pieces are HUGE. I don't know what they were thinking when they didnt make the oyster shell pieces smaller.

The amount of oyster shell or eggshell a chicken needs each day is fairly small. You often won't notice them eating it, even when they are getting enough.

I don't know how large your oyster shell pieces are, but chickens often swallow things that look pretty large to us.

Is there more calcium in layer feed?

Yes. That is what makes it layer feed.
Most chicken feeds are actually very similar to each other.

Chick starter has a bit more protein (does not hurt any age chicken.)

Layer feed has more calcium (high enough for laying hens, but the level is so high it can be dangerous to chickens that are not laying eggs, if they eat it for a long time. The harm seems to depend a bit on the individual chicken-- if you feed only layer feed to a large number of growing chicks, or roosters of any age, some will show problems, some may have problems that are not obvious, and some will seem completely fine.)

I just assumed chickens were like humans and dogs. The more the diet is varied the better the health is.

People, dogs, and chickens are a bit different in that respect.

For people: we do feed people an unvaried diet for several months after they are born (breast milk or infant formula.) We know pretty well what they need at that age. After that, no-one has bothered to make a single food that is meant to provide everything a person needs. And there's no way you could get a group of people to eat such a diet for a long time, eating nothing else, to see which ones develop definiencies. A varied diet means that people are more likely to get what they need, partly because people's tastes can change a little when they need more of one food or another (which food tastes "best" can change a bit.) It's not perfect, but it works reasonably well for most people.

For dogs, it's pretty easy to put a dozen dogs in individual kennels and feed them measured amounts of just one diet. If nothing is obviously wrong after 6 months or so, you can assume that food is fairly good for dogs. That means scientists probably know MORE about what a dog really needs than they know for people!

For chickens, people raise thousands and millions of them, and this gives very GOOD information about what a chicken needs. If the normal death rate is 2 chicks per hundred, and you change something in the food and the death rate goes up to 3 per hundred or down to 1 per hundred, you can see that you've made a difference. A backyard flock with a dozen chickens will never notice that level of difference. Or if changing the protein by half a percent makes egg production go up or down by 2 percent, it will be noticed in a large commercial flock but not a small backyard flock.

Commercial chicken food that is designed for chicks, and for laying hens, is intended to keep those birds productive while they grow up, and for a year or so while they lay eggs. That requires them to stay alive and fairly healthy. That is also a much longer, more effective test period than what is used for dog nutrition or human nutrition.

(Nutrition for pigs, mice, and rats is probably understood just as well, because those animals are also raised in large numbers-- pigs on farms, rats and mice in labs-- and fed a "complete" diet. Most other animals are either raised in smaller numbers, or fed things like hay that are not as easy to compute nutritional values for.)

I am not someone that believes dogs should only get "dog food" and nothing else

Personally, I have been feeding chickens for years. They have always gotten a complete chicken food and also table scraps, kitchen waste, weeds from the garden, and so forth. The chicken food would always be available free choice, but they would eat more or less of it depending on what else they were offered each day.

But when someone new to chickens is having a problem, I strongly recommend that they feed only chicken food while they resolve the problem. Feeding other things takes a bit of experience (I learned from my Mom, who learned from her Dad who learned from...) So a new person can more quickly solve their other problems if they are not learning about an appropriate chicken diet at the same time. And some problems really are diet-related, so feeding just chicken food will solve those problems.

 

[Ascholten]

Chickens love clover. If you let them pig out on clover, then they wont eat as much layer feed as they need because they are full of clover. This can rob them of the nutrients they need, since clover does not provide everything they need. So yes, if they focus mainly on table scraps, they may NOT be getting all the nutrients they need. They will generally go for what tastes best, not what IS best.

Aaron

 

[New Chick In The Backyard]

Oh

I have a hen that has trouble occasionally with egg shell quality. The soft shelled eggs and shell less eggs are very fragile and will break easily. The flock will eat the contents if they find it, leaving only the membrane behind. My hen laid 2 eggs from her roost last night, one was a soft shell that broke on impact and the other one was normal. Today, she gets to have a human calcium citrate tablet (generic Citracal) to give her a calcium boost. She'll get 1 tab a day until her Shells are nice and normal. She doesn't like it, but I wouldn't like her to have an egg break inside of her and be fatal, so she gets the tablet. She's not a fan of Oyster shell but she will eat egg Shells occasionally. I've tried her on an all flock feed and a layer feed and I don't see a huge difference in her egg shell quality. Right now, I'm trying a new brand of layer feed. We've had some really hot days and I feel like that's messing with her, plus I needed to round them up quickly and offered scratch to herd them in. The scratch more than likely played a significant role, but its not a normal thing at all. I only buy scratch to feed the 20+ wild Canada Geese that visit me to eat and I couldn't afford to continue feeding them my ducks feed, so now I have scratch for them and used it as a last resort for herding my hens. Some hens just require more calcium than others. As long as you're not giving a calcium boost to all of them and only do it whenever it's necessary, I feel like it's perfectly acceptable and far better than the possible alternative. I'd stop treats. My girls get a bowl of mash (their feed made mushy with water) every night and they LOVE it. That's their treat. They've come to expect it now

So that's what mash is. How do you administer the tablet? How long have you done this? So it's safe. How do you herd with food? Sorry so many questions. Thank you for all the great information. My hen won't eat anything that is good for her that she needs. She goes on food/calcium strikes. But she has been sick so maybe things will get better.

 

[New Chick In The Backyard]

Please don't use bleach to clean the coop! The ammonia fumes aren't good for your chickens. Use vinegar or I think there is a lime thingy that you can use.

How painful their death is depends on what kills them. Some go quickly from a heart attack. Some get infections or a prolapse ~ nastier & messier. I try to choose chickens least likely to have these sort of issues. Hasn't always worked but that's my strategy.

Ok, your Sussex, BRs & Wyandottes are all dual purpose heritage breeds. I consider the BRs & Wyandottes [I have both] pretty hardy. Orpingtons are heritage but I've never kept them. Australorps are heritage & are supposed to be hardy. I'd have to see a picture of your Armeraucana to know what we are talking about as they're not always what they're sold as. Any Marans in America are unlike their French ancestors according to a European keeper I know so I couldn't say. I suspect the others are Hybrids going by the names.

I always clean my coops out in the morning and leave the doors open so it can air out so there are definitely no fumes. So do you think this is okay? I'm just trying to do a super clean periodically and to get all the germs off the roosts from the feces. I will try to remember to take a picture of my Americana. Thank you so much for your response!

 

[New Chick In The Backyard]

The amount of oyster shell or eggshell a chicken needs each day is fairly small. You often won't notice them eating it, even when they are getting enough.

I don't know how large your oyster shell pieces are, but chickens often swallow things that look pretty large to us.


Yes. That is what makes it layer feed.
Most chicken feeds are actually very similar to each other.

Chick starter has a bit more protein (does not hurt any age chicken.)

Layer feed has more calcium (high enough for laying hens, but the level is so high it can be dangerous to chickens that are not laying eggs, if they eat it for a long time. The harm seems to depend a bit on the individual chicken-- if you feed only layer feed to a large number of growing chicks, or roosters of any age, some will show problems, some may have problems that are not obvious, and some will seem completely fine.)



People, dogs, and chickens are a bit different in that respect.

For people: we do feed people an unvaried diet for several months after they are born (breast milk or infant formula.) We know pretty well what they need at that age. After that, no-one has bothered to make a single food that is meant to provide everything a person needs. And there's no way you could get a group of people to eat such a diet for a long time, eating nothing else, to see which ones develop definiencies. A varied diet means that people are more likely to get what they need, partly because people's tastes can change a little when they need more of one food or another (which food tastes "best" can change a bit.) It's not perfect, but it works reasonably well for most people.

For dogs, it's pretty easy to put a dozen dogs in individual kennels and feed them measured amounts of just one diet. If nothing is obviously wrong after 6 months or so, you can assume that food is fairly good for dogs. That means scientists probably know MORE about what a dog really needs than they know for people!

For chickens, people raise thousands and millions of them, and this gives very GOOD information about what a chicken needs. If the normal death rate is 2 chicks per hundred, and you change something in the food and the death rate goes up to 3 per hundred or down to 1 per hundred, you can see that you've made a difference. A backyard flock with a dozen chickens will never notice that level of difference. Or if changing the protein by half a percent makes egg production go up or down by 2 percent, it will be noticed in a large commercial flock but not a small backyard flock.

Commercial chicken food that is designed for chicks, and for laying hens, is intended to keep those birds productive while they grow up, and for a year or so while they lay eggs. That requires them to stay alive and fairly healthy. That is also a much longer, more effective test period than what is used for dog nutrition or human nutrition.

(Nutrition for pigs, mice, and rats is probably understood just as well, because those animals are also raised in large numbers-- pigs on farms, rats and mice in labs-- and fed a "complete" diet. Most other animals are either raised in smaller numbers, or fed things like hay that are not as easy to compute nutritional values for.)


Personally, I have been feeding chickens for years. They have always gotten a complete chicken food and also table scraps, kitchen waste, weeds from the garden, and so forth. The chicken food would always be available free choice, but they would eat more or less of it depending on what else they were offered each day.

But when someone new to chickens is having a problem, I strongly recommend that they feed only chicken food while they resolve the problem. Feeding other things takes a bit of experience (I learned from my Mom, who learned from her Dad who learned from...) So a new person can more quickly solve their other problems if they are not learning about an appropriate chicken diet at the same time. And some problems really are diet-related, so feeding just chicken food will solve those problems.

Thank you for all the great info

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Oh

So that's what mash is. How do you administer the tablet? How long have you done this? So it's safe. How do you herd with food? Sorry so many questions. Thank you for all the great information. My hen won't eat anything that is good for her that she needs. She goes on food/calcium strikes. But she has been sick so maybe things will get better.

I just open her beak and gently place it on the back of her tongue and then offer a tiny quick treat to ensure she swallow the tablet. I continue the Citracal under she lays a nice normal shelled egg and then stop. My hen is doing well. I'd rather administer this tablet a few times than have an egg break inside her. My birds are easily led to go anywhere with foods they love but seldom get. Once they realize what I have, I keep it in the view and they'll follow to whenever I need them to go. I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to ask if you have any other questions

 

[Ascholten]

Chickens are fairly easily trained with food to go where you want them to. Once you get them attuned to 'snack time' you can lead them pretty much anywhere in pied piper fashion. You don't need to spoil them either, really, even a few sprinklings of scratch grains, a beak-full or two is plenty to get them loving and following you.

WHen I want them in the coop, I walk over, throw the food in, they all run in, I close the coop, job done. If you don't have scratch grains, fruits, a small piece of cheese, etc works wonders as well.

Aaron

 

[NatJ]

If you don't have scratch grains, fruits, a small piece of cheese, etc works wonders as well.

A dish of wet chicken food can work the same way, too. I don't know why adding water to chicken food makes it taste so much better, but the chickens seem to think it does!

 

[Ascholten]

A dish of wet chicken food can work the same way, too. I don't know why adding water to chicken food makes it taste so much better, but the chickens seem to think it does!

It goes down easier. My cockatoo does the same thing, he will take his food pellets, a mouth full at a time, put them in his water dish, then stir them around for a few minutes, tasting them, until he's happy with them, then pick them out and eat them ::eyeroll:: One part of me wants to whap him with a spoon and yell QUIT PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD! The other part of me is just happy he IS eating w/o too much of a fuss, so I leave it be

While they are not playing with them, Im sure the birds are happier eating wet food over dry.
Try this, take a bowl of oatmeal, eat a few spoonfulls of it dry, Yummy??
Now try a few spoonfulls that been moistened down so they are nice and pasty.
Any better that way?

Aaron