One hen isn't getting enough calcium, what can I do?

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
The one I found was rough, and the shell was so brittle that when I picked it up, it broke LOL. I threw it to the dog, at least he got something out of it. Nothing abnormal since, and I got 12 eggs today out of 15 girls.

 

[Wildsky]

Mine also went to the dog, and I thought how lucky it didn't break in my hand, but when I offered it to the dog, she popped it before I got my hand out from under the dern thing

 

[patandchickens]

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It's not generally recommended to give animals water from a water softener. It's not really great for humans to drink either fwiw. Very high in sodium.

I don't know about chickens specifically - but you might wanna look up (I'm sure the info is available SOMEwhere) what the maximum acceptible concentration of sodium is for drinking water for chickens (specifically), as they are small, rather sensitive to sodium overdose, and do drink a lot of water. Be good to at least know how close to the limit you are...

(And think about maybe not drinking it yourself, either, especially if anyone in the family is on a low sodium diet for hypertension or other reasons)

Not sayin' it's gonna kill you outright all the time, it's not, but it is generally accepted these days as not being the absolute brightest idea either. Some people have water softeners plumbed into just the hot water (tho that leaves toilets with hard-water deposits).

Just a thought,

Pat

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
It's not generally recommended to give animals water from a water softener. It's not really great for humans to drink either fwiw. Very high in sodium.

I don't know about chickens specifically - but you might wanna look up (I'm sure the info is available SOMEwhere) what the maximum acceptible concentration of sodium is for drinking water for chickens (specifically), as they are small, rather sensitive to sodium overdose, and do drink a lot of water. Be good to at least know how close to the limit you are...

(And think about maybe not drinking it yourself, either, especially if anyone in the family is on a low sodium diet for hypertension or other reasons)

Not sayin' it's gonna kill you outright all the time, it's not, but it is generally accepted these days as not being the absolute brightest idea either. Some people have water softeners plumbed into just the hot water (tho that leaves toilets with hard-water deposits).

Just a thought,

Pat

I was thinking about that myself. We have soft water, but only on the hot water. So we drink hard water (although it is filtered by the fridge) and so do the chickens, and the plants all get hard water. My m-i-l told me to make sure that the plants don't get soft water.

I think you can also use potassium instead of sodium, but not sure it is just a simple switch. Would have to look into it.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
It's not generally recommended to give animals water from a water softener. It's not really great for humans to drink either fwiw. Very high in sodium.

I don't know about chickens specifically - but you might wanna look up (I'm sure the info is available SOMEwhere) what the maximum acceptible concentration of sodium is for drinking water for chickens (specifically), as they are small, rather sensitive to sodium overdose, and do drink a lot of water. Be good to at least know how close to the limit you are...

(And think about maybe not drinking it yourself, either, especially if anyone in the family is on a low sodium diet for hypertension or other reasons)

Not sayin' it's gonna kill you outright all the time, it's not, but it is generally accepted these days as not being the absolute brightest idea either. Some people have water softeners plumbed into just the hot water (tho that leaves toilets with hard-water deposits).

Just a thought,

Pat

Yeah, it's a really crap softener anyway. I don't even think it does much LOL.

We don't have particularly hard water anyway, so I don't know why we have the softener.

Also, just thought about it, went down into the crawlspace under the extension where the chicken water comes from, and realized once again it's a seperate pump system down there, therefore they don't get the treated water.

 

[lichick28]

I DRY EGG SHELLS IN THE MICRO WAVE FOR A FEW SECONDS AND JUST SMASH THEM INTO SMALL PIECES IN A PAPER TOWEL OR USE A BLENDER BUT THATS MORE TO CLEAN AND REGIVE THEM BACK TO THE GIRLS FOR EXTRA CALCIUM