Oyster shell price differences.

[ChickenCanoe]

You're paying for the size of the bag.

DE is the same way. 2lbs - $8, 50lbs - $30

 

[Angiebubs]

Ugh-so Im one of the newbies that bought the little bag :-(. Didn't realize it came in larger bags at the time. I have 2 hens and 11 babies growing up. So my question is, does oyster shell go bad? And how much do they go through?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Oyster shell only goes bad if it gets wet. It disolves. That's why it doesn't work as grit.
Kept dry it lasts virtually forever.

I usually have about 30 hens and 50 lbs lasts close to 6 months but I don't feed lots of scratch so they get most of their calcium from the layer feed.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
That would be bad news for all of the oysters of the world wouldn't it?

Oyster shell does not go bad short of a sustained bath in some acidic fluid. Such as stomach acids. Which are not found in a chicken's gizzard so it can serve as grit though it won't last as long as a harder stone would.

A fifty pound bag of shell for a handful of birds would last many years which is why they also sell it in the smaller bags. But as far as overhead costs are concerned they're about the same whether the bag weighs five pounds or fifty which is why the smaller bags cost so much more per pound. Convenience comes at a cost.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

When it rains my feed cups of oyster shell turn to mush. Maybe I have acid rain. Maybe something in the container contributes acidity but it turns to mush.
I assumed since the OP had few chickens they were concerned about long term storage.
Oyster shells are calcium carbonate. The solubility of CaCO3 is very low. The Ksp for CaCO3 is 3.8 x 10^-9.
This means they disolve at a rate 4 times slower than lime.

As a side note, it is a really bad thing for all the oysters in the world.
Excess Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by water.
Mixed with sea water it becomes carbonic acid.
The acidification of the oceans has increased to the point that larval oysters growth is slowed and shells even disolve so the larvae don't survive.
Oyster production in some waters is down 80%.
Chemical change to sea water is 30 times greater than at any time in the last 800,000 years.

 

[Cakela]

Here, manna-pro is the cheap one with a 50 lb bag costing 9.49 or something.

With some other brand selling a smaller 25lb bag for 15 I think.

 

[debid]

I managed to get the big bag for LESS than the small bag because the bag had ripped when they hefted it onto the stack. It was taped up but if you turned the bag, some could fall out. I didn't notice until checkout and when I said I'd go get a different one, they gave me a huge discount to take the defective bag off of their hands. I guess I'm all set for years unless someone has another terrific use for oyster shell.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
Florida has an acid rain problem and has had one for some years now. Of course in a manner of speaking we've always had one which is why we have a karst topography. I have seen unpainted exposed concrete block etched by the rain here. Of course it took decades to be noticeable but it happened.

I have a hopper of oyster shell in the henyard that is directly exposed to the water and the splash off roosthouse roof so it stays wet for long periods of time. The powdery dust that constitutes an unfortunately large percentage of the bags of ground oyster shell I buy does turn to mush when it is wet, but then it's just dust anyway. The chunky bits are pretty much unaffected. I have some out in the pasture that I spilled seven or eight years ago that still have sharp edges on them so the change seems to be slow. It does happen though. I live on the sand ridge which a million or so years ago used to be a dune line when ocean levels were much higher than they are now. No seashells. None at all. The slightly acidic natural rainfall dissolved them. But it took centuries, perhaps thousands of years to happen.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, you are paying for the convenience of a 5lb bag. Same when you buy the 5lb bag of chick starter for about half the cost of a 50lb bag... and how that 50lb bag of feed is probably a lot more per lb than buying 2.5 tons of feed.

I LOL'ed at the oyster's having problems if they melted comment.

I was using oystershell from a pile I found sitting in a "corner" of what used to be one of the old layer barns back home. I was rummaging through the woods and came across the pile among the rubble. The barn probably fell down some time in the 1980's so the shells have been sitting on the dirt for at least 30 years in our perpetually wet PNW with acidic soil perfect for blueberries.

If your shell melts in the feeder... perhaps it is a oyster shell product designed/processed so layers can more easily adsorb calcium.

 

[ChickenAl]

Picked up 50lbs. At Agway today for $12.99. What a bargain!