Oyster shell question

[Driley62]

Pullets do get a craving for calcium before laying.
I put out calcium at 17 weeks old with my seven Barred Rocks.
They started eating it like candy for for 3 days. They went through about 3 cups before slowing way down.
They started to lay between 20 and 23 weeks.
I only got a couple of thin shelled eggs from them and I never gave them Layers feed, just All-Flock, Flock Raiser or Non-Medicated Starter-Grower feed.
They were my second Flock.
With my third Flock, 5 ISA Browns I put out Oyster Shells at 15 weeks old and they consumed but didn't go crazy for it. They started to lay between 17 and 22 weeks. I know, I thought I had dud.
Four were laying by 19 weeks. I just about gave up on her.
So now I offer Oyster Shells at 15 weeks old.
My 8 youngest girls are 12.5 weeks old,View attachment 2791591 and I'll put out a container of Shells for them at 15 weeks.
I keep two Flocks each with their own coop and pen.
As for starting to lay, swollen red combs wattles, squatting, and fidgety nervous behavior, checking nest boxes or scratching around in a dark corner of the coop. GC

I actually had it out the entire time for my older girls for obvious reasons. The young ones had no interest in it until theist few days but not a ton of it. I honestly thought it was kind of odd that they all of the sudden got a taste for the shell.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Yeah, I read they get a craving for Shells to add calcium to the Medullary bones before onset of lay. GC

 

[Driley62]

Yeah, I read they get a craving for Shells to add calcium the Medullary bones before onset of lay. GC

So it could have other benefits for the birds aside from the typical egg shell aspect then! Cool! I'd just hate for them to eat it and hurt themselves in the end.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Here is a hen from the same clutch. Its an older photo and she hasn't changed at all(can't find more recent picture). I have two white leghorns and this is the hen out of the two. Pretty much a single dalmatian spot so I get what you mean. But it is surprising you .a aged to get a CX to live long enough to lay eggs! You still have her around?

Culled her recently, she was coming up on about 14 months of age (its on one of the last pages off my thread, maybe 3 or 4 pages from the end?) and going thru a hard molt. In combination with the heat, the kindest, most efficient, thing seemed to cull her and make her into sausage (the last of which i made this AM with breakfast). I already had a decent number of good offspring from her, and was eager to cull the dominant white out of the flock - since she wasn't laying while in molt, was suffering our heat, still eating like a pig, and the CX are known for just falling over dead in high heat - I figured I'd "repurpose" her while i had a choice in the matter.

 

[Driley62]

Culled her recently, she was coming up on about 14 months of age (its on one of the last pages off my thread, maybe 3 or 4 pages from the end?) and going thru a hard molt. In combination with the heat, the kindest, most efficient, thing seemed to cull her and make her into sausage (the last of which i made this AM with breakfast). I already had a decent number of good offspring from her, and was eager to cull the dominant white out of the flock - since she wasn't laying while in molt, was suffering our heat, still eating like a pig, and the CX are known for just falling over dead in high heat - I figured I'd "repurpose" her while i had a choice in the matter.

Made sense