Oyster shell- they all ate it

[chickengeorgeto]

Thank you. Good to know they will stop eating it if they don't need it

The flip side of the same coin is that these hens needed more limestone or oyster shell and that they were not getting what they needed. Everyone should take this lesson to heart. The same is true of grit.

 

[snow5164]

I’d be checking my food if they went crazy over oyster shells, why are they lacking? Aren’t they on layer feed? I too add a bit to food if I’m getting thin shells , I also add grit and it gets eaten too . All good here

 

[LittleMissCountry]

The flip side of the same coin is that these hens needed more limestone or oyster shell and that they were not getting what they needed. Everyone should take this lesson to heart. The same is true of grit.

Good point. They do free range for at least a few hours each day and always have access to grit in their coop. They did slow down on the oyster shell. Now only two of them are eating it on a regular basis, and the level hasn't changed much over the past 24 hours.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

I’d be checking my food if they went crazy over oyster shells, why are they lacking? Aren’t they on layer feed? I too add a bit to food if I’m getting thin shells , I also add grit and it gets eaten too . All good here

I haven't started them on layer feed yet. They will be 18 weeks tomorrow. They have been eating starter/grower, and I am buying some layer feed tomorrow, to have on hand. I wanted to wait until at least one of them laid an egg. Then I was going to gradually mix the layer with the starter/grower for about a week, transitioning over.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My roosters will eat oyster shell, too, at times. Don't ask me why. They just do. If it's there, whoever is in the pen will eat it, some more, some less. At that age, it won't hurt them.

Your roosters are likely hurting for grit and oyster shell is the closest thing to grit that they can find.

 

[speckledhen]

Your roosters are likely hurting for grit and oyster shell is the closest thing to grit that they can find.

Absolutely no way they are hurting for grit @chickengeorgeto . We live on a mountain. The entire property is full of grit. Their pen is nothing but grit. So, there would be a different explanation for it. My birds are not penned. Plus, the 13 grain conditioner grain mix we use for scratch has grit included in the mix as well.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Absolutely no way they are hurting for grit @chickengeorgeto . We live on a mountain. The entire property is full of grit. Their pen is nothing but grit. So, there would be a different explanation for it. My birds are not penned. Plus, the 13 grain conditioner grain mix we use for scratch has grit included in the mix as well.

A once owned a piece of land chopped full of rocks but that same land was not rich in the appropriate type and the correct size of rocks to serve as grit. Despite my farm being covered in small rocks anywhere from the size of your thumbnail to as big as a golf ball, my birds still needed grit to be all that they could be. Where the land had eroded away because of the ravages of time there were whole limestone slabs the size of school buses, but that didn't mean that there was enough calcium carbonate (Limestone) readily available that I could avoid feeding oyster shell. In my eyes the goal is to see how much you can do to help your chickens, not how little you can get buy with.

 

[speckledhen]

In my eyes the goal is to see how much you can do to help your chickens, not how little you can get buy with.

I'm not a neophyte chicken keeper, no need to lecture. They get enough proper grit, don't you worry yourself about it one little bit. My birds are better cared for than most chickens I know of, no "getting by" here.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I'm not a neophyte chicken keeper, no need to lecture. They get enough proper grit, don't you worry yourself about it one little bit. My birds are better cared for than most chickens I know of, no "getting by" here.

Great, way to go. Now if you and I could only convince the other 90% things would be really looking up for our feathered friends.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I'm not a neophyte chicken keeper, no need to lecture. They get enough proper grit, don't you worry yourself about it one little bit. My birds are better cared for than most chickens I know of, no "getting by" here.

Oh, buy the way I only quoted your post because it fit in so well with my first post in this thread. HAGDNYH?