providing free choice 'supplements'

[lablover]

My chickens have a semi-moveable chicken tractor with a 14x14 run attached to it. They spend most of their day here, and are turned loose to free range for a few hours a day. I'm currently providing oyster shells for the hens that are laying. I saw someone on here used a tuna can screwed to the coop to hold the oyster shells in, so I did something similar. I found a PVC end cap and screwed it to the 2x4 leg of the nest box inside the tractor. But I'm wondering if I should provide sand for them in there to eat. I don't want to buy grit as I have a bag of play sand that needs to be used. I did have it in an aluminum tray for them, but they just scratched it out everywhere. So should I put it up off the ground like I did the oyster shells? They do get to free range, so can easily get bits of gravel from the driveway, and they have some good loose dirt in their run to roll in, but I just want to make sure they're getting their grit while penned up.

 

[Den in Penn]

Since they get out and can find their own grit, supplementing their grit isn't necessary. If you want, you can of course. Grit isn't used up with each meal. It is like a tool that takes a while to wear out. Once it is worn down to a size to small to work, it gets passed with the rest of the waste. Tacking another dish to a leg is good, that way it moves when the tractor moves.