Putting grit in at 4 weeks??

[chickens really]

that depends on where you live.

Once it becomes grit size its no longer dirt. Dirt generally means soil, not sand, small gravel, etc. 

Not sure what your grass clumps are like?.....My grass is all dirt!.......


Cheers!

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: Not sure what your grass clumps are like?.....My grass is all dirt!.......

Cheers!
Plenty of grit in my soil.

 

[eggbert420]

Buying somthing like grit is for suckers. It is readily available on the ground, Before feed store's chickens got their grit from the ground. Aka soil, dirt whatever you want to call it. If you live somewhere like Louisiana and the ground is muck, you can still find rocks on river beds streams parking lots the stuff is free folks.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I don't mind buying it. One bag is $5 and so far has lasted me a year even though I hatch hundreds of chicks and guineas a year. I just toss a small handful in the brooder during that first week. After that they have access to the brooder run and find stuff on their own, but it gives them a head start since its almost a given that they will eat bits of bedding.

Where I live is mainly sand and fine particles so it would take a bit of effort (for me) to find chick sized particles that aren't just dust (I know it's out there, since I don't offer grit to broody raised chicks, though) but their eyes are better at finding it and picking it up. I'm not too upset with wasting 40 cents a month as insurance.

I do also buy the regular bag of grit for my big birds, even though they free range for at least 5 hours a day (except in winter because the days are too short). That's about $9 a year for three dozen birds and I only put out about a cup a month and they gobble it up. The same goes with oyster shell, which I do put out, and they gobble up. I don't put it out regularly since I give them egg shells and our drive way is clam shell,yet I did get two soft shelled eggs this week from my Faverolle, so I put more oyster shell out. Go figure.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I buy grit as well just to ensure I have clean rocks of the proper size, and it really isn't very expensive and lasts a long while. My soil has rocks mixed in but they're mostly large and chunky.