I have six lovely young girls, 16 weeks old, eating a mix of Manna Pro Trip-L-Duty and Purina Flock Raiser. None of them look close to laying judging by their small, pale combs and wattles but I've been reading lots of posts here and it was suggested by some to put out a mix of grit and oyster shell and they would eat it if they needed to. So I cleaned a cat food can, punched holes in the bottom, screwed it to the post in their pen and filled it about 1/3 of the way with grit and oyster shells. This was yesterday. Today when I came home from work about 5 p.m. it was almost all gone and I've noticed that their combs have gone from being somewhat pale to quite a bit pinker.
Have I been denying my girls some basic nutrition by not feeding them calcium? They actually get yoghurt two or three times a week and have always seemed extremely active and healthy. Their run has sand as the floor and I've had grit available to them for a few weeks, ever since they started ranging the yard.
My chickens are actually a part of a larger flock that I raised from chickdom and then split with my neighbor when they were about 12 weeks old. He had a group of older RIR hens who were already on layer feed so they were getting calcium in their feed and he just fed the younger chicks that food. I noticed that their combs and wattles were a lot redder than my chicks who were raised with them.
So I guess my question is whether the calcium intake causes the red combs? And if red combs can be a sign of incipient laying am I causing them to lay before they're ready? They really don't have well developed combs, even the NHR who has the biggest.
Thanks
Mary
Have I been denying my girls some basic nutrition by not feeding them calcium? They actually get yoghurt two or three times a week and have always seemed extremely active and healthy. Their run has sand as the floor and I've had grit available to them for a few weeks, ever since they started ranging the yard.
My chickens are actually a part of a larger flock that I raised from chickdom and then split with my neighbor when they were about 12 weeks old. He had a group of older RIR hens who were already on layer feed so they were getting calcium in their feed and he just fed the younger chicks that food. I noticed that their combs and wattles were a lot redder than my chicks who were raised with them.
So I guess my question is whether the calcium intake causes the red combs? And if red combs can be a sign of incipient laying am I causing them to lay before they're ready? They really don't have well developed combs, even the NHR who has the biggest.
Thanks
Mary
