Too young for oyster shell?

[ksmama97]

I'm really not sure where to put this, but it is sorta about feeding my different chickens, so I'm putting it here.

I have a few sets of chickens in different life stages. I have a group of laying hens that are about 3 years old and in with them I have a new group of chickens (males and females) that are about 12 weeks old. The new set was a group of "Pan Fry Special" we bought at the store along with our Cornish X to use as meat birds. (They seem to be Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red and an Easter Egger) Since they are so young, I put the whole group on grower feed with free choice oyster shell. Well, today I noticed many of the "chicks" eating the oyster shell. Do I need to worry about them? I thought they wouldn't eat it if they didn't need it, but it seems awfully early for them to be picking at it.
If they are eating it, does that mean they would be fine on the laying feed too? That doesn't seem right, but would make things easier.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

I had the same de lima earlier this year. But it turns out that chick won't eat something their bodies don't really need. So provide the oyster shell and the chicks probably won't even touch it.

 

[RJSorensen]

You could raise the feeder above what the chicks can reach, for a short term answer. That way you could go on with your management style as is, and not effect the little ones. I see on BYC that too much calcium in young birds may or can hurt the kidneys. I myself do not know the answer from personal experience. For me it has always been easy enough to issue oyster shell in the big girl pen, and not in the grow out pen.

So for you, you might just consider raising the supply high enough that the younger birds can not reach it.

Best to you and your flock,

RJ

 

[ksmama97]

Well, I'll keep giving them all the meat bird/ grower feed for now. I really can't move the oyster shell out of the reach of the younger birds. They aren't much smaller and can hop up on anything.