Tums for Calcium?

[casportpony]

I would also say that calcium carbonate, aka baking soda...

I thought baking soda was sodium bicarbonate?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I thought baking soda was sodium bicarbonate?

Guess you caught me on that one!
Thank you for straightening out my confusion this morning.

Sometimes too many details blur together and get mixed.

ETA: I did get the salty aspect of what I was talking about correct. Just got what I was talking about wrong. Still GREAT conversation, and I appreciate it.

 

[casportpony]

Sometimes too many details blur together and get mixed.

I know the feeling!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would also say that calcium carbonate, aka baking soda... seems salty to me, or is that a misconception? I don't actually go around tasting it... except when it was used in our swimming pool.

LOL I see that Kathy caught it

Baking soda is Sodium Bicarbonate, so it does have a salty taste For humans it works very well as an antacid. I can tolerate the baking soda better than Tums.

 

[chickens really]

Too much calcium as I understand interferes with riboflavin..Things need to be balanced in order to work..All I'm saying..

 

[Hufflefluff]

...I really hate when gardening or other type article put out such CRAP information!

Maybe extra calcium will kinda help with splitting tomatoes... IDK. But I DO KNOW like stated by another poster... that inconsistent watering DOES cause all of my cracking. I would expect the calcium aspect to be more related to things *like* blossom end rot or other clear signs of deficiency in the soil, that can be discerned by the symptoms thrown by the plant/fruit...

I'm realizing I shouldn't trust all books so readily
The author (and I'll have to track down what book it is later) recommended them because calcium carbonate is supposed to strengthen cell walls, therefore allowing tomatoes to deal better with a large influx of water. I don't know, sounds kinda iffy now that I think about it.
Thank you!

 

[casportpony]

Does anyone know what the daily calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D requirements are for a hen or duck that's laying?

 

[lazy gardener]

Good discussion here. I just wanted to add a couple points. Tums are calcium carbonate (CaCO3) but so are egg shells, oyster shells and limestone. CaCO3. is made up of 40% calcium. It gets broken down during digestion and then reformulated into CaCO3 in the uterus (shell gland).
The bulk of the calcium(Ca) in an egg shell is metabolized from the medullary bone in the skeleton of the hen. That then is replaced by Ca in the diet. But plasmatic calcium turnover is extremely fast during eggshell formation, meaning a laying hen's ability to rapidly absorb calcium in all intestinal segments is faster than virtually any other animal instantly supplying the blood stream with the calcium necessary to provide the uterus with needed calcium.
For more detailed information and an interesting read, I refer to this scientific article: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-635X2009000100007

As Mary said, the large particle calcium like crushed oyster shell stays in the upper digestive tract longer than the minute particle in feed and makes it available to the bloodstream during the night when the egg is normally in the shell gland. It has been noted that layers often pick up the oyster shell when the egg enters the shell gland which often happens in the late afternoon. This is because the laying cycle is normally at least 25 hours. For this reason, the bulk of eggs are laid in the morning until the lay cycle catches up to a 24 hour clock and then the eggs begin to come later each day till the hen skips a day, holding the egg that would normally come at night till the next morning.
http://www.nutrecocanada.com/docs/s...-formation-and-eggshell-quality-in-layers.pdf

So to answer the original question, the calcium carbonate from Tums in water would be in solution and some may pass right through the digestive tract without absorption. Further, one wouldn't be able to assess how much the hens are getting.

It is important to note here that there are other things than simply calcium intake that affect shell quality. Most importantly, the ratio of calcium to phosphorus as well as the availability of vitamin D3, magnesium and manganese.
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1003/factors-influencing-shell-quality/
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm013

As for tomatoes, the splitting is a result of soil drying out and then after a rain or irrigation, the plant takes up water faster than the skin can grow and the meat of the tomato swells splitting the skin starting at the stem and progressing down the fruit.
Mulching the plants helps a great deal as well as deep watering.

Excellent post!!!

Re: tomatoes and calcium absorption: Even if the soil has plenty of calcium, the plant can't uptake it in cold weather. that sets the plant up for BER. There are much more economical methods of increasing soil calcium than using Tums! And no need to be adding calcium unless you know your soil is deficient. Better to wait till soil is warm enough, or heat the soil with application of poly tunnels, black plastic, or other methods employed by northern gardeners!!!

problem with putting Ca++ in the bird's drinking water: That would force the birds to intake what ever you are guessing to be the correct dosage. Not a good plan at all IMO!!!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Too much calcium as I understand interferes with riboflavin..Things need to be balanced in order to work..All I'm saying..

I'm not a nutritionist, so can't really say that Calcium interferes with B2.

I do agree with you though, there does need to be a balance (in nutrition), anything in excess can be bad

Does anyone know what the daily calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D requirements are for a hen or duck that's laying?

I don't know

 

[Kenny_]

I don't think humans should be taking tums, much less my chickens. No, no, no.