What did our great grandparents do about oyster shell?

[kinnip]

I suspect folks were a lot less queasy about feeding meat scraps and ground bone to their birds back then, too.

 

[willheveland]

I always wondered too.How about 14-16 hours of light?Or heat lamps?How about insulated,draft free coops,they didn't even have insulation in their homes let alone their chicken coops.They fed scratch too,lots of it.
Isn't it amazing we are even here,when our ancestors never had anti-bacterial soaps and bottled water? I wonder sometimes if they would look at us and shake their heads.We stress over our light,cable,and internet bill.My great grandfathers stressed over wondering if their gardens were big enough to get their familys through winter. Will

 

[swampducks]

I have no idea whether my grandparents had chickens. However, for my birds I take egg shells and bake them then crush them up. I figure if they're baked they won't get a taste for raw egg shell and risk breaking up fresh eggs.

Then again, as none of my chickens are old enough to lay I only have the experience with ducks. Seems to work with them.

 

[JennsPeeps]

According to my grandma, my great grandmother (her mother) always had chickens in every house they ever lived in. Their last home abutted an area that is now a public park, so she probably let them free range.

I'm surprised at what chickens will eat. They'll pick bones clean and love LOVE shrimp shells.

 

[modenacart]

I give mine shells but they don't really eat much of them. I think before they didn't worry about light, I think that is where easter comes from. They stopped laying when there wasn't light and started to lay around easter time. I think thats way kids look for the eggs because the chickens started to lay again.

 

[LynneP]

My uncle Harold used to go to the beach with a feed bag and gather up all kinds of sea shells then crush them in the bag with a rock. He also used to rinse eggshells and put them back in the coop. Today's layer feeds usually have ground oyster shell in them- you have to check though! I have some sea shells that I plan to give to my girls for amusement's sake, but then I live near the ocean..

Oh and I also notice that they adore land snails, we've had a lot at the edge of the run this year because of all the moisture.

 

[Indiana hens]

I see snails with shells everywhere I go. You find a bunch in plowed fields. I don't know any use for egg shells so I'd throw them outside back when. That wouldn't be the reason early American Indians wore beads and shells so to keep the chickens close? My grandmother fed oyster shells when the eggs started getting thin. Bones from little toads. Rolly poleys have good shells and my chickens LOVE them!

 

[d.k]

* Some probably used bonemeal, dolomite, limestone, or chalk (the real stuff, not what we call "chalk" today.)

 

[Village Farm]

Oyster shell has been plentiful and cheap for many, many generations. I'm sure some of our grands used it.

As others have pointed out, there are many sources of dietary calcium for chickens besides shell. I'm not sure when commercial chicken feeds first became widespread, but it can't have been terribly long ago that chickens either ranged free or were fed table scraps including eggshells and small bones.

We'll give our chickens oyster shell because it's cheap and readily available, but I suspect their diet already has plenty of calcium because they free-range much of the day and have all the bugs, worms, dirt, etc. they can catch. (Not that the dirt is all that difficult to capture...)

I'll find out once they start laying. That will probably be in November, so they probably won't be wandering the yard much beyond then and we'll give them oyster shell. We had a couple of feet of snow in the yard from December through April last winter.

 

[keljonma]

Quote:
I looked through some old notes from my mom. Her mother also fed the chickens the whey from milking/cheese making.