4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Pedro1962]

I took myself off this afternoon to stock up on hen supplies in advance of their arrival on 01.07.09.

 

I was wondering about the different types of grit mix that are available.

 

In the omlet shop, they have 1.25kg for £4.50 HERE

 

However, at GJW Titmuss where I went for the majority of the stuff, they had a 25kg sack for only £6.70 HERE.

 

Am I right to assume that there are different levels of quality?

 

Can anyone point me in the direction of the "best" mix?

[The Dogmother]

It's probably the same stuff, just packaged and labelled differently.

 

They need two types of grit:

 

Soluble grit; usually in the form of crushed oyster shell. This provides calcium carbonate to strengthen the egg shells and help the hen to produce the contractions to lay the egg.

 

Insoluble grit; the little flinty bits in the mixed grit - these pass through to the gizzard where they grind up the food. If your flock free ranges, then they will be likely to get enough of this stuff.

[Pedro1962]

Thanks.

 

There does seem to be a terrific price difference.

 

By my (admittedly ropey) maths, the omlet grit works out at £3.60 per kilo and the other stuff is £0.26 per kilo.

 

If it's all the same quality wise, it would seem churlish to refuse the cheaper stuff...

[Hen Watch]

I'd be inclined to go for the big 25kg bag. When you click to enlarge the picture it shows the wording Oystershell on the pack which is good as that's soluable calcium.

 

When I first got my chooks I used to buy small overpriced grit from pet shops. Now I've got a 25kg bag £6 of mixed poultry grit from Country Wide Farmers store and it will last years and years.

[Scuttle]

We bought the mixed grit from Titmuss and it's absolutely fine! Our three chickens have only got through a fraction of the bag in the past year.

 

Ideally we could do with a bit more oystershell in it as they tend to pick that out first but they probably get quite a bit of grit from free ranging in the garden.