What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Luvachicken]

I bought a copy of 'Your Chickens' last month and it said something about giving crushed egg shells to chickens was a waste of time and of no benefit to them.

I have given mine crushed egg shell ever since I got my first chickens 4 and a half years ago. They have grit too.

Have I been giving them something useless all this time ?

They always seem to like eating it when I give it to them

[Plum]

No it gives you something to do I've read that as well but have no idea.

[The Dogmother]

No it gives you something to do

 

 

I give mine crushed egg shells along with a squirt of cod liver oil and their egg shells are always strong and hard. As with most things, there are supported and nay sayers... make your own decision

[Luvachicken]

Thank you both

It does indeed give me something to do especially as I have no job at the moment.

At least it does use up all the egg shells so I will keep giving it to them.

[PoachedPlease]

I have not yet heard of a single chicken that has been calcium deficient and are on layers pellets. The calcium percentage is at the right Level and I wouLd worry that giving more in the form of shell would put more stress on the kidneys. I guess like giving chicks layers pellets...which I learnt from here is bad for them.

 

I think the whole eggshell thing is a hangover from ye olde days when people fed chickens s"Ooops, word censored!"s and corn, so couldn't be sure they had enough calcium in their diet....bung them in the compost bin!

 

Xx

[The Dogmother]

Adding extra calcium (not necessary all the time) helps if the owner is giving the flock too many treats/s"Ooops, word censored!"s, or if you have a hen which has an impaired ability to absorb calcium. The addition of cod liver oil helps with this.

[redsunset]

I remember sometimes at my grans when I was small the kitchen smelling lovely with the aroma of meringues, only to find a tray of crushed egg shells in the oven which she then crushed down further for the hens!!

 

I did do it myself a couple of times but as I have a large area of gravel/grit on my drive and round the back of my house I stopped as it was a faff. Egg shells are hard as nails, but for those who maybe don't have access it's maybe not a bad idea as some old ideas were good? She also lived near an enormous beach and used to take up buckets of crushed shells for them too, so my mum told me.