Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: T C on March 11, 2009, 23:26
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Hi, could anyone tell me what is the grit that you buy for the hens made of, i have a job finding any shell or grit here in Spain, can i use fine sand, TC
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We use rough sand here straight off the beach, as well as oyster shell. I am sure if you live near a beach you can get shell and break it up. if you are really short save the egg shells and bake them, crush them up and feed back to them .. the crushing avoids egg eating.
Hens normally eat small stones or grit to digest the food in their gullet, it helps break it down. 1-5mm is ideal.
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Hi, thanks for that, i have been baking the egg shells and grinding them up, but one of my six hens lays an egg with a thiner shell, its much more brittle than the rest, the egg is also a very large egg, this may be why it is brittle? TC >:(
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I have had that a lot, normally in older birds, probably their age or hormones ... lol ... I didn't mean to make a joke of that when I started.
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The poultry grit I buy is a mix of crushed flint and limestone. The particle size is from about 2-4mm I would guess and nice and rough.
The limestone is meant to dissolve for the calcium content and the flint stays in the gizzard as teeth.
As said, if they free range they should pick it up from the soil but best to give some extra just in case. It avoids problems. :)
Rob 8)
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We use rough sand here straight off the beach
Personally I would not use sand from the beach as it contains salt and PG will confirm or not but to much salt in a chickens diet can turn them cannibal. Also you do not know what else is in it. I purchase a bag of sand from a DIY store and give that to them is a bowl it lasts 6-9 months.
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Hi again, i live on to of a mountain, i can see the med but its to far to go to pick up sand, we have all types of sand here for building, i can also put my hands on lime, but are we talking about the same stuff, the lime i can get is used for painting the old walls of the old houses, whitewash i surpose, it can be in powder or solid form, its used as a disenfectant, dose that sound like the same lime as you use in the uk, the crushed shell, well i may have to get one of my vistors next out from the uk to bring me some, today still had the one egg with the brittle shell, the hens are nearly a year old, would you class that as old? TC
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Definitely NOT lime. :ohmy:
It'll burn them.
If you can get some chalk, that'll probably do though it might need mixing with something to make it palatable.
If the mountain's made of limestone, you can chip some off that ! :D
Be careful with any building material in case it has something nasty in it.
Crushed, baked eggshell will help them. If you have any horse supply stores they may have limestone flour or similar. Calcium is the element they need in some digestable form.
Rob 8)
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Hi Poultrygeist, we have a horse, the horse feed stores around here are only basic, i got the hens from one of the stores, they dont sell anything but feed, they think your mad when you explain that you want to buy oyster shell, grit etc, the sand we have on site is what we bought in ourselfs, it comes from a qurrary up the road from here so i should think that would be ok as its dug stright from mountain, its only the one hen all the other shells are fine TC
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Sounds like your sand should be ok then. They can pick out the bits they need.
I guess some hens are more efficient than others. If you make sure there's always plenty of shell to peck at, she can hopefully catch up.
Failing that, get some friends to post on some limstone flour. A few sprinkles can do a world of good. It comes in a big tub and could be posted in smaller amounts but hope customs don't inspect it ....fine white powder :ohmy:
Rob 8)