[bygrace]

Hi - like Andrew4613 I've just bought my hen house and am now excitedly building the runs - one fixed to the house and one moveable. And  ???I'm beginning to buy all the bits and pieces 

How much grit does a chicken eat? I'm planning on 3 or 4 girls, and my local farm supplier has 20kg bags. That seems an awful lot of grit! Also in the interest of recycling I plan to use crushed egg shells for calcium - how fine should this be (fine like sand, or the size of porridge oats?) - and again, how much do they get through?

Thanks - I've already been feeding the odd question - lots more to come I'm sure!!

[Casey76]

A 20kg sack sould last several years!

Soluable grit in the form of oystershell should also be provided (separately to the insoluable grit) as feeding eggshell is not an efficient form of calcium supplementation.

Any calcium supplementation whould be provided on an ad lib basis and not mixed with feed.

I have a 1kg hopper for grit and another for shell, and i find i only top them up about every 6 months or so (between 19 birds)

[bygrace]

Thanks Casey76, that certainly puts things into perspective!
Great help.

[Dominic]

Be very wary with egg shells.
The last thing you want is your chickens to associate egg shell with food.


Both Oyster shell and hard grit are cheap in 20kg bags, which will last almost forever, mine have them in little feers hung on the run walls, they can top up as and when they wish.