Increasing Calcium

     I hear a lot about soft egg shells and what can help with this.  There’s lots of supplements on the market and some are very good.  I myself have not used any supplements for this since my girls have always given us beautifully hard shelled eggs.

Of course diet always plays a huge part in this and chicken health and a balanced diet are important when you’re raising chickens.  Since the purpose of my blogs are to help you work with what you have, can recycle or obtain for minimal cost, I want to share these tips on what I’ve given our flock.

Calcium is important for them, they get it through a balanced feed and you can also add oyster shells or something you do have around now that you’ve got the chickens!  Crushed egg shells!  Now some say not to feed them eggs since they develop a taste for them and wind up eating their own, but I feel and also what I’ve heard is that it all depends on how you go about it.  I never feed them raw eggs, I will give them some scrambled eggs which is different.  When I use eggs, I simply rinse the egg shells and let them dry well.  The next day I just crush them up with a mortar and pestle.  You can also place them in a plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin, however, I find the mortar and pestle work better.  Once crushed I place them in a canning jar and this way when I want to add them to whatever I’m giving them it’s quick and easy peasy.

Some mornings I sprinkle some over their “chicken mush” as I call it which consists of fermented feed and other times I just provide some in a separate feeder for them to peck at.  Another calcium treat for them are lobster or crab shells.  We topped off our weekend this past Sunday with delicious crabs for dinner and why not share it with the flock.

Monday morning they enjoyed it and they’re just gonna recycle it right back to us with nice hard shells.  Thank you ladies!

 

 

Have an Outstanding Day!

                                             Cindy

 

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