![]() But extra calcium is essential to help prevent thin eggshells, birds that eat their own eggs, and prolapse. Feeding layer feed will keep laying hens healthy and productive. Laying hens require much more calcium (three to four times) in their diet to support laying and to create eggs with hard shells. Start chicks on grit once they leave the brooder and are introduced to outside forage and feed sources that are not solely a pellet or crumble (grass, greens, bugs) and/or once you start feeding scratch or any grains. The grit is a mix of two particle sizes, so it works for smaller birds and standard breeds. NatureWise poultry feed now offers 7-pound bags of both oyster shell and grit, which is enough to last a small flock all year. Feed stores sell insoluble grit for this purpose. They’ll take what they need for proper digestion. It’s best to give birds free access to grit. (For example, areas with clay soils, lack of small gravel particles, heavy snow cover or grass pastures.) How Much Grit for Chickens Grit should be available even to free-range chickens if there is any chance they can’t find natural grit materials in their surroundings. Many people think free-range birds don’t need grit. The same goes for birds that are confined to a coop and given any scratch, grain or kitchen scraps. Grit is essential for any bird consuming large particle-sized feed (grains, grass, weeds, etc.). But as soon as chickens get other types of feed, they need grit to break it down so the gut can absorb it. Generally, hens exclusively eating commercial feed (think caged production operations) don’t need grit because the feed quickly dissolves in their digestive tract. Lack of grit can lead to digestive blockages, poor feed conversion, discomfort, and even death. Food that mixes with these pebbles is ground up as the gizzard contracts, breaking food particles into tiny specks the bird can digest. Instead, they swallow tiny rocks that end up in their muscular gizzard. Very little of what they eat goes to waste, despite the fact that they have no teeth. Grit for Chickens and the Gizzardįrom beaks to vents, chickens have one of the most efficient digestive systems in the animal kingdom.
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