Calcium For Chickens - Nutrition Part 3

Why Calcium?

Eggs, eggs and more eggs! Seriously though, calcium is important. While it helps with egg production, and I am very excited about our hens beginning to lay, there are more serious reasons why you want to avoid a calcium deficiency. Calcium deficiency will effect your hens bone development and cause conditions like "Cage Layer Fatigue". When the diet does not have adequate calcium, the hen will use calcium from its other bones. The weakened bones are damaged and the hen becomes paralyzed.

 

Egg Shells

One of the easiest and most cost effective calcium supplements is - egg shells! Feel weird feeding your hens their own eggs? I thought it was weird at first but it is a great way to recycle. Read more about feeding eggs to your hens: Chicken Nutrition Part 1.

Oyster Shells

Oyster shells are are easy to come by, rich in calcium and affordable. If you place them in a separate feeder, your hens will take what they need. In my opinion it is the easiest way to supplement calcium. Oyster shells do not replace grit. If you're not free ranging your hens make sure you are adding grit.

 

Limestone

Limestone is another great source of calcium and they do have limestone grit that adds a little extra calcium. One of the nice things about limestone is you can give larger granules of it and they will sit in the gizzard and provide a slow release of calcium carbonate. Most layer pellet uses limestone to provide calcium so I prefer using the oyster shell as a supplement and using regular grit.

 

Fruits

Fruits are great treats for hens but are high in sugar so you should not feed them too much. Generally chickens don't like anything citrus and I know citrus is bad for ducks so I don't feed it to them.

Fruits that are a great source of calcium:

Dried Fig

Dates

Kumquats

Apricots

Oranges 

Kiwi

 

Vegetables and Plants

Vegetables and plants that are a great source of nutrition. I am sure you already give plenty of those to your hens. Here is a list of vegetables will also boost calcium levels:

Arugala

Mustard Greens

Chard

Collard Greens

Kale

Broccoli
Cabbage
Summer squash
Green beans
Brussel sprouts

Asparagus

Okra 

Tomatoes (but no tomato plants!)

 

Dairy

We all know milk builds strong bones! Dairy is a great source of calcium and these are safe choices for your hens:

Cheese

Cows Milk

Goats Milk

Yogurt

*Dairy can be hard to digest sometimes though, so make sure if you  notice an upset that you cut back on the dairy*

 

Herbs, Spices and Seeds

I am very interested in how herbs, spice and seeds can be used to supplement our hens' diet. I enjoy learning about nature provides everything we and our chickens need to survive in proper balances! We don't pay enough attention to "home remedies." Here are some chicken-safe things to try that are high in calcium:

Basil

Thyme - also great for respiratory health, antibacterial, antioxidant

Dill seed - also great for respiratory health, antioxidant and relaxing

Cinnamon - also used to treat diarrhea

Peppermint leaves - also great for parasites and insect control

Sesame seeds - great source of protein

 

 

Layer Feed 

While I love the idea of completely free ranging my hens, I know the only way to guarantee my hens get everything they need is to provide a formulated Layer Pellet. This ensures that they are getting the right balance of vitamins and minerals. I believe a balance of supplements, layer pellet and free ranging is the best way to give my hens the quality nutrition they deserve.   

We feed Nutrena Nature Wise Layer Pellet. It has a balanced ratio with 3.7-3.9% calcium and 0.45% phosphorus. While this should keep my hens nutritional needs met, the feeding instructions does recommend that when pullets begin to lay that you add a calcium supplement (such as oyster shells). While the formula is based on the average chicken needs, your hens will know if they need the extra calcium and will take what they need to supplement.

More Than Just Calcium

 

Vitamin D3

Vitamin D3 is very important in the absorption of calcium. Vitamins and minerals work together and if you don't have the right balance, it doesn't matter if your hens are swimming in calcium - they won't get any of it. Vitamin D3 is produced when their skin comes in contact with sunshine so make sure your hens are getting out of the coop!

 

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is found in grains and cereals and is formulated into chicken feed. Chances are your hens will never suffer a phosphorus deficiency because the foods we feed them are naturally high in phosphorus. Phosphorus is used by the body to develop the skeleton, cells, membranes, body fluids and energy supply. It transfers fatty acids and is involved in the making of amino acids, RNA and DNA. We can't live without it but it is also important to not get too much. 

Calcium and phosphorus work together to form calcium phosphate which makes up the skeleton. They work in a perfect balance. If there is too much calcium, you will see a phosphorus deficiency which will disrupt metabolic systems. If there is too much phosphorus, it will leach the calcium from areas that it is needed (the beak, egg production). Formulated chicken feed has IFP - Inorganic Feed Phosphates in it, making additional phosphorus supplements do more harm than good. 

Here is a list of high phosphorus foods. Make sure these foods are given in moderation and that 90% of your chicken's diet is a balanced formula.

 

Bran

Cereals

Cheese

Mushrooms

Popcorn

Seeds (Squash Seed, Sunflower Seeds, Chia Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Watermelon Seeds, Flaxseed, Mustard Seed)

Soybean

Whey

Whole Grains

 

No Mixing!

Your chicken feed is formulated with safe levels of calcium. Too much calcium is a bad thing. Our hens need everything in moderation. That is why roosters and young chicks do not eat layer pellet. It would be nice if we could just boost the calcium levels of the layer pellet and not have to worry about supplements, but that would cause dangerous levels of calcium. So do NOT mix oyster shell in their feed.

So how do we safely supplement?

Luckily, our girls know what they need. Just like we have cravings, the hens know when they need extra calcium. Provide your hens with supplements that they can choose to skip if they want to. If you leave a separate feeder with grit and oyster shells they will do the work for you and take what they need! This way they are never calcium deficient and they aren't getting high doses of calcium in their regular feed.

Please share your comments, thoughts and stories!

Our First Egg

The day has come. Our hens are now 23 weeks old and when I went to usher one of the Wyandottes out of the coop to get some pictures of her - I found it! There, in the actual nesting box was a cute little bluish green egg. It is pretty tiny, about half the size of a store bought large egg. I cannot explain how exciting it was to see it there, in the nesting box, so perfect! It is perfectly smooth. Judging by the color, we know it is from one of our Easter Eggers, as they are the only breed we have that lay green/blue eggs.

How do chickens make eggs anyway?

Chickens, on average, drop an egg per day and will continue laying until they have "enough" eggs. At this point they will sit on the eggs to keep them warm, the embryos will develop and the eggs (if fertilized) will hatch at the same time - even though they were originally laid on different days. Since we take away their eggs, they feel the do not have enough and keep laying - about one per day. Sometimes, hens will lay more but the natural cycle is a 24 hour period. But where do the eggs come from?

It's All in the Eyes

As I said before, the cycle is a 24 hour period - or "per day". Chickens, just like us, are aware that a day has passed because of the environmental changes. When your chickens eyes takes in the morning light, its photo-receptors signal to a gland near the eyes that starts the cycle. There is a term for this 24 hours cycle, that is seen in other animals and plants - it is called a "circadium rhythm" with circa meaning "around" and dium meaning "day". 

The gland is called the pineal gland, located in the epithalamus, and it produces melatonin. Melatonin regulates our sleep cycle and is directly cued by darkness. The daylight (or artificial light) cues the start of the cycle and the drop of the egg cell - or ovum.

Egg Cell to Egg Shell

The egg cell begins as one single cell, the ovum or yolk. The uterus fills with albumen to protect the yolk and provide extra nutrition to the developing egg. It is what we know as "egg whites" and is mostly water and about 10% proteins. When fertilized, the baby chick will develop and live off the yolk inside the egg. The yolk will also transfer antibodies from the mother hen to the baby chicks. The ovum, yolk and albumen are enclosed in a membrane that forms along the wall of the uterus. Salt and calcium form a hard shell  around this.

Egg Shape

As the shell forms it takes on the shape of the hens uterus. The narrow end faces down.

30 Second Delivery

When the egg is ready and fully formed the hens uterus contracts and the "laying" process begins. While the egg was developing it was travelling from the ovary through the oviduct -"Fallopian tube"- down to the cloaca. The cloaca is an opening that is used for reproduction, urinating and defecating. Hens have one cloaca - or "vent" for feces and eggs to pass through (chicken urine is a white paste that comes out around the stool). The egg is pushed out of the vent with the muscle contractions. The process of laying an egg is pretty quick. It takes longer to fry an egg!

The Clean Truth

It sounds pretty dirty - they are pooping an egg out of the same hole they defecate from! The truth though, is that eggs are basically sterile when they come out. They are very clean! If you notice dirty eggs, it could be that they are getting dirty from the hens walking over them, them rolling through the coop, or it might be a health concern. The egg does leave the chicken through the vent, and so do the feces, but they pass through different tubes. As the egg travels through the last part of the oviduct, the oviduct protrudes out with the egg, past the vent. The oviduct membranes can be seen encasing the egg while it is passing through the vent. With the contractions, it is pushed out of the oviduct and released. The pressure of the delivery pushes the large intestine closed, keeping any feces blocked off while the egg passes through the vent! Shortly after the egg is laid, the oviduct retracts. 

Egg Production Comparison

Orpingtons: 100-200 eggs/year - medium to large brown eggs - lay during winter - very broody - start laying late

Easter Eggers: 250 eggs/ year - blue/green eggs - exceptional layers - our first eggs!

Leghorns: 180-250 eggs/year - large white - best egg to feed ratio

Wyandottes: 100-200 eggs/year - tinted/brown - great mothers - dense feathers around the vent make it harder to breed

If you want to see more breeds compared I found this awesome chart: Chicken Breed Comparison Chart

Nesting Box

So far our nesting boxes haven't been used for much of anything. Everytime I put nesting materials in there, they have kicked it all out in search for food. They don't seem to understand what It is for. Or atleast that is what I thought. I was ecstatic to find our first egg and shocked to see it in the unused nesting box!

As you can see, there is no nesting material left in there and they still decided it was the best place to lay! They have an outdoor run attached to their chicken tractor where they could have nested in the grass, but somehow they knew the nesting box was for nesting!

Nesting Box Basics
-One nesting box per 4 hens
- Location: A dark and safe area that is undisturbed, off the floor for cleanliness. We put our boxes on the opposite side of the roost so that they would roost and poop far away from the nesting box.
-Size: Big enough to fit your chickens but still small enough that they are snug and safe feeling.
- Materials: Try different bedding. You want a lot of nice bedding in there because as you can see, they will easily pull it all out. If they don't seem to like what you have in there - try something different. Straw, shavings, paper bedding.

Get your Hens in the Nesting Boxes
-Decoy: Put ceramic eggs in the nesting box to make them think "not enough eggs there!"
-Confine them: Keep them confined to the area with the nesting boxes when you know they are going to lay (early morning).

Fun Egg Facts

- Double yolks happen when the ovulation cycle happens too quickly, this is common with young pullets who haven't developed a synced rhythm.

- No yolk happens when reproductive particles move into the oviduct and stimulate the production of an egg. People call these "wing eggs" or "cock eggs"

- Eggs are viable for up to two weeks after they are laid. Once the hen decides she has enough eggs and gets broody, she will boost the development of the embryo and the chicks will develop at the same age

- Chickens only develop one ovary and one Fallopian tube

- If hens don't leave the nest after laying, that egg will develop before she gets a chance to lay more

- It takes baby chicks 21 days to develop inside the egg to the point of hatching

- This website shows the cycle of development inside a fertilized egg!

- The Unites States is one of the only countries that refrigerates chicken eggs

- Egg shells are covered in a natural protective layer that fights bacteria and keeps contamination out, when US egg production facilitites clean the eggs they remove the protective layer and expose the thousands of pores in the shell - which means anything that goes on your egg goes into your egg!

Have more fun facts or thoughts to share? Please comment below! We would love to see your first egg pictures and hear your first egg stories!

Feeding Chickens Eggs - Nutrition Part 1

Chickens Eating Eggs?

Yes! Chickens love to eat eggs, it is one of their favorite treats and it is good for them!

Now some people might be a little weirded out by the thought of feeding chickens eggs, and I'd guess anyone would feel weird feeding chickens their own eggs - until you really think about it. We aren't turning our chickens in to little cannibals, the eggs we feed are unfertilized. When a baby chick is growing in an egg they feed off of the yolk. The contents of the egg are what baby chick grow from! What better source of nutrition can you ask for?

Benefits

• Poopy Butt - It has been a while since we've had to worry about poopy butt! Baby chicks have a hard time adjusting to new environments and to eating chicken starter. The first few weeks of their lives are stressful. We ordered our chicks online, which means they were shipped to us. I can only imagine how stressful that was for them. One of the great benefits of feeding your chickens eggs is it helps with this transition. It keeps them from getting their digestive system plugged up. We hard boiled eggs and crumbled the yolk up and put it in their chick starter. Their poopy butt was gone within a day!
• Easy and affordable treat - If you're raising laying hens then you will have plenty of eggs to go around. Save a few to cook up for your hens. This makes for a very affordable treat. We often just give our breakfast scraps to the hens. They love it!
• Tons of nutrition - great source of protein, beta carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E. Making feathers and laying eggs are nutrient sucking activities that our hens are always actively doing. They need the extra protein.

Cook them up first!

I've always fed my chickens cooked eggs. Usually I give them just the yolk of a hard boiled egg. They also love the left overs of a scrambled egg. I've read that if you give them raw eggs they will develop the habit of cracking open eggs before you collect them. I don't want my hens learning that bad behavior so I am sticking to cooked eggs only. If you only feed them cooked and outside of the shell they won't associate this lovely treat with the eggs they lay.

Egg Shells

Some people add oyster shells to their chicken feed to increase calcium intake for their laying hens. I save my egg shells! When I realized I can give the egg shells to the hens I started saving them in a bowl to go toss in the coop. They eat them up! It is way to easy to resist. I love any chance I can get to be self sufficient and use what I have. Every time I toss the shells to the chickens instead of in the garbage I feel a sense of accomplishment! Tip: If you're worried about developing an egg eating habit, ground up the shells to make a power to sprinkle on their feed.

Please share your thoughts or photos of your chickens enjoying eggs!

Eggs?

I can't tell you how excited I am for these girls to start laying. We now have 10 hens that are four months old and 3 hens that are a bit younger (well one of those three might be a rooster).

I've read that some hens start laying around four months. So where are my eggs! Okay, I am impatient.
I am looking for anyway to kick start the process. We read that they need more daylight and calcium to lay eggs. Now that they are in their chicken tractor they are getting plenty of daylight (about 13 hours per day) and we are going to change their feed over to layer pellet for higher calcium.

Any other tips? I want to help these girls along and start the laying! We have Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers and Brown Leghorns. The younger three are Laced Wyandottes.

We are also needing to choose a material for their nests. Any recommendations?