Giving Your Egg Layer Hens Calcium

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A chicken egg's eggshell is a whopping 94 percent calcium carbonate.

A layer calcium deficiency in a laying hen can show up in many different forms.

Common calcium deficiency symptoms in layer chickens include a shell-less egg. It could also exhibit itself as an egg with merely a thin shell (sometimes even translucently clear!).

That's why even healthy egg-laying hens need calcium supplements.

A layer hen's calcium requirements rise as she gets older, or as the weather heats up.

So, how do you give your layer chickens calcium?

You can give your egg-laying hens calcium by feeding the chickens limestone or ground oyster shell supplements (offered free choice in a separate feed hopper).

Your layer hens may also benefit from a Vitamin A, D, and E powder vitamin supplement added to the laying chickens' water every other day of the week.

Some hobbyists also wash, dry, and finely crush old egg shells and feed them back to the hens.

Feeding eggshells to your layer hens can be a cheap source of calcium for your laying chickens. It also recycles the calcium they've already digested!

One important note to remember when feeding eggshells to your egg-laying hens is that they need to be cleaned and crushed so as to not resemble a chicken egg and encourage egg eating in your chicken flock.

You can give the oyster shell or limestone grit in a dish and let the chickens peck at it whenever they need it.

poultryOne forum member Heidicat says "...a bowl, or a pet self feeder works just fine for the grit. [Use] Oyster shell after you see the first egg. I picked up a couple of self feeders for cats, at a garage sale, and cut the bottoms bigger to let the grit and shell flow easier. Put them up on a cement block, to keep them clean, and it has worked for years now."

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