Hi, folks, Does anyone use limestone as calcium supplementation for their laying hens? I've seen some mentions, but all the recipes I've come across use bonemeal or oystershell; and it seems many people also use eggshell. For [hypersensitive] disease consciousness reasons, I'd like to keep my chickens vegetarian, so I would ideally like to avoid feed ingredients that are products or byproducts of commercially raised animals. And I would especially like to avoid closed cycle feeding (any chicken products). Bugs and dirt are ok :-). Does anyone know what dolomitic limestone really is and whether it is true that this is detrimental to chickens? And finally, does anyone have experience with NOT using calcium supplementation in chickens with access to a small amount of pasture (my half dozen birds will probably have a couple hundred square feet).

Thanks!

-- Lily in Central Coast California (mdtinkle@earthlink.net), January 25, 2002

Answers

Response to Is limestone ok to use as calcium supplement?

do not feed limestone as calcium,, if there are bugs around,, they will get alot from them,, the harder shell kind,, why notfeed the egg shell back to them? It's a great source. and chickens will eat them if given the chance anyways. Dry them,, and crumble them up first. Oyster shell isnt a commercail animal,, and isnt in your "cycle" either,, its also one of the best sources

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 25, 2002.

Response to Is limestone ok to use as calcium supplement?

Feed grade limestone is commonly mixed into poultry feeds, notably for laying hens, so you can use it. The two problems I see are finding a source of the appropriate kind of limestone and convincing the hens to eat it. I think this would pretty much require to make your own laying mash/crumbles/pellets which might be difficult to do if you're not keeping fifty or more hens.

Dolomitic limestone contains a high level of magnesium. Whether this would be beneficial or detrimental to your birds would depend on how much of this element they're already getting in their diets but I suspect it would probably be better not to use dolomite for their calcium supplement. If the birds are true free range then they should get plenty of calcium out of their layer feed and what they scrounge for themselves. If they're not free range and you want to add feed grade limestone in addition to what's already in their layer feed you'd probably be best off to consult an animal feed nutritionist.

If you're concerned about feeding their shells back to them simply roast the shells in a slow oven for a few hours. This will kill any disease organisms and has the added benefit of changing the flavor of the shells to reduce the chance of them egg eating.

Honestly though, oyster shell is about as benign a nutritional supplement as it gets. Never anywhere have I ever read of any concern of any sort of disease transmission from ground oyster shell to poultry.

.........Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), January 25, 2002.

Response to Is limestone ok to use as calcium supplement?

Found one web site that may answer some of your questions, Man itoba Small Chicken Flocks, http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/livestock/poultry/smallflock.html. This sites says that a source of calcium such as limestone or oyster shell needs to be included in the diet of layers. Another source stated that ground limestone (not dolomitic limestone) was acceptable for chickens.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 25, 2002.

Response to Is limestone ok to use as calcium supplement?

They need something, it's hard to get enough calcium from the environment.

Oyster shells are the ticket. What disease problem could you find with them? As a shelfish, it's a whole different food group. Ground & dried there ain't nothin left but shell. Do your chickens a favor.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 25, 2002.

Here ya go! www.thepoultryconnection.com LOL There are chemists etc on this board. These guys can give you the straight skinny. Check with both the poultry forum and the General Waterfowl Forum. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), January 26, 2002.