Grit, the importance of it in the diet of fowl

In response to a post on another forum, I thought that I would bring my comments here. I have been thinking about grit and was going to one day make a post. But the post there, forced me to reply and get a topic on grit started. I am copying my comments from the other forum, as I do not want to type them again, now that makes some good sense, right???

"Grit. This is the funniest thing, because just a few days ago, as I was pouring piles of grit into the chicken pens, where the snow won't get to it and the chickens...all chickens....can get it, I was wondering if all people know how important it is for grit for the chickens to digest their food. I think this is going to be a lengthy post, no intention of so doing, but I think I am goin' there...

I wonder, someone should do a poll or something to see how many people actually do give their chickens grit, how many people understand how important it is to have little rocks (things like that) to help to grind the food. I know if chickens are ONLY fed water soluable food, like laying pellets, chick starter, crumbles, etc., nothing with anything that needs to be "ground" up to digest, that they don't require grit, and only if they have zero access to any place where they can get something other than water soluable (why is that coming up as a spelling mistake by my auto spell checker, how do you spell soluable anyways, am I making up a word? smiling, maybe I am). I bet there are some that don't know this importance.

That got me to ponderin' the other day. I pondered about the use of grit for a long time and was going to make a post about it. And here we are, one already started. So grit...

We hear of some people's birds just up and dying, getting sick -- I have wondered and also pondered this too, pondered if perhaps those birds did not have access to grit. I don't know, getting sick of me ponderin' about ponderin' yet ? Tough tiddy, gonna ponder some more.

Summertime, in chicken yards, free ranging and so on, the chickens find their own grit. But when the ground is frozen, there is snow cover, they can't get grit. So, pretty sure that birds must be supplemented with this extra grit, whatever form of grit one chooses to use. Remembering, if they are in a place where they ONLY get water soluable (there's that darn word again) food, then they don't need to grind that up, the water ingested does this and the food flows through, out the other end (of course going through the intestinal tract of the bird).

So, ya, grit, I think we need to remember to give them this when they cannot obtain it in a natural way. Not much changes over the diet of the birds in winter, the diet that the human being feeds, but so many things change in the world outside, like snow, frozen pebbles, etc., that the birds cannot get to. So grit.

I get my grit from the place across the highway called Surecrop. I buy for the adults and youngsters one that is called #2, it is a suitable size for the larger birds to utilize. I also know that it can be obtained at the local feed stores, well, at least here we can. I know Buckerfields certainly carries it. For the really younger ones, I get the small grit, no clue what it is in number, but maybe a 1 (duh, that makes sense, right). I do not bother with grit for the babies until they are a couple of weeks old. They are only on starter, water soluable (darn spelling anyways) soluble, OK, figured that out, the word is soluble, I won't fix what I have typed, too many times I have spelled soluble as soluable (that is how it sounds to me, so typed it so). When they are about 3 weeks old, I throw grit into their little places where they live.

Now with the babies that are raised by mammas, I ALWAYS have pools of little gritty stuff around, cause I know that there may not be enough gritty small stuff for the babies, so there are grits spread everywhere. The mamma will show them the grit. Because little ones free range inside the coops, there is always grains and stuff that they munch on, a long, long time before the incubated chicks would ever have had the chance to begin to eat something other than water SOLUBLE, yay, spelled it correctly food.

So, yes, grit, what an excellent post to start, and I am glad that I saw it. This needs to be known to everyone the importance of GRIT and lots of it. Beauty. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM."

Ever drive down a dirt road first thing in the morning, and notice all the birds pecking away at the road? This is what they are doing. Gathering grit. This is why road hunting for grouse is so easy in the AM.
They store it in their gizzard, to later help grind up the food they ingest. Its needed in their diet!

Great post Cynthia.

The gritty truth:

My feed contains grit, I offer 2 sizes of grit, and the birds peck the grit out of the ground when they range. The geese destroyed my sandbags and I there have a heap of grit beside the barn and the cement layer had extra sand and poured it beside the garden. The geese and ducks delight in playing with and eating that pile of grit. Oh, and don't forget the driveway. Everyone heads straight there when they are loose so they can eat grit.

"Look!" said Doug, "The geese and ducks are eating rocks from the driveway. Stop them before they get sick!"

Are we gritty enough for you? Do you want to hear what the goats eat now?

Sue

Good topic, grit is important.
As I understand it they will take in grit to suit whatever their requirements are, if allowed to do so.
I don't know where I read it, but the only cautionary note I have heard is that sometimes young birds will take in to much or too large of grit, and get impacted crops.
I have also read that a little goes a long way.
I think my concern to make sure they get what they need, has resulted in me scattering way to much large and small grit. Its not cheap and when they free range they find their own.
I wonder if mother hens teach their chicks how to manage their crops. I expect they do, only piggy little orphan chicks eat to much large grit, and get into trouble, thinking as I do, more and bigger must be better.
Having said that I would imagine it may be wise to only offer younger birds smaller grit, but that just me speculating.

i know with the whole wheat we feed we need to provide grit so have some as well as oyster shell for the chickens, never sure how much they need but hope they take what they need on their own...
Used to check the gizzards when we cleaned chickens and always found lots of grit in there..
In the summer I can usually scoop the top parts of ant hills, they mine all the fine gravel from the surface of the rm roads for covering their hills, it works great for the juvenilles

I bought calcium grit from surecrop on my last run. Agricultre lime stone I think is the alternative name for it. It was fairly cheap for the little but heavy 20kg bag. Not sure if it makes a difference to the eggs yet but they were not eating the oyster shell. I mix a scoop into their grain when I fill it and every once in a while I throw some with their scratch. My birds also free range and we are all sand here so no shortage of grittyness around!

hey. that anthill thing is brilliant!

I have been worried about brooderbox babies and bought budgie grit and offered that to them. They sometimes take a little but not much.

CynthiaM it is good you have brought up this subject. There is a difference between hard grit and soft grit. Maybe some people don`t know that and only give a soft grit.
When my birds are locked up, I am like you and buy bags of it. I have only been able to find #2 but if I could find the bigger stuff I would buy it cause I have seen the size of the rocks some of my hen choose in the summer!
The bags are little but weigh a ton. I do it about 3 times through the winter. I don't bother when they are free ranging because our drive is gravel and they love it there.
If feeding grains this is so important, like others have said.
I like the ant hill idea too. We have some around here. Do you find your hens will eat ants? Mine in Australia wouldn't, but the ants there are pretty nasty, bitey things!

Absoloutely they love the ants, just go crazy for them...I do feel a little sorry for the ants though but not too much...

.

[quote="HigginsRAT"]Heel low:

I posted a sentence on this topic in my post here:

https://wcps.canadian-forum.com/t2547-feed-to-breed

Supply insoluble grit (granite or marble aggregate) and soluble oyster shell (source of calcium) and this all rounds out what you need to have available for your poultry.

HigginsRAT wrote:Heel low:

Your inputs should quantify your expected outputs...what does that all mean.

It means if you want good birds, you are going to have to feed them well.

Water pure and clean!! We had our water (chemical and biological) tested before we purchased our property. Raising poultry, canines, and livestock means water needs to be good, not only for the humans but for the critters too.

Treats like greens such as romaine and spinach, even a bale of leafy alfalfa in their pen for picking at; gives the birds happiness, not necessarily alot of bonus nutrition, BUT it is the happy, happy factor that counts. Happy birds will withstand much more negatives to their wellbeings and relieves their boredom during long, cold winter confinement. Happy birds can breeze thru stresses...can't avoid all stressors, but we can equip them better to deal and handle these negatives. Access outside to grassy lawns as the season and weather allow, gives them the chance to exercise, chase bugs, nip grass, groom themselves, and socialize in a more natural setting. Oldtimers use to say, even ten, fifteen minutes a day, out on grass helps improve their birds' general outlook on life substantially. Happy, happy!
Sunshine (with access to shade) adds happiness (think of yourself, soaking up that sun, it makes you feel good), sterilizes their plumage, and helps poultry utilize vitamin D. Supply insoluble grit (granite or marble aggregate) and soluble oyster shell (source of calcium) and this all rounds out what you need to have available for your poultry.
Feed, that is one thing you should never EVER scrimp upon with animals. You want beau feathers, great big busty girls, lunkin' boys, want good meat and excellent eggers...you need to feed them to get great results. I don't raise pigeons (especially the exhibition or the racing clan) but when you find someone who does, ask them what they feed and be prepared to sit a while and LISTEN! My good gosh, all the mixes and the formulas...them people put many of us to shame! LOL
The whole article may be found on my website, Tales from Rat World, article 8...

I quoted more from the topic of "feed to breed" of what you said about feeding, I thought it pertinent to the topic. Probably, rummaging for things in the back of my mind while pondering, I may have recalled in the subconscious you speaking about the good needs for good and healthy happy fowl. Be that chickens, pigeons, turkeys, guineas, ducks and the like, smiling. That was probably triggered the pondering about pondering about grit and the extreme importance of it.

I loved the ideas that have been put in here, particularly the one about the ant hill, seems that we have many a big anthill around here for surely. I recall posts on a bee forum that I was very active on, which had many Australian members -- about the anthills in Australia and how the ants were very nasty. Can't recall some of the names of the types of ants(but do recall something about a bufo frog, being nasty too), the problems that beekeepers had with the ants decimating bee hives, extraordinary and very scarey. Now those would be some good sized anthills to be plucking stuff from to feed the chickens, smiling that huge smile. Off topic, my pardon. Just thought about anthills and the size of them. I don't like ants, but find them extremely fascinating!! I digress, a pardon again. Grit...right back to grit...

I do have a question though, soluble oyster shell is being spoken of. I am wondering if this is a different product than the big 50 pound honkin' bag that I can hardly lift, the one that has the broken up oyster shell is what you speak of. And if it is, then why call it soluble, it is very difficult to dig out of the bag and it seems to me that the shells are pretty rock hard. Maybe they dissolve in water? Never thought about that, nor tried it, but hope that for all these years that I have been using the correct product and there isn't another one that should be used instead. Please elaborate (Tara know you won't have problem with elaborating here, you tend to be very long winded, don't get me wrong, that is a most wonderful thing I admire about you .

I picture the bags of grit that I have spread around, the ingestion of the grit by the chickens and then the addition to the gardens, kind of recycling, we have clay soil here, so added sand and of course, grit from the chickens' end result (amongst the myriad of other things we add) make for some nice working soil for sure. Recycled rocks, imagine that.

Ya, a good topic and am lovin' hearing what others are using, and how their chickens obtain grit...beautiful days, CynthiaM.

fuzzylittlefriend wrote:I bought calcium grit from surecrop on my last run.

You bad, now when was that, smiling, next time you do a Surecrop run, you must come over for a cup of tea, if you wanted, you could leave the mill and walk across the field, I would greet you half way across, smiling that huge smile. Or you could just drive for 1/2 minute and come in our driveway. We are right across the road, you can see us when you are looking to the west!! Seriously, if you ever come this way to the mill, take the time to smell the roses, that is smelling a lovely cup of tea, with me!! Or a cold brew, dependent of course upon the weather. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

coopslave wrote: I have only been able to find #2 but if I could find the bigger stuff I would buy it cause I have seen the size of the rocks some of my hen choose in the summer!
The bags are little but weigh a ton. I do it about 3 times through the winter. I don't bother when they are free ranging because our drive is gravel and they love it there.
If feeding grains this is so important, like others have said.
I like the ant hill idea too. We have some around here. Do you find your hens will eat ants? Mine in Australia wouldn't, but the ants there are pretty nasty, bitey things!

Not sure if they make a #3 grit, when I asked at Surecrop, they said that all their chicken customers order #2, so suspect that is the "norm", but I agree, I've seen some pretty big pebbles go down the throat of birds too. I have seen my chickens look at ants and walk the other way, they don't like the ants at my house for surely, but boy oh boy, grasshoppers, and we had a whomping overflow of those this year, nasties!!!! Year before it was those brown stink bugs, EVERYWHERE, all over everything (hardly saw any this year). The chickens didn't like the brown stink bugs (wonder why, smiling again). We get those huge freakin' dew worms on the driveways sometimes when it is raining, everywhere, think they may also be night crawlers, the chickens don't like those either, that is weird, they bypass them too, probably good, cause that could be a carrier of gapeworm anyways, so good thing I think.

In summer, when the birds free range, I don't put out grit, it is everywhere, as you said, but wintertime, yep, as much as they want they can have.

I looked around the chicken yards yesterday and saw absolutely no form of grit from nature that they could get at, probably all frozen in the ground, so felt very good about the handfulls of grit that I have in places outside in their runs, very good about it and I do see the piles diminish, so I know for surely that somethin' is munchin' it all up.

Sometimes when I think about my chickens, it almost makes me cry I love them so much. My eyes tear up, just like now and I can hardly wait to go out in a couple of hours and say good morning. The sun has been shining the past couple of days. It has been cold. The sun comes up over the mountaintop about 9:00. I wait until then sometimes to let them out, that bit of sunshine coming up warms the air so quickly and the birds are so excited to be released from their nightly confines. Oh, today the days are beginning to be longer, yay, now give me a couple of months down the road, and I will really be smiling as the sun comes up over the mountain, earlier and earlier and earlier, until it peaks in mid summer at 6:00, then begins to go the other way again . I love sunshine, did I ever mention that I love sunshine, oh glorious sunshiney days acomin' our way. My chives that I put in the pot (well, a teeny tiny percentage of them, so I could have early greens), are sitting on my porch. Frozen, but in another month they too will show me that the days are getting longer. Rats, here I go again....have beautiful and wonderful days, a warm wish for the holiday season to us all, CynthiaM.

Yes cynthia I will stop in next run. I think I bought that in june My last trip was early october. Now I am lazy and I am getting total pet to order the 18% pellet in for me. But I will be up that way again soon I will probably have two munchkins in tow as well!

Anne

Also I wanted to say if anyone had any opinion on the calcium grit I would love to hear. The pebbles are pretty big I was a little suprised!

Anne, anytime you are my way, give a call, children in tow is wonderful, kids are just the best in the west. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

fuzzylittlefriend wrote:Yes cynthia I will stop in next run. I think I bought that in june My last trip was early october. Now I am lazy and I am getting total pet to order the 18% pellet in for me. But I will be up that way again soon I will probably have two munchkins in tow as well!

Anne

Also I wanted to say if anyone had any opinion on the calcium grit I would love to hear. The pebbles are pretty big I was a little suprised!

Anne, let me know what Total Pet is charging you. I get my 18% from Buckerfields but sometimes I think they are really over priced!! I get the horse feed there so I am a bit lazy with one stop. Freemans in Rock Creek is usually the best price, from what I have found, but it means an extra trip in the other direction for me.
They are eating me out of house and home at the moment!!!

Yes I find buckefields a bit of a rip off for pretty much everything!

Total pet charged 13.95 a bag for 18% layer pellet amd 11.50 for chick scratch. If you buy 10 or more bags they give you 5% off. It used to be 10. Direct from sure crop the pellet is 11.50 and scratch 9.5 I believe. So if you go and buy enough to make it worth it its totally worth it! Plus there is the log barn to stop at and the paddock and now cynthia too!

They are a bit of a pain to order with as they have screwed up in the past. If you order I would leave at least a 2 week window as they only get an order once a week.

Anne

Remember the post about feed: it might pay off to make a road trip if you don't count travelling time as monetary worthy, just something fun to do, smiling.

Sure crop November 2011
18% layer pellets 11.30
17% grower pellets(called roaster finisher) 11.65
hen scratch 9.30
cracked corn 10.25

I have never found them out of product, they make it there , have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Thought id revisit this thread. You wouldn't believe the trouble Ive had finding granite grit this year. I always like to get some for over winter. Ufa which should know something about poultry feeding could not understand why I would want rocks to feed go my chickens. Finally was able to get them to order in a bag of #2 from Lethbridge and a bag of #3 from taber but medicine hat did not have such a thing in stock!

mirycreek wrote:Thought id revisit this thread. You wouldn't believe the trouble Ive had finding granite grit this year. I always like to get some for over winter. Ufa which should know something about poultry feeding could not understand why I would want rocks to feed go my chickens. Finally was able to get them to order in a bag of #2 from Lethbridge and a bag of #3 from taber but medicine hat did not have such a thing in stock!

Thanks for bringing this timely topic up Miry.

Absolutely can relate...you MIGHT find No. 1 (bantam size for chickens and ducks) but if you want #2 (good for Hookbill Ducks and standard chickens), or #3 (geese and turkey size)...blah!

We ordered a pallet of No. 1 granite and pallet of oyster shell last year because we became tired of picking up ten bags (well OK, their inventory said they had that on hand but when you got round the back there'd be 7 and two ripped open) only to have an incomplete order filled. Bought a few #2 and #3 but need to get some more of that size as we are near out.



I bet some think you feed rocks to make them weigh more...wow, a 40 pound heritage tom! Kewl!

Yeh, what do you need rocks for? If the birds free range and you have some rock areas, then Fab! But we winter don't we here in Canada? In winter on deep bedding, there is no access to rocks and even if let out on a nice day...ice and snow coverage makes them unable to pick up the insoluable grit they require. Ever see flocks of birds on the back roads after the winter grader passes...think the machine had uncovered gold, eh?

Yeh buying rocks...I always laugh! Haul it home, off load, a stack of bagged up rocks. One bonus, don't really have to store it as securely as the feed and grains. It does need to be stored in a dry place...getting wet and freezing up would not be good.

I guess these "agriculture" places will continue to degrade in the help they hire. Kinda sad as we can see the art of animal husbandry is being lost at an alarming rate. At one time, EVERYONE out in the back 40 kept a few chooks; no decent right farm yard was complete without a few fowls as eye candy! People knew how to put a Sunday dinner on of chicken and dumplings. Life was alot more in tune with Nature and in my opinion, naturally REAL!

Be warned too, I ALWAYS have a few bags of starter (chicken, duck and turkey) on hand over winter, bought in the fall because trying to find a bag or three when you begin spring hatching is daunting. Chicken, sure, ducks and turkey, they do that you can use "chick starter" and that so gets my blood boiling...want to reach over the counter and slap them in the back of the head! You ever see a turkey out swimming...how about a chicken in the swamp? They don't live in the same places to harvest what they need for themselves to grow up decent. Cripers! In a pinch, use hard boiled egg yolk if you forget to stock the starter, till the "AG" (more like "argh") store can get some brought in.

I was watching a late night movie, The Cowboy Way (laughing, it was entertaining to see horses racing thru NYC) and noted when the one fella drove up to "the ranch" in New Mexico, a gobbling tom turkey ran outta the way of the truck (along with some chickens). THAT was what you expected to see out in the country. Now you see enclosed big barns, way off in the distance and wonder if they are raising pigs, poultry or ?? Old MacDonald is more a theme park than a reality.

I think our world is getting more and more dismal all the time. So happy for those of us that keep chugging along with the birds...

Tara

The UFA in Vermilion is excellent. The same people have been working there FOREVER.

They've never not had the thing I was going for.

CynthiaM wrote:Sometimes when I think about my chickens, it almost makes me cry I love them so much.  My eyes tear up, just like now and I can hardly wait to go out in a couple of hours and say good morning.  The sun has been shining the past couple of days.  It has been cold.  The sun comes up over the mountaintop about 9:00.  I wait until then sometimes to let them out, that bit of sunshine coming up warms the air so quickly and the birds are so excited to be released from their nightly confines.  Oh, today the days are beginning to be longer, yay, now give me a couple of months down the road, and I will really be smiling as the sun comes up over the mountain, earlier and earlier and earlier, until it peaks in mid summer at 6:00, then begins to go the other way again    .  I love sunshine, did I ever mention that I love sunshine, oh glorious sunshiney days acomin' our way.  CynthiaM.

Awww, I like your quote Cynthia!  Hope you still feel this way about your chickens, although now the sun is going the other way,
Anyhow I just liked this, the way you couldn't wait to go out and see your chickens!
That explains exactly how I feel just about every morning when I go out to check all the cats and dogs and horses and chickens and ducks and fill up their feed and fresh water, exactly why I do it all!
Even this morning when I was feeling a tad stiff after a bout of "trick riding" yesterday (chasing neighbour's cow out of our pasture and neighbour's cow decided to take my 16.5 hand high Walking horse out in order to get to the dog!"

Miry, such kind words, thank you. Yes, I still feel that childish excitement, as I go each morning to let out my birds. In the buff orpington side, there is all the buffs and the cochins, about 20 of them, that are now 16 weeks old or so, and the mamma with 6 little 10 day old babes. That is a whole lotta chickens that coming, literally, pouring out that little pop door. I need to get a video one day, it is so funny. Yes, I shall, for surely, one in a million shot and it is just, well cool. We all love our birds in our own ways. the days are for surely shortening, sunup over mountain is now 7:30, it was 5:40 at summer solstace. Brrr....coldish mornings, but then the glorious sun, she raises her head and that warmth does come. Oh. this was about grit. Yes, I have my couple of bags of grit, those snow days will be here in a couple of months, and there is no grit to be found in nature. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.