Lime in the Chicken's Diet

[cwiddah]

I'm currently trying to decide what to include in my homemade feed mix. Harvey Ussery suggest, in his book "The Small-Scale Poultry Flock", to include either aragonite or limestone to increase calcium availability. I bought two products made by Espoma, organic Garden Lime and organic Garden Kelp. The lime states that it is all natural & pelletized, about the size of a red lentil--only round--and that it is safer than hydrated lime. The kelp is a bit larger but no much.

If anyone knows if these products would be safe in feed, please share with me. I'm also looking for a low tech method of grinding grains for a micro flock of six. I have an old fashion iron grinder that I've used for making ham salad; will this work or will it be too labor intensive?

Thanks for reading this post!

 

[GreenMountainEric]

Typically, the lime that is in feed, is different than a fertilizer type lime. A fertilizer type lime is usually too high in magnesium. Feed lime is low in magnesium. I am not sure that I would use the garden lime. With the amount of calcium that chickens eat, you might provide toxic levels of magnesium.

A local feed mill should have feed lime. It is very inexpensive (probably less than $5.00 for 50lb). Small partical calcium is important in a chickens diet, but using oyster shell, as their main source of calcium, wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[cwiddah]

Thanks for your explanation; I will look elsewhere! This forum probably saves thousand of baby chicks!

Have a good one!