Lol, that's not what I meant to imply. Just that the dogs would help themselves to the chicken feed as a treat and would gulp down vast quantities of it, when it was in more open containers. I had to fix it so the dogs could not get at it.
Lol cracking has nothing to do with thin shells. When it gets cold enough here, they freeze every few hours! For us, -5 C isn't the low temps, it's the average!It doesn’t get very cold here and leaving (misplaced) eggs overnight with -5°C never caused cracked eggs. I can imagine harsher temps are a problem. In combination with rather soft shells they probably crack sooner.
I have two kinds of feed available for my mixed group. Chick crumble and layer pellets. I can’t buy organic feed for a mixed flock for a reasonable price in the Netherlands. And this seems to work just fine.
The oldies that haven’t laid an egg since last summer /autumn mainly eat the chicks crumble. My oldest prefers the wet chick crumble I make once a day.
The neighbour cats, who come to dinner uninvited, seem to prefer the wet chick crumble too.
I always have crushed oyster shells on the side and give crushed egg shells back. The young hens that lay, eat the egg shells as a treat.
