- May 19, 2009
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Hi and welcome!
If you are going to raise your hens to be egg layers, then it is important you give them the right granite grit at the right time in their development. Chick grit from 1 thru 3 weeks old. "teenage " size grit from 4 thru 7 weeks old. Adult sized grit from 8 weeks and older. The right grit at the right time will not help them grow faster. It will help them develop a larger and better functioning gizzard. I have been studying this all week. Now the gizzard is vital to proper digestion of the feed. What this means to you is that when the hens reach laying age, their better quality gizzards will cause them to digest their feed better. This will increase your egg yield up to 20%. It also means your hens will eat slightly less feed per dozen eggs than hens raised without grit. Fascinating, huh? I thought so.
Not every grit will do There are a bunch out there. Grit has 2 functions. It helps grind the feed and it helps deliver calcium to the hen. So with a plethora of different grits wth different composititons out there, what should we choose for best effects. You wouldn't believe the large number of scientific studies done on that topic! But after all is said and done, the best combination once the hen starts laying is adult sized granite grit and also crushed oyster shells. The grit is for the grinding, the oyster shell is for the calcium. OS helps a little in the grinding but gets worn down too quickly by the acids in the chickens gizzard to use oyster shell for grinding alone. The granite has sharp edges which stay sharp a lot longer.
Now if you are raising broilers on all mash only you don't need to worry about grit. It will make a small difference but not enough to worry about. Except..doncha just love it when someone writes that?...except... if you are going to finish your broilers by adding whole grain to their diets. If you do that then you should also add adult sized granite grit to their diet at the same time. That way they will put on more weight in the same time during finishing than if you fed the mash and whole grains without any granite grit.
Did you know that if you put a hollow iron tube capable of supporting between 435 and 520 lbs. in the gizzard of a turkey, the gizzard will completely flatten it? That's the kind of force in that large bird. The gizzard of a chicken contracts about every 19-20 seconds.
I use Gran-I-Grit for my poultry. It is made by North Carolina Granite Company ( website). Comes out of the world's largest open air granite quarry. They have been making it since 1935. They make all three sizes. I get mine at Agway. About 10.00 for 50 lbs. . Learn more here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/gran-i-grit-insoluable-crushed-granite
Best,
Karen and the Light Sussex
in western PA, USA
If you are going to raise your hens to be egg layers, then it is important you give them the right granite grit at the right time in their development. Chick grit from 1 thru 3 weeks old. "teenage " size grit from 4 thru 7 weeks old. Adult sized grit from 8 weeks and older. The right grit at the right time will not help them grow faster. It will help them develop a larger and better functioning gizzard. I have been studying this all week. Now the gizzard is vital to proper digestion of the feed. What this means to you is that when the hens reach laying age, their better quality gizzards will cause them to digest their feed better. This will increase your egg yield up to 20%. It also means your hens will eat slightly less feed per dozen eggs than hens raised without grit. Fascinating, huh? I thought so.
Not every grit will do There are a bunch out there. Grit has 2 functions. It helps grind the feed and it helps deliver calcium to the hen. So with a plethora of different grits wth different composititons out there, what should we choose for best effects. You wouldn't believe the large number of scientific studies done on that topic! But after all is said and done, the best combination once the hen starts laying is adult sized granite grit and also crushed oyster shells. The grit is for the grinding, the oyster shell is for the calcium. OS helps a little in the grinding but gets worn down too quickly by the acids in the chickens gizzard to use oyster shell for grinding alone. The granite has sharp edges which stay sharp a lot longer.
Now if you are raising broilers on all mash only you don't need to worry about grit. It will make a small difference but not enough to worry about. Except..doncha just love it when someone writes that?...except... if you are going to finish your broilers by adding whole grain to their diets. If you do that then you should also add adult sized granite grit to their diet at the same time. That way they will put on more weight in the same time during finishing than if you fed the mash and whole grains without any granite grit.
Did you know that if you put a hollow iron tube capable of supporting between 435 and 520 lbs. in the gizzard of a turkey, the gizzard will completely flatten it? That's the kind of force in that large bird. The gizzard of a chicken contracts about every 19-20 seconds.
I use Gran-I-Grit for my poultry. It is made by North Carolina Granite Company ( website). Comes out of the world's largest open air granite quarry. They have been making it since 1935. They make all three sizes. I get mine at Agway. About 10.00 for 50 lbs. . Learn more here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/gran-i-grit-insoluable-crushed-granite
Best,
Karen and the Light Sussex
in western PA, USA
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