Making Eggs Piece She Sleeps: The Importance Of Diet Inwards Eggshell Formation

Chickens as well as humans percentage a few things inwards common: what nosotros consume impacts how nosotros experience as well as how our bodies perform. As anyone who has struggled amongst fertility issues knows, diet affects egg production as well as egg quality. Similarly, a hen’s egg production is affected yesteryear diet. However, hens are much to a greater extent than sensitive to getting their daily nutritional needs met than women because hens brand many eggs each month, non merely one.  Hens require precise amounts of each essential dietary component, inwards the correct forms as well as at the correct times to alive long, salubrious lives as well as brand high-quality, normal looking eggs.

One of the most of import nutrients needed for eggshell formation is calcium. Most of us sympathise that laying hens bespeak calcium to brand eggshells as well as realize that commercially produced layer feed contains some calcium, but it may non survive clear why providing oyster shells, a 2d rootage of calcium, is beneficial to laying hens. So let’s direct hold a deeper await into why oyster shell is used inwards laying hen diets. 

I had the direct chances to talk amongst Dr. Gordon Ballam as well as Dr. Patrick Biggs, both seasoned poultry nutritionists at Purina Animal Nutrition, close this whole calcium affair as well as I’ve got the Cliff Notes version of the calcium storey for you!

LAYING HENS NEED CALCIUM AT THE RIGHT TIME
To brand eggshells, laying hens require 4-5 grams of calcium per day,[1] which is iii times to a greater extent than dietary calcium than non-laying hens, according to doc Biggs.

Eggshells are composed of 94% calcium carbonate[1] as well as hens cannot brand calcium, thus it must survive supplied inwards their diet. The most mutual sources of calcium carbonate fed to laying hens are crushed limestone as well as oyster shell. Commercially prepared layer feeds ordinarily comprise limestone, spell oyster shell is commonly offered to hens yesteryear chicken keepers equally a supplement to the layer feed.

Laying hens shop calcium inwards specialized bones called medullary bones. Think: sponge-like os filled amongst calcium within a hard, hollow bone. (The difficult os is the cortical bone, which is responsible for forcefulness as well as stability).

Calcium carbonate must survive broken downwards into its components (calcium + carbonate) inwards the hen's intestine earlier the calcium is absorbed into the blood. The calcium is as well as thus either stored inwards the bones or routed direct to the shell gland through the bloodstream.

If laying hens don’t larn calcium when they bespeak it, they volition steal from the calcium stash within their cortical bones to reach eggshells. This calcium theft tin hand the sack drive brittle bones that fracture easily as well as inwards the most severe cases, the inability to stand upwards (aka: caged-layer fatigue).

TWO TYPES OF DIETARY CALCIUM
There are 2 types of calcium ordinarily fed to backyard laying hens: crushed limestone, which layer feed already contains, as well as oyster shell, which nosotros ordinarily offering to them inwards a dispenser or dish close their feeder. Crushed limestone tin hand the sack survive idea of equally a fast-release rootage of calcium because it’s pocket-size as well as is absorbed easily as well as quickly. Oyster shell is to a greater extent than of a slow-release rootage of calcium because it is large as well as sits inwards the gizzard, getting Earth upwards a piddling at a fourth dimension earlier beingness absorbed yesteryear the hen. A cast of slow-release calcium is of import because eggshells are formed at dark when the hen is asleep, non consuming calcium-containing feed.

The fourth dimension it takes for most food particles to overstep through a chicken is really curt – close ninety minutes, according to doc Biggs. Bigger particles direct hold longer to overstep through a hen, which is why providing oyster shell during the twenty-four hr menstruum tin hand the sack assistance to render to a greater extent than calcium at night. H5N1 slow-release calcium takes much longer to breakdown, providing calcium throughout the night.

The gizzard is a musculus inwards a chicken’s digestive tract responsible for grinding 

fibrous nutrient amongst the assistance of grit (sand/stones/oyster shells, etc.)

WE THOUGHT SHE WAS JUST SLEEPING AT NIGHT!

Of the or thus 25 hours needed to create an egg, 18-20 of them are dedicated to shell formation, which occurs overnight spell a hen sleeps. H5N1 hen tin hand the sack purpose as well as supplant the calcium it carries inwards its bloodstream upwards to 100 times overnight! #mindblown

Since hens slumber at night, if the end feed they consume for the twenty-four hr menstruum is on the droppings board within ninety minutes afterwards lights out, where does all the calcium come upwards from? #lightbulbmoment The large particles of oyster shell inwards the gizzard are essential to eggshell formation overnight.

According to doc Biggs, Purina Animal Nutrition late added hot weather when hens consume less feed).

Learn why hens bespeak fifty-fifty to a greater extent than oyster shell inwards hot conditions HERE.  

SUPPLEMENTAL CALCIUM
When I outset noticed the novel Purina Layena® pocketbook blueprint amongst the “Oyster Strong™ System,” logo, I idea to myself, “I dear the blue, retro vibe; these volition brand such adorable tote bags!” Probably non the reaction the folks at Purina were hoping for, but...that’s how it went down. Now I sympathise what the Oyster Strong™ System does for my hens’ wellness as well as eggshells as well as I dear that too.

The take-home message: if y'all feed your flock Purina® Layena® amongst Oyster Strong™, it contains all the calcium they need. If y'all don't feed your flock Layena®, survive certain to offering them large pieces of oyster shell free-choice. Eggshells offered amongst oyster shell are fine, but are non a sufficient rootage of supplemental calcium yesteryear themselves.

They do brand cute tote bags too, don't they? :)