Oyster shell WAY too big for my bantams, what can I do?

[BWchicken]

I just bought a small bag of oyster shell from TSC for my 12 bantams. They are 20 weeks old and not laying yet, but I wanted to have the oyster shell on hand when they do. I opened the bag to look at it and OMG the pieces are huge! They're the size of very large peanuts, some as big as dimes. There's no way my little girls can eat these! So I'm not sure what to do now. I really wanted to feed Flock Raiser with free choice calcium on the side instead of layer feed. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[EweSheep]

Get an old pillow case or old piece of towel, smash them with a hammer would be your best bet!

 

[Tala]

If you lived here we could trade.
Just today I was complaining that my bag is mostly DUST and the birds don't eat the dust. Whenever it gets damp it sets up like crumbly concrete. Nasty stuff, IMO.

They gobble up crushed eggshells, and the worst thing we've had was 2 slightly thinner-than-normal shells early in the fall. No clue about the oyster shell

 

[Akane]

There's not really a great way to smash up lots of oyster shell. I actually ran some small amounts through a magic bullet in an attempt to feed it to quail. My magic bullet is fine but I decided the powder across my kitchen was not a good thing. If you have standards as well as bantams the bantams will take the small bits and the standards the larger ones so a whole bag gets used eventually. You'll find smaller pieces at the bottom half of a bag of oyster shell or grit that bantams can use. If you don't have standards though the rest may get wasted.

 

[Kittymomma]

Coffee grinder--in the garage so you don't powder your kitchen. You could do like another poster suggested and put it in a couple of old pillow cases, maybe run over it with the car instead of playing with rocks or a hammer..... I'm way to easily entertained.

 

[Akane]

Coffee grinder will die quickly. I killed 3 before I got my magic bullet. Even just trying to grind dog or cat food will kill them.

 

[gardenergirl]

I was lucky and found some parakeet oyster shell at a pet store. It is actually oyster shell and not the hi-calc grit. I just have 2 bantam ladies, so the small box will last me awhile.

 

[davidb]

use ground up egg shells

 

[matt_attack]

I know this as old post but I had the same question for my 3 girls and didnt find a real solution. I just got into the backyard chicken game a few months back with 3 bantam Easter Eggers and what I do with the oyster shell is pour the bag into a colander to separate the bigger chunks and then run the big pieces through a bullet the colander helps save time picking out the bigger pieces. Hope this helps anybody else with bantams