this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Backyard Chickens (and Other Birds)
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[Were you a mod of backyard chickens on Reddit? Message me if you're interested in modding here.]
This is a community for people who keep chickens in their back yard. This includes pets, layers, and meaties at levels that are sub-industrial. Family farms and homesteads are included.
EDIT
The Fediverse is small. There probably aren't enough people here to make up a community for every type of bird that someone might keep so for now, everyone is welcome. Bring us your ducks and geese, turkeys and quail, Guineas and Peacocks, emus and parrots. The community will be focused on chickens but until there are enough of each bird community for their own community they will find care and comfort here.
/EDIT
There may be discussions of animal processing. This is part of chicken keeping. If you don't like it leave and block the community.
You may also be interested in:
Homestead
Parrots
Cockatiel
RULES:
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All Lemmy.ca rules apply here.
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Everyone (see rules 4 and 98) is welcome.
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If you've seen a question 100 times answer it the 101st time or ignore it. Even better, write a complete, detailed answer and suggest that the mod(s) pin it to the community.
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There will be ZERO tolerance for shaming, brigading, harassment, or other nonsense of those who keep and process chickens. You will be permanently banned the first time.
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No, it's not a calcium deficiency. Wrinkled eggs are the result of insufficient or insufficiently viscous albumen. Tiny eggs and missing shells are misfires. They happen.
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If you post a picture that includes a dead animal or blood mark it NSFW. We're not going to tolerate the militant anti-hunting and anti-farming bullshit here but we're also not going to tolerate people rubbing their hunting and harvesting in people's faces. See rule 98. If you post blood, gore, or dead animals and don't mark it NSFW it will be removed and you might be banned.
[Did you actually think there were 98 rules?]
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If you present something as fact and are asked to provide proof or a source provide proof or a source. Proof must be from a reliable source. If you fail to provide proof or a source your post or comment may be removed.
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Don't be a dick. Yes, this is a catch-all rule.
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The mod(s) have the final say.
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I've heard of the oyster shell, do they really need that much?
At the moment we have a back of pellets that the previous owner left. I'll look into getting the mash and scratch. Are they supplementary to the pellets or an alternative?
Also got some black soldier fly larvae as I noticed an empty bag of them laying around. They seemed to really like those.
I've never given my chickens oysters, hadn't even heard of it to this. Their feed has everything they need, and mine roam and eat what they want. If I use eggs when cooking I crack the egg into whatever vessel I'm using, then shoot the shell in the sink. Then I rise them, crush them with my hand into what would be a compost bin... And instead give it to the chickens. My chickens like everything, I can break a branch off and they'll eat all the leaves off it.
If you want busy projects, you can put down layer cover on parts of the yard like clover seeds down before it rains. And they'll enjoy eating it, and it can look nice
Oyster shell is for calcium. Their eggs shells will get thin and weak without it. Yes, they LOVE dried grubs, but that gets expensive. If the flock is roosting in the trees, some grubs will usually bring them down immediately.
I fed my chicken their own well crushed egg shells.
I had an overly complicated process of first microwaving the eggshells so they'd be super dry and crispy, then whizzing them in an old blender dedicated to the job of grinding eggshells. Hens liked it rougher, but the ducks demanded shells ground to powder so they could do the ducky thing of scooping up a bunch, dipping it in water, and then muddling it into a milky sauce that they splattered all over. Ducks are sooo messy compared to chickens.
I prefer to add eggshells to my compost so my plants get calcium since eggshells are easy to pulverize with a atick or muddle and supplement calcium for the chickens with calcium carbonate or baked oyster/clamshells. The clamshells are a lot harder to break, you have to bake them well to get them as brittle as oystershells but it's cheaper.
Make sure that you leave a small pile of pea gravel somewhere. They'll fill their gizzard with it to help digest things.
They don't need a ton, but if they don't get ithe oyster shell the eggs become increasingly fragile until they break when laid. Letting them free range gives them good bugs and nutrients. They lay less on the winter. You may want to consider something to heat the coop a bit in the winter depending on where you live. We tossed out a lot of table scraps since they eat anything, even chicken and egg shells.