Pulverized egg shell powder

I put mine in the food processor and don't grind alot. Just enough come out a little smaller than oyster shell. They love it.

If you have a plastic container on food processor or blender, those egg shells will chew it right up. After a few times, my processor looks like I grind up rocks in it! I love the idea of recycling all those shells!

So are you just going to sprinkle it on the food?

Thats ALOT of powder!!

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I hadn't thought of that. Thankfully, i have a glass container on my blender. I think i would go ahead and do it even if i didn't. It's just too much fun!

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Honestly, i don't know. I don't have full grown layers right now. And the last time i did, i lost her before i had ever given her anything for a calcium supplement. So i've never even seen oyster shell to compare what i'm doing. I would like to offer it free choice if it will work in this form. I'm open to advice about that.

OMG------ AWESOME

I thought I read somewhere that giving your chickens egg shells would cause them to eat their own eggs? Is this not true? Wow... this is so much more natural and better if it is not going to make them crave their own freshly laid eggs....

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This is very impressive but I have to wonder... if you're making more work for yourself than necessary. All I do is set aside the eggshells when I'm making something that uses a lot of eggs, like quiche or a big pan of scrambled eggs. I put them in some sort of a baking dish or bowl, unwashed, and dry them in the microwave or in the oven if I'm baking something else already. When they're dry & friable I crunch them up using the bottom of a ceramic mug until the pieces are about the size of crumbled feed. Then I add it to the tops of the feeders in all the layers' pens.

Mixed in their feed like that I don't think they associate it in any way with their own eggs. And it's not as much work, nor does it take up the valuable limited real estate on my kitchen countertops. PunkinPeep, you've done a great job, but perhaps you don't have to work so hard!

I have just set mine in a bowl as free choice and it doesn't last long. They gobble it up. And they don't eat their eggs either. They just don't associate the little bits with an egg. Plus I always keep fake eggs in each box to confuse them!

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Hmmm....I never thought of that. I have been doing same as OP. I save egg shells, and put them on a sheet of foil on a cookie sheet. Any time I use the oven, after I have taken out the food and turned the oven off, I put the eggshell cookie sheet in the oven. The residual heat dries them out and cooks them just a little. Next day I process them in the food processor and keep them in a jar for when I need them. My food processor bowl is plastic but so far I haven't detected any damage. Hopefully it will stay that way. I am not pulverizing them to powder like the OP but leaving them in approx 1/8" sized pieces. My eldest hens are 4 months old, so I will wait until they show signs they are close to laying, and then offer them the eggshells free choice.

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This is very impressive but I have to wonder... if you're making more work for yourself than necessary. All I do is set aside the eggshells when I'm making something that uses a lot of eggs, like quiche or a big pan of scrambled eggs. I put them in some sort of a baking dish or bowl, unwashed, and dry them in the microwave or in the oven if I'm baking something else already. When they're dry & friable I crunch them up using the bottom of a ceramic mug until the pieces are about the size of crumbled feed. Then I add it to the tops of the feeders in all the layers' pens.

Mixed in their feed like that I don't think they associate it in any way with their own eggs. And it's not as much work, nor does it take up the valuable limited real estate on my kitchen countertops. PunkinPeep, you've done a great job, but perhaps you don't have to work so hard!

You may be right. And honestly, i was really just having a lot of fun watching the egg shells become this great powder.

But also, my chickens won't be laying until March or April or so, and i have a while to keep collecting and storing these egg shells. So part of what i like about this is how much more compact they are to store. I was crushing them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Throwing them in the blender is much easier than all that. But when they're actually laying, i might have to shorten that process a little.