Feeding egg shells to chickens?

[donrae]

IMO, the bottom line is this: Egg shells are far too valuable to ever toss in the trash if one is a gardener, or has a flock of chickens.!!!!

Yes! If not to to the birds, then to the plants.

 

[Weehopper]

Not really necessary to bake them. For those who do do that though, about a half a minute in the microwave will dry them nicely.

 

[Beekissed]

I know I've read of people baking egg shells and feeding them to your chickens. Is it necessary to bake them, or can I just crush them up and feed them raw? I hate to waste all those shells, but I don't want to bake them if I don't have to.
Thanks for any input.

You don't have to...just give them to the chickens as is. Anything else is just a waste of time and effort and avails nothing.

 

[jamfarris]

I've been tossing my egg shells to the birds for years. Initially, I was rinsing them to get all of the albumen out of them, drying them, then heating in microwave or oven, then crushing them very fine. Then, I decided it was a waste to wash all of the protein of any albumen out of the shells and simply dried them, heated them, and crushed them. Then... for the last 2 years, I simply toss the shells into a bowl. When I head out to the coop, I grab the bowl, toss the shells in the run, stomp on them, and continue on my merry way. My girls eat the shells. No egg eaters here. No issues with bacterial contamination. You will hear everything from: "never give egg shells to your birds. It will turn them into egg eaters." "The shells must be finely ground up so your birds will not be able to tell that they are egg shells, and they must have all of the albumen rinsed out of them, and be sterilized so your birds don't get sick." to: "It's a waste of time to give egg shells to chickens b/c they can't absorb the calcium from them". All of these statements are false. So, IMO it's simply good sense to turn those shells over to the birds so they can recycle the nutrients in them.

I've heard you shouldn't feed store bought egg shells to your chickens. Is this true?

 

[Debbie292d]

I've heard you shouldn't feed store bought egg shells to your chickens. Is this true?

True as they could carry something and we don't want to bring anything from other chickens to our chickens. Most of us who raise chickens don't buy eggs though. If you want to feed them store-bought eggs, I'd just bake them to be on the safe side.

 

[triplepurpose]

we crush a little bit usually but just throw them straight into the scrap bucket after that, which is periodically emptied into the coop run. Havent had an egg eater in years, thats all i can say. i am disinclined to believe from my experience that theres is a direct link from feeding eggshells to egg eating, at least IN A HEALTHY FLOCK--i think it may have more to do with other factors. but some people prefer to play it safe by baking and finely grinding just to make sure.

 

[mountainbunny]

Thanks! We keep our cracked shells in a can next to the stove. We crush them when it gets full and then toss them in the trash. Such a waste. I'll try feeding them the crushed shells tomorrow. I'm sure they will love them.
I dropped and broke an egg once while collecting and they devoured it. I've not had any problems with them eating unbroken eggs.

 

[donrae]

I give mine the cracked shell halves. I don't crush them or do anything besides crack the egg. The shells go in the scrap bowl with all the other kitchen scraps that go to the birds.

No problems with egg eaters, etc.

If you feel better crushing them, it's no biggie. I've never seen the point of rinsing or baking, would not go through all the bother.

I do supplement with oyster shell, as the calcium in the egg shell seems it would be a diminishing cycle and need to be refreshed from time to time. I don't feel layer feed, so oyster shell it is.

 

[mountainbunny]

I do offer them oyster shell from time to time, but I feed mine layer feed and their shells are nice and thick. They did enjoy the partially crushed egg shells I gave them this morning, but I thing they appreciated the meat scraps most of all. I am going to start giving them my left over egg shells from now on instead of tossing them in the trash.

 

[mountainbunny]

Tomorrow they are getting a very tiny portion of left over filet Mignon and green beans. No shells. Poor things!