Anyone feed the egg shells their chickens lay back to them?

[ILoveDaffy]

I do.

 

[SnootyHen]

I'd rather give them their own shells than grocery store shells. I know what my hens are eating (mostly) but who knows what the factory hens are getting for nutrition. But honestly, my girls will eat whatever they can get in their beaks whether it came out of them or not.

 

[Bocktastic Quackles]

Thank you everyone!!

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Do you have to cook them first or just wash, crush and serve?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Do you have to cook them first or just wash, crush and serve?

I bake them to dry them. 250° for 15-20 minutes seems to be plenty.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

I bake them to dry them. 250° for 15-20 minutes seems to be plenty.

Can you just allow them to dry out sitting on the bench?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Can you just allow them to dry out sitting on the bench?

Honestly I don't know. I bake them to avoid any damp ones going moldy.

 

[SnootyHen]

Do you have to cook them first or just wash, crush and serve?

I put them in a bowl on the counter and crush them up every couple of days. I won't crush the ones from that day because they're still wet but I don't wash or bake them.

 

[jreardon1918]

The scrap bowl gets all kitchen scraps. Minus any bones. We don't wash or cut to size. We throw the scraps in the secured run. What the girls don't eat, just composts over time and ends up back in our gardens. For example, melon rinds. some veggies...
Over the years this is a lather, rinse, repeat cycle.

 

[SteveE]

Since its no ant season, we just toss the shells in a countertop yogurt tub unwashed. We also have a beat up cake pan we dedicated to eggshells. We bake them when we need them or have a pan-full. Even so, we wait until the oven was used for something else and is already hot. Then crank it to 400 and bakew the shells on foil in the pan for 10 min. Calcium is one nutrient that stands up to cooking. After they cool they get spread on newspaper. We use the pan to "stomp" on them and then a rolling pin to finish the crumbling. The baking really makes a difference and getting them small matters, so they don't jam in the neck of the bottle we use as a DIY calcium feeder. When the ants return, we might find ourselves washing out the shells and/or stockpiling them in a sealed container in the fridge.