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

[MichelleHubs]

Yes, we save all egg shells, rinse them, dry completely, then crush them and mix with the grit/oyster mixture.

 

[wolfinator]

By all means feed them back to your chickens.

Any time I get a large quantity of extra eggs that are too old to be sold, I only sell eggs under 10 days old. I boil them up and feed them back. I did this yesterday after having sold no eggs between Thanksgiving and first week of Dec, the eggs were 3-4 weeks old so the chickens got them. I just smash them up and they got a nice warm treat for Christmas. I did shell a few for my kenneled dogs as a special treat but gave shells to the chickens. My roosters eat the eggs too but seem to peck around the shells. I keep a hanging feeder of oyster shell and have yet to see a rooster eat any, just hens.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

...and having just discovered a duck nest buried in leaf litter, eggs of unknown age, I just added the five of them, plus the four eggs (so far) from my chickens to my flock's "enrichment" - threw them, one by one, into the air, let them splat/explode (and in one case, bounce) off my sandy clay soils. The birds descended upon the remnants in a virtual mob. Gathered the unbroken, threw it higher. Not so indestructible, this time around.

Watched carefully to see which of my three pekin duck hens went hardest for the broken egg shells, as that's the best determinant of which ones are laying, I've found. My ducks do pour job of taking up oyster shell, it seems - they much prefer broken up egg shells. Cycle of life.

Poultry version of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Reanimate." or "Soylent Green is People." pick your favored genre.

 

[SteveE]

...We put all our eggshells in a tub....

My brain instantly saw a bathtub full of eggshells....

 

[leslielbk]

Lots of people do it including me and it's perfectly fine. You can buy crushed oyster shell but why do that since you have a free source at your disposal. I don't dry mine out in the oven and make a big deal out of it. I rinse the shell out and put it on a paper towel in my windowsill where they dry out in a day. Then I set them aside in a little bowl until I have a bunch then I stick them in a ziplock and crunch them up with my fingers which is kind of fun actually. I crunch them down to about an eighth or quarter of an inch maximum and put maybe a quarter of a cup out for the girls. I want them to always have access to calcium. They just eat what they need. Make sure it's always clean and dry.

 

[Lorraine A]

Not sure if my question makes sense - I feel it’s wrong to feed the chickens the egg shells of their own eggs they lay or is it ok to give them that extra nutritious dose of calcium?

Even if it comes from their own eggs that they lay. For some reason (morally) feels wrong to give them something that came from them I guess it’s ok since I’ve given them grocery store egg shells before they started laying as an added snack bonus. Curious to hear what more experienced folk think have on the topic

Yes it’s a great resourceful way to give them more calcium adding their crushed eggs back in their feed. My hens just love it and regard it as a treat. One word of caution if you’re giving them too much extra calcium you’ll start to notice little hard bumps On the eggshell, this will tell you to scale back a bit. Also, to make the shells easier to crush-up I leave empty egg shells in the oven as a wee bit of heat will make them nice and brittle.

 

[writerskramp]

Not sure if my question makes sense - I feel it’s wrong to feed the chickens the egg shells of their own eggs they lay or is it ok to give them that extra nutritious dose of calcium?

Even if it comes from their own eggs that they lay. For some reason (morally) feels wrong to give them something that came from them I guess it’s ok since I’ve given them grocery store egg shells before they started laying as an added snack bonus. Curious to hear what more experienced folk think have on the topic

You just grind them up with mortar and pestle and add to the feed.. but better yet.. add eggs to the compost pile for the garden and crushed ouster shells to the feed, bowl or scatter as scratch. Less work.. and better I think.

 

[Judy Todd]

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.

I dry them on the window sill for a few days an then crush them, why not use the calcium, I recycle everything

 

[Judy Todd]

By all means feed them back to your chickens.

Any time I get a large quantity of extra eggs that are too old to be sold, I only sell eggs under 10 days old. I boil them up and feed them back. I did this yesterday after having sold no eggs between Thanksgiving and first week of Dec, the eggs were 3-4 weeks old so the chickens got them. I just smash them up and they got a nice warm treat for Christmas. I did shell a few for my kenneled dogs as a special treat but gave shells to the chickens. My roosters eat the eggs too but seem to peck around the shells. I keep a hanging feeder of oyster shell and have yet to see a rooster eat any, just hens.

Glad to hear that , I also feed my chickens an dogs eggs when ever I have too many to sell. No reason to waste food. My dog loves scramble eggs. Any time I get a cracke shell, I ad the raw egg to her feed. Her coat is very shiny.

 

[Kellow1]

I bake the shells and crush them up, then feed them back to the chickens. They need the calcium and feeding them their shells is a lot cheaper and less wasteful that buying oyster shell. I also feed mine layer, so their main source of calcium is the feed. The shells are on the side in case they need a little extra calcium.

Chickens need two kinds of calcium. Oyster shells provide a slow-release form while the old eggshells provide a fast release. Don't overfeed calcium in any form as that can cause kidney disease in chickens.