Can I feed egg shells to my chickens?

[Tina1971]

Ok, so I think I read somewhere that you can feed your chickens back their egg shells to keep that calcium in their diet... I would just like to know how to do that. I'm a little unsure as to if that'll make them want to eat their unharvested eggs though. I am particularly interested in how many actually bother with this though. I just can't make myself throw away those shells they worked so hard for. I'd like to reuse them in some way. Thanks for any advice or ideas.

Tina
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New Chicken Lover

 

[dipence71]

Absolutely. I dry mine in the microwave crush them up and feed them back to them mixed with other goodies like lettuce, celery, popcorn ect.

 

[teach1rusl]

Yep...the key is crushing them up well. They look nothing like eggs by then, so no worries of encouraging egg eating. For that matter, I feed mine scrambled or fried eggs AND chicken from time to time...lol...and it certainly hasn't encouraged cannibalism...

Some folks get pretty fancy and fry them up w/butter and such too...

 

[painthorse]

I just throw my on the ground with the rest of my table scraps & when I come in from work they are gone. I haven't lost a good egg yet.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I won't bother serving back the egg shells if I'm only using a few eggs, but whenever I'm making a dish that uses a lot of eggs at once, like quiche or French toast, I'll do what these other folks do. Dry them in the stove or microwave to make them easier to crush, then pour them into the feeder with their pellets.

Sometimes if I have a lot of older eggs to spare I'll put them, shells & all, into the blender, then cook them scrambled to feed to the chickens. I spice it up with a lot of cayenne pepper & garlic for their health.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Just smash them into grounded egg shells and then lay them flat on some wax paper (easy clean up) bake it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes let cool place in a ziplock baggie and when you have enough mix it in there treats kind like you would salt to your food.

Idea for not feeding them back to the chickens they make great seed starters and when your ready plant outside just crack open the bottom and plant the whole thing eggs shell and all, the shell is organic so it will compost and the plant will feed off of it.
Great for gardens to just ground them up and work them into the soil of your garden or house plants.

I hope this helps you out Good Luck to you

 

[Fenn]

Feeding chicken chicken? I thought feeding animals with animals of the same species caused problems like madcow disease. Am I completely mistaken or was that because cows are herbivores?

 

[eenie114]

Quote:
Egg shells provide calcium for them.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Chickens can eat cooked meat. Mine will clean a chicken leg clean...and I served mine a little turkey at Thanksgiving time.

 

[txchickie]

Quote:
Cows are herbivores and aren't designed to eat meat or, well...other cows.

Chickens are omnivores and DO eat meat. Some people are against feeding chickens chicken, and that is 1000% fine. I'm not one of those people, but it's what works for me.