Coffee Grinder

[Three Stents]

Anyone use a coffee grinder to turn egg shells into small pieces/powder?

 

[Smokerbill]

I have, and mixed the powder into wetted chicken feed to give the chickens extra calcium when needed.

 

[kattabelly]

I sometimes give egg shells a smack against a fence post, or between the ground and my foot, when I chuck them out for the chickens. Sometimes don't even bother with that. It really doesn't need to be a complicated process where you wash them and dry them and grind them up.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have and decided it wasn’t worth the effort lol. It’s hard not to turn half of them to powder and then they go to waste.

 

[fowltemptress]

Are you turning them into powder for yourself? I've heard of people doing that, but I don't think I know any personally; at least, it's never come up. I don't supplement my calcium intake, so my shells go straight back to the birds in whatever state they were in after I cracked the egg. My ducks and geese eat the whole shells in one gulp, and the chickens and guineas batter them into whatever sizes they choose - any raw egg still clinginging to the eggshell is just icing on the cake for them.

 

[angc11]

i do like @kattabelly and @fowltemptress and just throw out a bunch of half shells. sometimes i break them up with my boots but most of the time i'm lazy and just leave the half shells. the hens always break them into pieces themselves. believe it or not they're pretty good at figuring out how to eat things.

my unsolicited opinion on subject of washing and grinding eggshells: I'm always blown away by the washing/baking/drying/grinding process that is always recommended. If someone wants to go through that process, that's great. but in my mind, chickens eat plenty of things (mice come to mind) that have not been washed or baked or sterilized. and i don't think it actually needs to be ground up either. in fact i've always read it should be in bigger pieces so that it stays in their gizzard for longer and provides them with calcium for longer similarly to how whole oyster shell or flakes work.

 

[rosemarythyme]

in fact i've always read it should be in bigger pieces so that it stays in their gizzard for longer and provides them with calcium for longer similarly to how whole oyster shell or flakes work.

x2.

Only reason I can think of to grind eggshells would be as a calcium supplement specifically for a bird that needs long term supplementation is refusing to intake calcium. But I've always saved oyster shell bits and "dust" for that instead.

 

[User690263]

Anyone use a coffee grinder to turn egg shells into small pieces/powder?

I haven't used a coffee grinder, but I have used a blender to make the eggshells look less egg-like, so the girls don't associate eggs/egg shaped things with eating things, if that makes any sense.