Do you feed your chickens their own eggs?

[lorain's fids]

I have been wondering if it is alright to feed the chickens eggs that they have layed. Before the girls started laying eggs, I would give them hard boiled eggs(bought from the store). Then when they started laying in Dec. I stopped feeding them hard boiled eggs, thinking that maybe it would not be good for them to eat an egg that they layed. Not sure what to do ?

 

[BoltonChicken]

The old timers NEVER fed chickens their eggs, as they claimed that the chickens would develop a taste for them and start eating their own eggs. There have been cases of this happening. Back in the day the egg SHELLS were kept, dried on top of an stove, crushed and fed to the chickens for calcium. Today there is no need for this as all layer feed contains enough calcium and feeding additional egg shells to them is not recommended.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I don't as there aren't enough to go around, but I've read that cooked eggs are fine and rather than waste them I would

 

[Fred's Hens]

You cannot really stop them from eating their own eggs, as nature has programed them to do so. If an egg is broken in the nest, they gobble it up.

Yes, I've fed back eggs that are deformed, cracked and if, on some rare occasions, we just over run with small eggs we don't wish to sell to customers. I smash them into the mash bucket and stir. No egg eaters here.

 

[Fred's Hens]

And we ALWAYS feed back every egg shell too. Just toss them in a bucket were they dry. Crush them to bits and feed back in the mash. It's free shells. Our inland, midwest chickens would have to walk a long way to find oysters.

 

[lorain's fids]

Thanks for your replies....I do think that now I'll feed them hard boiled eggs and give them some shells from time to time. I know they'll be happy- as hard boiled eggs were a favorite treat when they were babies.

 

[western chicks]

I have young chickens that are laying small to med. eggs--35 chickens--so, the small eggs I mash and whip up and mix with their crumble to feed back to them. Is that bad?? They don't eat their own eggs whole. I would think it would be good for them, or not necessarily bad. Please advise.