Eating egg shells?!?!

[mickeymousears]

So I've noticed if the chickens get into the trash they fight over the egg shell and then yesterday when I dumped the duck water there was a broken duck egg- I hosed down the yolk so they wouldn't eat it but left the shell and it became a feeding frenzy. The duck was eating it then one chicken took it from her mouth and another chicken stole it from her. They were like sharks.

Is this normal? Are they low in some mineral? Calcium? I feed them layer pellets and try always get table scraps and scratch grains and they are free range so whatever bugs/plants
They find.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

The shells are high in calcium. A lot of people put out a dish of oyster shell, just in case some need the extra calcium. Others clean and crush the egg shells and offer those.

 

[g&a thomas]

Our chickens go nuts over the egg shells also. I microwave them as we use them for 30 seconds or so. It cooks up the left over whites and makes the shell pretty brittle. I then crush them in my hand over my the chicken bucket which gets all the daily kitchen scraps for the next morning. When ever we put out the scraps in the chicken yard ... there is always a frenzy over the egg shells. We have been doing this pretty much the entire time we have had chickens (2 years) and have not had to give them any oyster shell supliments

 

[kittycooks]

I simply rinse out our egg shells and crush them when dry. I offer them free choice and the cup empties out after a few days. Chickens are scavengers, so if they want more calcium in addition to my fortified feed, I'm o.k. with that.