Egg Shells

[Love my chickens 25]

can you clarify? Egg bound dead birds don’t eat much!

I lost 2 birds to egg bound so I started the others on oyster shells

 

[Folly's place]

Adding the egg shells or oyster shell to the feed directly is not a good idea. The oyster shell and egg shells need to be in a separate container, so the hens eat what they need of it. Layer feed has plenty already, so they won't eat as much extra as they would if fed an all flock feed. Birds other than actively laying hens don't need that extra calcium, and won't eat much of it either.
Some very high producing hens may do best on layer feed, but all the others won't.
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I provide oyster shell in a separate container (grit, too, in another separate container, but that's for digestion of course). But I don't give egg shells because I'm kind of lazy and I read on here once that you should bake them first, though I don't know why. To sterilize, maybe? And I don't really have a place to conveniently collect them until I have a good batch. Anyone know the answer to this? About baking the shells? @Eggcessive or @aart, do you guys know?

 

[Folly's place]

I'm also all about 'easy', and don't bother with taking the egg shells out there. oyster shell is very inexpensive, and that's what mine have.
Some people bake the shells, some just crush them slightly and toss them out there. I doubt that it matters very much either way. It's not possible to give enough egg shells back to provide enough calcium, so the oyster shell is needed anyway, especially when feeding an all flock type feed.
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm also all about 'easy', and don't bother with taking the egg shells out there. oyster shell is very inexpensive, and that's what mine have.
Some people bake the shells, some just crush them slightly and toss them out there. I doubt that it matters very much either way. It's not possible to give enough egg shells back to provide enough calcium, so the oyster shell is needed anyway, especially when feeding an all flock type feed.
Mary

Thanks, Mary. This makes sense to me. Oyster shell is like little rocks, it's very substantial. Compared to that, egg shell is like ... well, tissue paper. It's hard to believe they can extract enough calcium from recycled egg shells to do much good.

 

[Folly's place]

Just don't put them down your garbage disposal! Ask me how I know this...
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Just don't put them down your garbage disposal! Ask me how I know this...
Mary

True dat. We don't have one here but I have had one in the past. Don't put bananner peels in one, needer!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Makes total sense that you can’t only feed egg shell unless you had a significant outside source (chickens aren’t magic 100% recyclers).

What I usually do is (while the eggs are cooking) throw the shells on a paper towel and microwave for 30 sec. Then I take them out, crush them in the paper towel, then dump them into the countertop “chicken bowl”. The paper towel goes into the compost.

I’m of the school of thought that you shouldn’t send something to the landfill if there’s any other option, so the idea of throwing egg shells into the trash (where they can also create odors or spread germs) instead of composting or feeding to my flock makes me a bit nuts!

 

[Eggcessive]

I have a container of crushed oyster shell abailable. I also save my egg shells, bake them for 10 minutes on 200F which makes them crunchy, crush them and put them out for the chickens. They get excited for the crushed shells. I researched once and found that a normal hard shell equals the amount of a calcium tablet.

 

[Folly's place]

It's true that throwing the shells out there is good, and i should do it. Maybe tomorrow?!
Mary