Feed Crushed Egg Shells?

[krcote]

This is funny because I was just in the feed shop getting a few things for when I pick up my girls on wednesday, and I mentioned feeding shells. The woman looked at me like I had suggested cannibalism and insisted that my chickens would turn on thier eggs and I would wake up one morning to a masacre. I was buying oyster shells, and plan on offering both. Has anyone had a problem with feeding shells? As a newbie- I can take all the advise I can get!

 

[coopist]

It's fine as long as they're crushed up. The chickens don't seem to recognize them as egg-related that way.

 

[dacjohns]

I find the occasional broken and maybe eaten egg but not very often. Can't even say for sure that the chickens are doing it.

It's not something I worry much about and consider it part of my informal unscientific anecdotal unrecorded study of chicken behavior.

I just had two hens hatch out a batch of eggs. What do you think the hens do with that nasty egg shell mess that is left? One nest I cleaned out because of the mess so I didn't find out. The next one I saw pecking at the egg fragments. I kind of think it is nature's way of cleaning up before the predators come. Then she kicked straw over the mess when the chicks ventured out so I cleaned out the rest of the shells.

I've heard quite a few times that you shouldn't let your chickens eat egg shells at all or raw egg shells but I put it on the shelf with folklore. But folklore is often based on fact or experience.

If chickens started eating their eggs and turning cannibal then would we have any chickens today?

 

[rooster-red]

I've been feeding egg shells to my hens for a couple of years now, have not had any problems with egg eaters.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

We do not feed our chickens egg shells

 

[ruby]

On the farm I was taught to bake them to keep them from tasting like raw egg. I have been feeding them back to the girls for years, but baked and crushed. And keeping oyster shell too!

 

[ChickNLittle]

I rinse the eggshells out really well in hot water, let them dry, and then crush and put in the pen.

No problems with hens eating eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

I oven-dry and crush mine. They are in a little feeder for free-choice with less waste. My chickens have always seemed to prefer the eggshells to the oyster shell.

Me, too. I've had not one problem with egg eating, ever. And they do seem to prefer them to the oyster shell. I just put them in the same feeder with the oyster shell.​

 

[unprofessional]

Chickens won't eat unbroken eggs, but if one happens to break, all chickens recognize it as a tasty treat. You really don't need to bake them if you think they're gonna pick up a taste for eggs - they already have one. Learned this from a guy who worked on commercial "free-range" farm.

 

[NoSpringChick]

Interesting!