Feed Crushed Egg Shells?

[Wildsky]

I've given my girls egg shells now and then.... crushed up.

I also boil any extra eggs, crush the entire egg up shell and all and feed them those.

No problem here with egg eaters... the eggs are so crushed up they look nothing like a just laid egg!

 

[NoSpringChick]

I just wash out the eggs with warm water....let the shells dry and crush them in my mortar & pestle. The chickens go crazy for it.

I used to give it to my worms (I vermicompost), but now the girls get it!!!!

 

[Bamber]

I'm tryin to find alternatives to store bought feed, ( FF, veg scraps, etc). We eat a lot of boiled eggs around here which brings me to my question.
If the egg shells have been boiled for 10 min do I still have to bake and rinse them? Or is it fine to toss them in my mortar and pond them up?
I'm still pretty new to having my own flock so any info on getting away from feed store feed is apreciated!

 

[jpcode]

I just add the egg shells, broken up a little bit, to the rest of my kitchen scraps and it goes in the coop. I have not had egg eating issues.

 

[Tonkasmum]

Oh yeah. I have a bucket by my stove. Crack an egg, toss in the shell. Every once in a while, give them a quick warm through the oven, then put them in the bullet blender. That way they look NOTHING like eggs/eggshells anymore (some people say it can lead to egg-eating, I've never had an issue). They love it.

 

[EricaD]

We save all our egg shells on a baking dish in the oven. When the pan is pretty piled up (about once a week), we just toast them for 5-10 minutes on 250, let them cool, then stuff them into a big ziploc bag which I then pound and roll with a rolling pin to smash up the shells. I toss this into the food bin and mix it with their layer feed. I don't even offer any additional oyster shell - between the crushed shells, scrambled egg yolks (we go through about 4 dozen eggs per week, my DH eats LOTS of egg white omelettes!), daily leafy greens and green juice pulp (full of kale), occasional free ranging, and the calcium in their layer feed, we get beautiful hard shelled eggs and have had no problems. I got really tired of cleaning dirt and wood shavings out of the special oyster shell dish, no matter how hard I tried they made a mess of it. So this is much better for us!

 

[MandalaMaMa]

So glad I found this post. I just baked up some egg shells for the first time but wasn't sure how to feed them to the chicken. Did quite know if it was okay to mix in with their fermented food or have a separate dish like the grit and oyster shells. I love all the knowledge that you can find on BYC. Thanks everyone.

 

[Akrnaf2]

I put the egg shell in a glass cup and microwave it for one minuet and that all, no boiling,no drying very simple!

 

[Sonya9]

Did quite know if it was okay to mix in with their fermented food or have a separate dish like the grit and oyster shells. I love all the knowledge that you can find on BYC. Thanks everyone.

I would not add it to the feed if you are also feeding a rooster, chicks, or older birds beyond laying age along with your layers. Too much calcium can be a bad thing.

 

[MandalaMaMa]

I ended up mixing my egg shells with their grit and oyster shells. I've never seen them mack down on their grit like this before. Holy cow they love this stuff now. I'll be keeping my egg shells in the future.