feeding chicken egg shells

[maytham]

Hey guys! I was just wondering if feeding my chicken their egg shells (as a source of calcium) will make them eat their own eggs.
As stupid as it may sound, I've learned from my experience that of u feed them raw eggs, they WILL eat their own eggs.
Thank you!

 

[MyTMo]

I did some research as I was curious also. Broken up shells are a good source of calcium for your chickens. I mix the eggshells with their oyster shell. Happy New Year! And happy chicken raising!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Hey guys! I was just wondering if feeding my chicken their egg shells (as a source of calcium) will make them eat their own eggs.
As stupid as it may sound, I've learned from my experience that of u feed them raw eggs, they WILL eat their own eggs.
Thank you!

No - egg shells will not lead to egg eating. Also, depending on *how* one feeds raw eggs that also can be done without leading to an egg eating problem.

 

[RonP]

I have a can in the bottom of my oven for used shells.

After a "cook" I'll crush and serve, no wasted energy.

 

[Akrnaf2]

Egg shells are a good source of calcium, you need to boil them,or bake them, to kill any pathogen that they may have( I use the microwave !) Its a good idea to crush them and I usually sprinkle them over shredded vegetable or cheese.

 

[Chris09]

Eggshells are actually a small partial size calcium source and do very little in good eggshell formation.
For good shell formation you want large partial size calcium like course limestone and oyster shells.
Here is a study that was done on the subject..
Eggshell calcium effects on egg quality and calcium digestibility in 1st or 3rd cycle laying hens
The objective of this study was to compare the availability of calcium from dried eggshells from two commercial egg breaking plants to various combinations of fine and large particle Ca sources for laying hens at two ages.
Six diets were fed to either 108-wk-old Babcock B300 hens (3rd cycle) or 25-wk-old Dekalb Delta hens for 8 weeks.
The six diets varied in calcium source as follows: 100% whole eggshell from Plant 1, 100% whole eggshell from Plant 2, 50:50 blend of fine and large limestone, 75% fine limestone and 25% oyster shell, 100% fine limestone, 100% ground eggshell from Plant 1.
The whole eggshell products did not contain much large particle size product (>.8mm). Results of this study showed that all of the calcium source treatments adequately supported egg production and egg weight. However, egg specific gravity was significantly greater for eggs from hens on the diets including large particle size calcium (50:50 limestone diet and 75:25 limeyster shell diets) compared to hens on diets with 100% fine limestone or 100 % ground eggshell. This does not necessarily mean that the ground eggshells were not available to the hen. Calcium digestibility data indicated very good availability of calcium to the hen from ground eggshells. It was just the lack of large particle size in these diets which negatively affected egg specific gravity. The whole eggshell products by themselves also did not have adequate large particles for the older Babcock hens to support egg specific gravity, but were adequate for the younger Delta hens.

 

[maytham]

Thanks guys! Been of much help! !

 

[yyz0yyz0]

We keep a container in the freezer and anytime we make eggs we throw the shells in there. When we are using the oven we throw the container of shells on a cookie sheet and bake them in the hot oven. They then get crushed up and mixed with oyster shell and put in a feeder for the hens.