feeding chickens egg shells

[threehorses]

You can do it - but if you're feeding it for the calcium, it's not vvery 'bioavailable'. Just get some oyster shell instead and leave some out free choice.

Also remember, calcium absorbtion is a three legged stool; it's about more than calcium. You have to keep the phosphorus and vitamin D in balance as well.

There are rarely deficiencies of phosphorus as chickens are mainly cereal (grain) eating birds. More often there's too MUCH phorphorus (grain) in the diet.

Completely fortified feeds also generally contain a sufficient amount of vitamin D3 precursors to take care of calcium absorbtion. However sometimes these degrade. Those who use cod liver oil as an additive are not only replacing A vitamins, but D as well. For new laying hens, I like to give plain yogurt as it has a little extra calcium and is D3 fortified. I give it weekly to them.

Calcium is the main player, however. the average laying feed is a 6:1 balance of calciumhosphorus. That takes care of the needs of the average hen. However, sometimes hens can need as much as 15:1 cal/phos. That's why we provide oyster shell. Oyster shell easily dissolves making the calcium very available. To test calcium, put both egg shell and oyster shell in a glass with vinegar in it for 2 days and see which one falls apart quicker.

Hens are instinctively brilliant at determining when they need more oyster shell. I just put mine in the same container in which I keep my granite grit. In fact, I just bought a two-dish cat feeder (plastic) at the dollar store and use that in the barn. Or pour one in one side of a pan, the other in the other side. Keep them against a wall to reduce the amount of bedding and droppings that get in them.

I think that if you keep your feed to mostly laying pellets, supplement oyster shell, and keep grains less than 10% of your diet you'll find, as I do, that the egg shells are gorgeous and never ever the least bit soft.

Good luck!

 

[norcal]

Quote:
I have to reiterate that it was the FIRST ever egg I've gotten from my 18 wk old BR's. Not just my first egg that got eaten. Just to clarify.

 

[JudyR]

We feed egg shells to our chickens. We keep them in a small pail to make sure they've dried out really good and keep crushing them. So long as they're really dry, you're okay. Unfortunately, if they're wet and they get the taste for eggs, they'll start cracking their own. The secret seems to be to make suire they're completely dry. I've also read that you can put them in the blender to make them smaller. The wild birds like them too.

 

[threehorses]

I'd still have to say that it's important that the calcium be quite bioavailable, which is why my personal choice is oyster shell. It's been the standard for decades, even centuries. It's also the one recommended in text books for poultry, in which I've never seen egg shells recommended.

I've never seen quite the results with egg shells that i had with oyster shells.

Just imho.

 

[txchickie]

I stick with oyster shell. Up until recently I was saving my eggshells, baking them, crushing them, and putting them back into the oyster shell dish, but then I thought "what a waste of time".

Oyster shell is cheap and the bag lasts for so long. Toss those eggshells in the trash and buy a bag of oyster shell. I think it was $4.99 for a 5lb bag at TSC and I've had the same bag for forever.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

I must admit...I put mine in a pie plate and in the oven to toast them. Then I break them up as fine as possible in a baggie...not done yet, I then put them in my blender and pulverize them to tiny. I then mix this in with their layer crumbles. I grind mine so fine that they're almost powder..hardly could be recognized as egg, and so far I've not had any issues with egg eating.

 

[Andi]

I'm a bit concerned now. My Calif White just started laying. I found her first 2 eggs, which she laid on a hard surface. She hasn't figured out where they are supposed to go yet. The first one seems to have been eaten and the second one just had little fractures in the pointy end, but they didn't eat that one. I didn't know they will eat their own eggs. I'm I going to have a problem with eggs getting eaten for the life of which ever one(s) ate the egg?

 

[aushepherd]

Very good post Threehorses. I am not a pro at raising chickens but have raised hundreds. No matter what suppliment you feed chickens, it really should be mixed with the feed. I have had two different flocks in different cages. One had free choice the other mixed with feed. Same amounts of everything. The next day, the mixed feed was gone and the free choice was full of oyster shells.
A thing about the vinegar and shell disolving ratio. You really can't compare the actual breaking down of the two unless you break the oyster shell in to a layer comparible to a chicken egg. A layer of oyster shell is about 1 1/2 times that of an egg. There may be other tests to verify the palatibility of both, but the vinegar test is not accurate. Also for the fact that chickens don't digest food with vinegar.

 

[NYREDS]

Chickens lack the ability for abstract reasoning that would be required to connect eating crushed egg shells with breaking & eating eggs.

 

[Mr chicken dude]

I hear that they like the calcium in the egg shells so once they get a taste they'll start peckin the eggs open...