feeding chickens their own egg shells

[Norm2475]

My girls just started laying eggs on Dec 27th. Near that time we started giving them egg shells. The egg shells were white and I know it helps with their eggs. My question is if we give them their own brown egg shells will that cause them to start eating their own eggs?

 

[92caddy]

No it shouldnt. I dry them and breck them up real fine.........

 

[Pinky]

I give my chickens their own eggshells sometimes (whenI remember to) and they don't eat their eggs.

 

[Granolamom]

Mine are all brown egg-layers, too, and I grind up their own shells for them. Actually, I sometimes even hard-boil or scramble their own eggs as a treat for them, and yet they never peck at their freshly laid eggs. Don't worry!

 

[briarpatchfarms]

mine loves raw yolk i feed it to them all the time and mine dont eat there eggs well that could be because they cant see what there eating LOL! Silkies!

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
No, and you don't even have to dry them. I just pitch the empty shells out with the scraps from the kitchen. Sometimes, I get fancy and mix the crushed shells in with scrambled eggs for them, but it's not necessary. Good source of calcium for then, and mine have never eaten their own eggs unless one got broken in the coop. That's in 16 years of raising chickens.

you'll find other threads about feeding shells, too!

 

[jab91864]

I dry mine and break them up for the flock. Brown, green, white.... and egg eating hasn't been an issue.

Sometimes I don't think chickens even look at something long enough to distinguish what it is before they are scooping it up and fighting for more...lol.

Julie

 

[sunnychooks]

Mine follow me out to the compost pile. There's always something tasty there in addition to egg shells. I've never had a problem with an egg eater.

 

[Buster]

I just crushed up a bunch of egg shells with some left overs I had and threw them out to the birds. I do it all the time and don't have any issues.

 

[dichotomymom]

Over the summer when I had a surplus, I would give them the whole (cracked) egg. They've never tried to eat them....they lay and walk away.