Feeding egg shells to hens?

[Chiko]

I remember reading once about someone baking the egg shells and feeding them to their chickens so they would lay harder shells. Is that true? What other things can you use the eggshells for?

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:
You can compost them or feed them backt to your hens. But first rinse the shells very good.

I bake the shells at about 250 degrees for at least 1/2 hr. You want to kill off any bacteria. Let them cool then I put them in my food processor (magic bullet type thing) Add to your chicken feed.
You should rinse the shells you are going to compost as well so you don't draw flys or animals to the area.

That is all I know what to do with the egg shells unless of course you want to blow the insides out and keep the shell intact for making ornaments, crafts etc.

 

[Chiko]

Quote:
You can compost them or feed them backt to your hens. But first rinse the shells very good.

I bake the shells at about 250 degrees for at least 1/2 hr. You want to kill off any bacteria. Let them cool then I put them in my food processor (magic bullet type thing) Add to your chicken feed.
You should rinse the shells you are going to compost as well so you don't draw flys or animals to the area.

That is all I know what to do with the egg shells unless of course you want to blow the insides out and keep the shell intact for making ornaments, crafts etc.

Thanks for responding that is a very good idea. Does that only work with chicken egg shells or can I do that with my ducks and quail to?--Hector

 

[turbodog]

Quote:
I imagine it would work with any eggs. I'm gonna try the baking thing myself. I'd like to give them the calcium back.
If you compost them and have an open compost/mulch pile like I do (and that the chickens can get into), crush the shells up good so they don't figure out they can eat eggs.

 

[Nicole01]

I feed my girls oyster shell for calcium. I put it in a seperate bowl and they eat what they need. They seem to like it a lot. My Hubby bought a 50#bag on sale for 9.99 and it should last forever.

That is an option if you don't want to go through the process of feeding back their own shells.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We use to bake them but read here on BYC to microwave them. My gosh! So much easier. 3 minutes on high then when enough added up we rolled them with dough pin to crush. Never rinsed, just nuked the shells as used and kept in bowl until enough to feed back. Mix with feed as filling up feeders.

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:
I usually wait to bake until I get alot of eggs. You don't want to bake at to high of a temp or nuke for to long or they will burn. I like to rinse since the egg yolk and whites could possibly go rancid if for some reason they didn't get cooked enough etc. Just my opinion though. I also feed oyster shell but it won't hurt to add the egg shells. They won't eat it if they don't need it.

 

[duckinnut]

I dont even bother to bake them,put them in a bowl out in the sun to get them brittle. After that I put them in a giant coffee container with 3 or 4 marble to golf ball size rocks and shake. In a minutes time you got tiny flakes,go longer and you got dust. I either feed it back to the girls or roll into the garden(dust version) for the calcium loving veggies. Tomatoes,zucchini,cucumbers and peppers are the usual suspects.

I considered baking/nuke it approach but it came from the chicken to begin with not to mention they are scavengers and eat god knows what. The deal was sealed when they got hold of a 2 toads and proceded to disect them without compassion. Dont even want to think about what a toad harbors.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The egg shell is basically garden lime, or calcium carbonate. So, it is wonderful to compost them or put them on your garden for great plant structure strength.

That said, they are too valuable to me to do that. I air dry them and they crush into bits, after a week. They get fed back to the chickens, which along with their laying mash with calcium, provides all the calcium they'll need for super strong shells.

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:

I know, If I saw what the chickens eat outside I don't think I'd eat another egg !! Hubby throws them the snakes he finds and they have a good time with that !! YUK !!! I like the rock and coffee can way of grinding them up !! I'll have to try that !!