Feeding egg shells

[Royd]

Is there really any science behind baking the eggshells, or just some little feel good thing we do, because we think the chickens will appreciate the extra effort we put into something?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
It is merely to make them crunch up more easily. The thought is to make them mere crumbles. "Baking" is a relative term. Having them coast in an oven of 400 degrees, from which you just pulled something, even with heat turned off, it will take half hour to return to normal. That is plenty enough time to dry egg shells.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Quote:
I know they don't appreciate the baking, but I do. It dries the shells if they aren't quite (mine are usually mostly dry by the time I get around to baking them) and it prevents contamination of the tools I use which I also use to prepare food for my family. It also makes them easier to crush, which means less energy expended by me when I crush them.

 

[Liamm_1]

I thought the heating was to kill any possible bacteria e.g., salmonella?

 

[Badbaby05]

I boil, dry then smash with the bottom of a heavy glass til pieces are smaller than oyster shells. Girls clean it up in no time.

 

[matimeo]

I just put mine in with other scraps for chickens, and when i take the bowl out to them I step on the shells so they don't resemble eggs anymore (don't want them to get any ideas). In my opinion, there is no reason to bake the shells, and as far as I can tell, no science saying that you NEED to do it either.

 

[chikkaboomboom]

Newbie question , so is crushed egg shells a decent replacement for oyster shell then? Or should you still offer oyster shell also?
Thank you

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Depends. Most commercial layer feed is formulated with high calcium. With egg shells added to diet, many folks don't bother with offering oyster shells at all and have strong egg shells. YMMV.

 

[FireTigeris]

I don't bake mine but let them dry out by themselves.

 

[dmiravalle]

We use our egg shells for lots of different things as well. They are very useful!!