) and sets them aside on a paper plate. When I have several empty shells I'll put them in the microwave for a minute or two. Sometimes I'll set them out in the sun. Basically want them dry. Put the shells in a ziploc and roll over them with something (pastry roller, can of beans, etc) to crunch them up. I keep a mortar and pestle in the barn to crunch some more if needed. I like to give my girls a variety of eggshell sizes in their little bowl, but no big pieces. I also put in the crushed oystershell. Nothing too good for the girls!
This is what we do and then I crush by hand. The farm our local HS runs just throws in shells and the chickens do what it is chickens do. I think if you are getting them from an outside source I would rinse and bake a bitMy routine? Husband is the egg-eater so he rinses the shells (makes more mess that way
) and store in a large glass jar, to use as needed. I don't crush them too small - the chickens seem to prefer larger pieces. Maybe the size of a thumbnail, just enough that they don't resemble a whole egg too much and encourage egg breaking behavior. My hens don't lay in the winter and we have to buy eggs, but I do the same with the store-bought eggs and keep collecting shells in the large jar, so when the hens resume laying in the spring, I have enough to start refilling their eggshell container. This has worked very well for me. My husband is immunocompromised and every small bug hits him really hard, so I don't want to risk it with salmonella or anything else the eggs might have. So I reduce the handling of raw eggs as much as possible. But eggshells is all the calcium my chickens get - I don't use layer feed or oyster shell (never have), and I don't get soft shelled eggs, so the system works!
