Feeding Hens Egg Shells

[quiltedchicks]

I have read where many of you wash your eggshells, dry them then feed them back to your hens. Won't this get them to like the taste of shells and peck at their eggs? Is feeding them the shells better than feeding them oyster shells?

 

[erinm]

i've read different opinions. i just buy it. I mean how many eggs will you go through in a week to give them enough? I do this with it however. I dry it grind it and place it around my veges in the garden. Good for the soil and keeps slugs snails of the plants tHeyy will not cross it. i read it works like DE and cuts them up, the they dehydrate and die. ErinM

 

[JackieK318]

It is a lot of work to prep the egg shells for your girls when you could compost them or use them in the garden much more easily. You have to bake the shells so they don't get a taste for egg, then crush the shells.

 

[MissPrissy]

I rinse the shells out when I use eggs saving them in a plastic dish. When I have several I boil them. I crush them or chopped them or break them up and add them into treats. Sometimes boiled eggs and yogurt. Sometimes rice and yogurt. Sometimes tomatoes and other veggie scraps. They also have oyster shells free choice.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

I have always given my girls egg shells. I just boil them and toss it with whatever leftovers or treats. I don't have any egg-breakers, either so I don't think they associate the crushed shells with their eggs...

 

[FamilyOfChickens]

I don't think they make the connection between eggs shells/eggs. All I do with mine is toss them in a dish after cracking them and throw them out to the hens, who generally gobble them right up. And I don't have any egg-breakers.

 

[speckledhen]

We have one of those ice cube bins that goes with an icemaker sitting beside the stove. When we use eggs, we just toss the shells into it and when it overflows, I spread them out onto a cookie sheet and bake them at maybe 200 degrees for about 30 minutes and then leave them in there to cool after I turn off the oven. Then they crush easily and it kills the bacteria and they never recognize them as egg shells. It really isn't any trouble. I freeze what I'm not using of the crushed shells and if I plant tomatoes, I can put some in the planting holes to prevent blossom end rot. Also, I sprinkle the sharp crushed shells in a ring around every veggie plant so slugs and the like won't crawl over it to get to the plants. Lots of uses for eggshells, huh?

 

[bigzio]

Oh ya, I'm one who prefers to give my hens nothing but the best, and I would rate the properly dried and crushed egg shells as one of the things you can do for hens that they will enjoy and also benefit from the effort it takes, rather than simply throw them in the compost. If your hens prefer them over oyster shell, why not feed them back to the girls when they are available?

Sometimes a little extra work is involved that's true, but the rewards that come from the extra effort is worth it to me and my hen's eggs. In this now throw away society, calcium rich egg shells is a good example of raising green..... I think it is wasting good free nutrition if you don't.

bigzio

 

[rooster-red]

I feed mine egg shells as well as free choice oyster shell, and I can tell you they would rather have the egg shells.

No egg breakers here.