Giving chickens egg shells?

[GC-Raptor]

I let my egg shells dry a day or two depending on humidity and crush with my fingers.
GC

 

[Sally PB]

I had some neighbors that bought fresh eggs save their shells for me for a while before my girls started laying. I now put out oyster shell and egg shell. They seem to prefer the egg shell. That's ok by me; it's free.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think it's easier for them to eat. Mine won't eat oyster shell

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Egg shells are a short release calcium that is absorbed quickly by the hen. Oyster shell grit on the other hand is a slow release source of calcium as it sits in the gizzard, most importantly overnight when the hen tends to be forming the shell on her egg for the next day.

This explains the difference well:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/for-strong-eggshells-size-matters/

That article claiming egg shells are unnecessary and redundant.. is irrelevant to my personal situation as my feed contains neither crushed limestone nor EXCESS oyster shell.. which I feed free choice on the side.

My Purina FR feed does contain calcium carbonate. Presumably also a fast source, but only 0.8 - 1.3%. I can just see the fear mongering already because that article says that filtering excess calcium from the body of egg shells fed back can tax the kidney.. Oh my!

I KNOW that isn't the intention.. so please folks use what you can from this information to make YOUR best chicken life possible!

The article does a nice job of describing why not to crush the eggs shells to small and differences in egg shell quality being fed as well as the NEED for LARGE source calcium. My friend used to process hers through a food processor. A little understanding can go a long way.

Most bird eating a "layer" ration may go through little extra calcium. More productive hens may need more calcium. Say white Leghorn pullet verses Cubalaya old biddy for example. Those not using layer go through a larger amount of a side served calcium source since it isn't included. HOW do they KNOW???! Life is so amazing.

My birds always prefer the egg shell first before OS.

When I thought my birds weren't eating OS before.. I did crush it a little extra.. which seemed to help.. but not fine crushed. It was just so much larger size than the previous bag and creatures of habit take slow to changes. That was only once, and since learning about the large particle absorption, have never looked back and also never have any long term soft egg shell issues... keeping the side OS readily available next to the feed and also by the door on the way into the coop where lay boxes are so they don't have to go looking for it. Noting this is and has been my routine for both large fowl and bantams alike.

Thus far any softees or brittles in my flock, have only been short term new layer hiccups from the shell gland coming on line. It's my understanding they will sacrifice their own calcium needs to put out solid shells. But I always pay attention to the details.. Some birds may not process calcium as well as their counterparts and may need more or less for whatever reason.

Oh yes! I had to take pics! It was so small and perfect.

Do share!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I had some neighbors that bought fresh eggs save their shells for me for a while before my girls started laying. I now put out oyster shell and egg shell. They seem to prefer the egg shell. That's ok by me; it's free.

That was kind of your neighbors!

As a general rule of thumb, I wont feed my birds shells from another flock period.. Not store bought, not from the neighborhood, not from my friends flock.. To much risk of salmonella, e coli, or any number of things possibly happening to my flock.. and with plenty of time, funds, effort, and heart fully invested.. free ain't always what it's cracked up to be. In the case that I couldn't gently convince them to stop saving shells for me, I put them in my compost or chicken free garden area.. as my plants always seem to need calcium, especially the veggie garden.

I also send boiled egg shells to the garden.. though I have no real idea why come to think of it!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Why not both?

My morning egg shells go out in the evening with the rest of the day's cooking scraps (veggie peels and ends, mostly) into the compost pile. They will dive in - or not - as they feel like it.

and of course, free choice oyster shell to go with the All Flock I use to supplement their free ranging.

 

[Folly's place]

The important thing here, besides what's been mentioned already, is that feeding back your flock's egg shells will not be enough to supply the extra calcium laying hens require. Always have oyster shell out there, in a separate container!
Birds eating layer feed won't eat as much extra calcium as will birds eating an all flock feed, but oyster shell is really cheap, and layer feed is not meant for any but actively laying hens who eat nothing else.
Here we feed an all flock feed, good for everyone, with that separate oyster shell, and I'm lazy and don't bother adding egg shells out there.
Mary

 

[JaeG]

Thanks to the commercial egg laying industry a lot of research has gone into things such as supplements and feed and this research is often readily available online.

Chickens can suffer from Urolithiasis caused by excessive amounts of calcium in their diet:

"Urolithiasis was defined by Wideman as ‘an acquired degenerative kidney disease of pullets and laying hens involving focal mineralisation of the kidneys, progressive obstruction of the ureters by uroliths (kidney stones) and kidney atrophy ‘upstream’ of the site of ureteral obstruction combined with compensatory hypertrophy by the undamaged portions of the kidney’. "

But as long as you aren't mixing a supplemental source of calcium into their food there should be no problems in backyard flocks.

I did find this that supports the use of oyster shell grit because it sits in the gizzard and can be utilised by the hen overnight when she isn't actively eating:

" Results have been presented which show that when pulverized limestone is used as the only calcium supplement in a complete laying mash for hens, maximum production and egg shell quality are attained when the diet contains 3.5% calcium. The calcium intake of 2.8 g. of calcium per hen per day was inadequate and caused an increase in feed consumption and a significant decrease in egg shell quality. The calcium level of 5% was excessive and caused a decrease in feed consumption, decreased egg production, and yet did not improve egg shell quality above that obtained with 3.5% calcium. Further results showed that the substitution of hen-sized oyster shell for two thirds of the pulverized limestone usually present in complete laying rations resulted in an improvement in average egg shell strength which appeared to be due to a constant metering of calcium from the gizzard into the blood stream of the hens. "