Help with my egg lining removal!

[luvussomechicks]

I have heard that you should take out the lining out of the egg shells before you feed them back to the chickens. Any easy way of doing this? I find it nerve racking!! Mine may not get any shells if I can't find a way. Will it hurt them if I boil the eggshell, then crush it without taking any small residue of lining left inside?

 

[Chris09]

I never remove the Membrane, don't see why you would have to.

Chris

 

[Fred's Hens]

X2

sent a PM.

 

[donrae]

Oh please don't make it so much work! Crack your eggs, save the shells in a bowl. Personally, I just toss the halves/big pieces into the run for them to eat once every few days, but that freaks a lot of folks out that the hens will start eating their eggs. So, just grab handfuls and crush them into smaller pieces and drop them on the ground. You don't need to cook/bake/boil the shells before feeding them back.

 

[CluckyJay]

Yup. You cant imagine the garbage a chicken will eat, and thrive on. :-D

 

[PrincessTamTam]

How old do they have to be before you give them shells? Does this replace the oyster shells I'm supposed to give them?

 

[HEChicken]

How old do they have to be before you give them shells? Does this replace the oyster shells I'm supposed to give them?

Yes, this is instead of oyster shell (and mine prefer egg shell to the point they won't even touch oyster shell when given the option). They don't need the supplement until they are laying age, but you will find they have a pretty good sense of what they need and won't show much interest in it when they are younger either. Around the time they start to lay is when they will start to eat the supplemental shell. Also, if you are feeding layer feed, it has added calcium so they won't need as much supplemental shell, as if you are feeding an "all flock" formula that is lower in calcium.

To the OP, where did you hear that you were supposed to remove the membrane? That is a new one on me! As someone previously said, don't make it hard work. I also just let them dry out a little, roughly crush up each half in my hand and then give it to them. I used to bake etc. but now find that they only need a few hours to dry to the point they will crush easily in my hand and they are good to go.