how do you feed egg shells to chickens?

[Preservation Acres]

Good ideas folks. Thanks.

 

[backdoorchicken]

i just scrambled some eggs with shell bits in it. then i chopped it up even finer.

they seem to really enjoy it.

 

[1-duckling]

I microwave for 20 seconds and crush. I used to bake them but the micro is so much more convenient. The crushing them into unrecognizable pieces did not detour my 6 yr old hen from deciding to start pecking the eggs of my new hens. I know she's not lacking protein; she gets a supplement of poultry pellets and cooked duck eggs and she's free range. Who knows why?

 

[greathorse]

I have no idea nor opinion as to the truth or fact of the following information just thought I would pass it along.

Recently I had occasion to have a conversation with a nutritionist that spent most of his career with Tyson foods. He told me that the calcium in egg shells was not available to the chickens in even a small way. The poultry industry is of course known to use every available thing they can, but he said egg shells were considered a waste materiel and simply had no value in terms of nutrition.

I have done no further research I have no interest in feeding them to the birds in any case but thought I would pass along this information.

 

[Amethyste]

I save my shells and let them air dry after rinsing them. I then put them in a bag and crush them up, and mix it in with the cottage cheese, or the yogurt, or the scrambled eggs.

As long as it doenst LOOK like an egg, the theory is that they wont go after the eggs.

Does it work? Well, so far so good lol

 

[centavo71]

Thank you all for this thread! I am learning so much every day here! Did I ever mention how much I love this site?

 

[Tweeza]

I have one of those black rubber feeding pans from TSC that I wasn't using. I put the crushed up shells in that. I got a small cute little galvanized bucket that I throw the shells in to let them dry and then I crush them with something handy near by i.e a plastic cup, vit. water bottle... Works great!

 

[bigoakhunter]

I hard boil my eggs then peel and use eggs, crush the shells. I like to mix them with kernel corn ( uncooked) and some of the hard boiled egg and yogurt. ( as someone else on this site reccomended!)

 

[3goodeggs]

Burnt egg shell smells really bad.
I think I will 'boil' from now on.
'Broil' stunk up the house.

I wonder if that Tyson guy was right? or was it perhaps not worth the labor?
When you are that big time is money. or perhaps salmonela was a factor?


I can't not spell. Sorry for any misspellings.

 

[greathorse]

This particalar person was very clear that the nutrionist's indicated that there was no value in the egg shells whatsoever.

Again, I am sure the eggshell does no damage and may be of benefit, so I included that observation in this thread as a point of interest.

It was interesting in that it was the one "left over" product from the poultry industry that they really had some trouble getting rid of. They use literally everything else.