How to get your hens to eat oyster shells

[Alex S]

Today I came across my first shell-less egg. I make sure to have oyster shell in the run but they seem to never eat it. How do I get them to eat it? Maybe I should tell them no treats until they finish their oyster shell...

 

[rosemarythyme]

You can try mixing a little bit into a small amount of scratch or other loose treats, and tossing that, to see if that gets them more interested in trying it.

Alternatively you can mix some crushed egg shells into the oyster shell dispenser as some birds prefer it, and that might be them more interested.

How old are your birds? If they're adults and starting to molt, a soft shelled egg wouldn't be unusual, as you'll see an increase in problematic eggs around molting/cessation of laying.

 

[Alex S]

You can try mixing a little bit into a small amount of scratch or other loose treats, and tossing that, to see if that gets them more interested in trying it.

Alternatively you can mix some crushed egg shells into the oyster shell dispenser as some birds prefer it, and that might be them more interested.

How old are your birds? If they're adults and starting to molt, a soft shelled egg wouldn't be unusual, as you'll see an increase in problematic eggs around molting/cessation of laying.

The hen that I believe laid the egg is a year old

 

[rosemarythyme]

The hen that I believe laid the egg is a year old

Are you starting to see molts in the group?

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Today I came across my first shell-less egg. I make sure to have oyster shell in the run but they seem to never eat it. How do I get them to eat it? Maybe I should tell them no treats until they finish their oyster shell...

Stop giving treats until eggshell quality improves. They are not eating enough of their food which is diluting the amount of calcium they are ingesting.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

If you think you are giving them too many treats, I would certainly slow down with those.

But my hens really do not like oyster shells so I feel your pain. I've had a chick-sized feeder I filled with oyster shells in the spring and it's still not gone. They do seem to eat it, but rarely. Because of this, I save all their egg shells I use in cooking and feed them back to the chickens. I rinse them after cracking them and let them dry on the edge of the sink. Once I have a good amount, I put them on a tray and bake them at 350 for 12 minutes. Once they cool they are very brittle and I just crush them and roll over them with a rolling pin until it is very tiny pieces. My hens love these and I see them eating them all the time. This is just as effective as feeding oyster shells, and it's more cost-effective since your hens are already making the eggshells.

I hope this helps!

 

[Auntiejessi3]

As others have said save your shells and mix them with your oyster shell. I have a 2 1/2 yr old brahma that won't touch oyster shell. On another note, what type of oyster shell are you using? A year or so back the flaked oyster shell was hard to find so I bought the pebbled, none of my ladies would eat it and ultimately it got thrown away.

 

[3KillerBs]

The hen that I believe laid the egg is a year old

She could be going into molt, a common time to get wonky eggs.

If you feed layer rather than all-flock it already has calcium in it so they may not eat much oystershell just because they are getting *almost* enough calcium from the layer feed.

This is just as effective as feeding oyster shells, and it's more cost-effective since your hens are already making the eggshells.

But they have to have oystershell too because just recycling their own eggshells isn't enough due to the losses along the way.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

I also feed back eggshell to my ladies, and they love it. I don't bother baking or crushing them. Just wait until they are dry and crumble up by hand.

But as @3KillerBs mentioned, they still need other calcium sources because the eggshells alone will gradually have less and less calcium content

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

Maybe mix some oyster shell/eggshell with treats. Mine don't like certain types of oyster shell and will only eat 1 type: Small pet select. I swear they gulf it all down in 5 mins, but when I switch it with another type, they never touch it.