How to get your hens to eat oyster shells

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

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!

I dont know if I'm doing something wrong but when i crack an egg, i throw it in a bowl where it air dried. Once I have many dried by air, i crush them and fill my dispenser. Is this dangerous? I tried baking them, but they burnt so I havnt since. What do u think? Also, my gals wouldnt touch the pro manna oyster shells. This summer i went to RI and filled a bag of oyster shells and have been crushing them and offering. No issues with egg shells. They do eat the egg shells and oysters so thats a good thing. Good luck!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I mix it right in with their feed in their feeder long tray. I get crushed oyster shell at F&F and they really like it. When mine were in their first year I came across a few shell-less eggs but none this year at all yet. They all are taking turns molting right now, so curious if I will see some. In the winter I give them some dried oatmeal in with their feed also.

Dried oatmeal for what? I'll take any supplemental feed advice to get through the long cold winter! Good luck!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Yeah I assumed it would be a one time thing but I just wanted to get some more knowledge on how to prevent this

I had a shell less egg once. Dont even know who did it! All is well

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I'm headed to tsc this morning. I'll see if I v6an find a flaked one.

Favorite store, lol

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Certain things? No, my chickens don’t dig for themselves. If thats not considered spoiled i have no idea what is. Im sitting out there doing all the labor to get them grub worms! Snots.

I do the same!!!! I LoVE scratchy doo time with the hens! I say, come here, i found a buggy......they know that statement well. I gotta come up with 5 grubs or else someone will be upset, lol

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I dont know if I'm doing something wrong but when i crack an egg, i throw it in a bowl where it air dried. Once I have many dried by air, i crush them and fill my dispenser. Is this dangerous? I tried baking them, but they burnt so I havnt since. What do u think? Also, my gals wouldnt touch the pro manna oyster shells. This summer i went to RI and filled a bag of oyster shells and have been crushing them and offering. No issues with egg shells. They do eat the egg shells and oysters so thats a good thing. Good luck!

I don't think there is anything wrong with it if it works for you! I mainly bake mine just so they get extra brittle and are easier to crush. It's not an antibacterial thing.

Having real oyster shells from RI sounds great! If I had access to those I would totally do that too. My family does sometimes eat oysters though so I could save the shells. How do you go about crushing them?

 

[NatJ]

I dont know if I'm doing something wrong but when i crack an egg, i throw it in a bowl where it air dried. Once I have many dried by air, i crush them and fill my dispenser. Is this dangerous?

That is fine.
Letting it dry is optional.
Baking it is optional.
Crushing it is optional.
None of those cause harm, but none of them is really needed either.

If you just toss a fresh eggshell to your hens, they will be fine. They can break it up with their own beaks if they want smaller pieces.

Some people think hens are more likely to become egg eaters if they are given unbroken eggshells, and some people say it's not a problem. I have seen hens break pieces off the edge of the shell, not pecking the round part that looks like a whole egg, so I think they may see a broken shell as different than a whole egg. But I am not positive one way or the other, so I tend to crush eggshells until they no longer "look like" an egg to me (often I drop the shells on the ground and step on them, then leave the pieces there for the chickens to pick up.)

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it if it works for you! I mainly bake mine just so they get extra brittle and are easier to crush. It's not an antibacterial thing.

Having real oyster shells from RI sounds great! If I had access to those I would totally do that too. My family does sometimes eat oysters though so I could save the shells. How do you go about crushing them?

So, funny you should ask. I'll paint a picture of me squatted down with a rock in my hand and a pile of oyster shells on a flat rock at my feet. I often picture myself in a primitive manner while I am bent over aggressively bashing the oyster shells with a rock. It takes a bit of time, but i only have 5 hens so every month I'll crush like 8 shells. When i first started using them, the girls shells were like double shells! The oysters have lost their appeal and the eggs are now what i'd call normal instead of double shelled. Lol good luck! Before crushing, i rinsed well and air/sun dried the shells for about a week before offering. I think that when i first offered the oyster shells, they still had salt water and maybe some oyster residue still attached and thats why they were eating them more and resulted in super hard shells. I had to do something because they wernt touching the oyster shells from pro mana. I realized that the calcium from the pro manna bag isnt even real oyster shells. No wonder they didnt want it.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

So, funny you should ask. I'll paint a picture of me squatted down with a rock in my hand and a pile of oyster shells on a flat rock at my feet. I often picture myself in a primitive manner while I am bent over aggressively bashing the oyster shells with a rock. It takes a bit of time, but i only have 5 hens so every month I'll crush like 8 shells. When i first started using them, the girls shells were like double shells! The oysters have lost their appeal and the eggs are now what i'd call normal instead of double shelled. Lol good luck! Before crushing, i rinsed well and air/sun dried the shells for about a week before offering. I think that when i first offered the oyster shells, they still had salt water and maybe some oyster residue still attached and thats why they were eating them more and resulted in super hard shells. I had to do something because they wernt touching the oyster shells from pro mana. I realized that the calcium from the pro manna bag isnt even real oyster shells. No wonder they didnt want it.

Haha that was a great picture you painted! Thanks for the advice though. I only have a few hens myself, so it might be worth trying next time we have some oysters.

 

[AmyMon]

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!

I do the same thing then keep the crushed shells in a jar in the fridge—our girls will only eat their own shells, not oyster shells. Sometimes we are close to running out but we haven’t gotten there yet.