How to give eggshells?

[Weetamoo93]

Nahhh...some folks just toss the halves into the run.

I'm one of those folks. I just throw them in the run with the rest of my compost, maybe give a little crush under foot. They're usually only a day old or so. The hens like pecking them apart, so it's a bit more like foraging behavior. No one has eaten any eggs yet, other than maybe a broken soft shell or two (the girls are still under a year old).

I still offer oyster on the side.

 

[Weetamoo93]

Good point. I just offered that because I did the same thing, and quickly afterwards, my chickens began to eat their eggs. I make sure to give them high-quality feed, so I don't think they were in need of more feed, and they free-range and get along, so I didn't think it was stress either....I figured that they took off of the shape from the eggshell, thinking it was okay to eat their own eggs, but I'm probably wrong on that.

I had a goose like that and she taught ALL the others how tasty eggs were. I never had another goose egg unless one went broody. Sometimes they just get a taste for egg, maybe intentional, maybe accidental, and it becomes an addiction.