How to store egg shells to give your chickens

[DAYnuh13]

I want to start giving my chickens egg shells but not sure how to store them until I have enough to bake and crush up. I don't want them to get moldy.

 

[Jac Jac]

I want to start giving my chickens egg shells but not sure how to store them until I have enough to bake and crush up. I don't want them to get moldy.

I'm interested in this too. Will be watching this thread closely.

 

[de kippendame]

I just rinsed them out really well, let them dry and put them in a bowl on the counter until I had a cookie sheet load full for baking them.

 

[neo71665]

I have a toaster oven in my shop. I just bake one or 2 at a time if I have to but me and my son normally eat at least 4 eggs every morning.

 

[Ruthster55]

I just leave them in a dish on the counter. Between the cats, dog, little chickies, and myself we eat enough eggs that I have a cookie sheet full of eggshells to bake every few days. Then I crush them so they don't like eggs to the chickies.

 

[50-45-1]

I never bake them at all.
I think the high heat destroy the content and besides it smells disgusting.
I let them naturally dry out in a tangerine box for about a month in a dry spot in my sun porch. Crush and feed back mixed in with my oyster shell. I have about 3 tangerine boxes going at once. Oldest, not as old, and new freshest box. New fresh box gets full, crush and feed oldest box, and start again.
Works for me.

 

[DAYnuh13]

I never bake them at all.
I think the high heat destroy the content and besides it smells disgusting.
I let them naturally dry out in a tangerine box for about a month in a dry spot in my sun porch. Crush and feed back mixed in with my oyster shell. I have about 3 tangerine boxes going at once. Oldest, not as old, and new freshest box. New fresh box gets full, crush and feed oldest box, and start again.
Works for me.

Do you rinse them off at all before letting them air dry? I just want to make sure they don't get moldy.

 

[Jac Jac]

I just leave them in a dish on the counter. Between the cats, dog, little chickies, and myself we eat enough eggs that I have a cookie sheet full of eggshells to bake every few days. Then I crush them so they don't like eggs to the chickies.

How do you keep I those horrendous little gnats/flies from fluttering around? I have asthma so chemical sprays are a No-No.

 

[50-45-1]

Do you rinse them off at all before letting them air dry? I just want to make sure they don't get moldy.

I do not rince off. I suppose you could.
I learned not to cup the shells together because those dont air dry well.inside .
Is your house damp? Is that why you are worried about mold. Just place them in a sunny window sill or a dry sun porch. They should dry just fine.

 

[Willow2253]

I just have a plastic bin what we put all of the used shells in a dry spot outside the back door. They dry in a couple of days and then we crush them up. We go through eggs pretty quickly in my house so we crush them up about once a week. Haven’t had any problem with mold or flies, even when we keep the bin inside in the winter. We don’t wash them either.