Oyster shell vs. crushed up egg shells

Here's another question on that....can they be raw egg shells or do they have to be cooked egg shells?

 

Quote:i know they can be raw if they are fresh .... but if they are just going to sit around for a while --- the moistness can allow for molds, fungi, or other nastiness to grow

 

Eggshells arent quite as high in calcium content. Takes many more eggs than oyster shell to equal the same amt. I use both. Put the shells on a cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes which dries them out and makes them much easier to crush.

 

Quote:Good idea about drying them out, I will be trying that one.

 

I have a Bunn coffeemaker which keeps a tank of water heated at all times. I set a plastic box on top of it, and put eggshells in it as I use the eggs. The steady heat from the coffeemaker dries the shells out nicely, and speckledhen is so right -- it makes them MUCH easier to crush!

 

We use both. Oyster shell stays in the gut for a longer time and some of it may not be absorbed if the system is fast. (All the grit I find in my water trough's "poo sludge" leads me to believe some of the shell isn't being absorbed.) I think the whole egg shell actually gets absorbed versus oyster shell.

No matter what the source, not all will go straight to shells, it all goes through the system, so you don't get a 1 for 1 ratio on shells. Your blood needs calcium for proper blood cell growth.

I feed them raw. I just through the egg shells into a 1 gallon ice cream bucket and about once a week I change it out. About a week later I crush them and send it out to the girls. I guess it depends on how much air you let them breathe and if you have a dry-ish house. I'm in Oregon so I know it's pretty moist air most of the year. But we don't have a smell problem as long as there's no broken yolk or anything like that.

 

Egg shells can lessen how much other calcium they need but they won't absorb 100% of the calcium out of the shell so it ends up being less than what's needed to make a new egg plus maintaining bone density. You'll still have to provide something like oyster shell.

Egg shells don't mold if left to sit because they dry out quickly. I just throw mine in a bucket and let them dry. At the end of the week I smash them up and throw them out to the chickens with any other leftovers. There's no real moisture in an egg shell. There's only what moisture gets on it from cooking or the inside of the egg so if you get all the egg out they dry quite quickly.

 

Quote:That's brilliant!

 

I was questioning the same thing as the OP. But I noticed some of those who replied said they feed the egg shells to the chickens raw...I aways heard that can increase the chance of an egg eater, is that true?