too much food? feeding hens egg shells

[lilacer]

New to having chickens. We have 2 hens and 3 laying pullets(well it seems like the pullets lay every other day or so). They love it when I give them veggie and fruit scraps and weeds from the garden. How much can I give them? I've heard that chickens will only eat what they need and then stop, is that correct? They also have organic feed, which is mainly corn and soy, and oyster shells. + water with ACV.

Also, wondering about feeding the hens their egg shells. I know that they should be smashed into tiny crumbles, but I ask: do the eggs need to dry out first? How often and when can I change from oyster shells to their own shells?

Do chickens get diarrhea? Something i should worry about?

Thanks for reading my post and for any help!

 

[animallover505]

for the egg-shells, many people bake tg=hem on low heat for like 20 minutes or so. But my friend doesn't, so either way works.

 

[Den in Penn]

The rule of thumb here on feeding other than feed is no more than they clean up in ten minutes. Longer and you run the risk of unbalancing their diet. That said if you know what your doing you can fed them fairly well using various supplemental foods. With egg shells, you don't need to crush them fine or bake them. The concern feeding egg shell nearly whole is that they will associate the shells with food and start to eat eggs. to be on the safe side of that just make sure they are not to large pieces.