Who feeds their chickens their own shells?

[BarneyChick97]

I was wondering, because I've fed my chickens their shells, but I've only done it after I baked them for a few minutes @ 350F. They get all crunchy and dry. I heard that you had to cook them in order for the calcium (or whatever else they are supposed to get from eating the shells) to come out. Plus, the whole "germ factor". Well, we've been hard boiling our eggs lately, and I was wondering if anyone has fed their chickens egg shells that way?? Do you think there is any nutrients left in them? They've been cooked, so surely there must not be anything terribly bad in them? I don't mind baking them, just that I have to save them for a while to get enough to make it worth my time!

BTW, has everyone heard about that trick with putting baking soda in the water when you hard boil eggs from Pinterest? Ah!! It works GREAT!!!! The egg shells come off SO easy!!

 

[frostbite]

I've been saving egg shells (store bought eggs, just got my first ever chicks 5 weeks ago) and I do bake them (the eggshells, not the chicks) to kill any store bought salmonella. I crushed them, and I'll give them to the chickens, but not till they start laying eggs. The chicks don't need them yet, and too much calcium can damage their little chick kidneys. They get what they need from their feed at this point.

When I start collecting my own eggs, I won't bother to bake them. Any bacteria on their eggs are already in the coop anyway, so it won't matter.

 

[moomoodiddy]

I dont bake the shells but i do crush them up so they can recognize them so they dont try to eat eggs that im not feeding them i would think baking them would take out to much nutrients that your trying to give them and its not germy they eat dirt i heard it gives them calcium and protien and nevessary grit if they dont get enough

 

[CatUT]

I mix their shells in with their food. I put them in a warm oven for about 20 min or so just to make sure they're all dried out. It makes it easier to crush them. I use a ziplock bag and rolling pin to crush them fine enough. I haddn't heard about needing to heat them to release the calcium.

I would suppose that even if you boild the shells that there would still be good stuff in them. After all they're mostly calcium anyway. It's not like you can just boil away a shell.

I'll have to try the baking soda in the water thing. I just let my eggs set for a week before I boil them and then make sure to cool them quickly after they're done being boiled.

 

[Stephanie739]

I give my chickens their egg shells. I usually just leave them out for a day to dry out. If there is wetness left inside the egg after a day, I put them in the microwave before crunching them for the chickens. When I hard boil eggs for them, I just squish them in a bowl (eggs and all) before giving them to my birds.

 

[BarneyChick97]

I also mix the baked shells in with their food, because I don't want gooey wet food, or them to just look at a pile of shells. I thought I heard somewhere here that you needed to cook them for the nutrients to be "released"? My chickens are over a year old now. I started to give them the shells in the winter, because I wanted to see if it worked as well as giving them oyster shells. I was wondering more about the hard boiled shells......?

 

[Stephanie739]

I cook or dry out the shells so the chickens won't become used to eating raw eggs. I am skeptical about extra nutrients being released through cooking. I have always believed cooking (veggies, etc) actually decreases nutritious value.

 

[frostbite]

Cooking can either decrease or increase nutritional value. Heat denatures proteins, but so does stomach acid, and the proteins are all broken down in the gut and absorbed as individual amino acids anyway, so in some cases proteins can become more digestible They don't disappear, unless you rinse down the drain the water you cook them in. On the other hand, some nutrients could be reformed in ways that they are less digestible. But then I've heard that raw spinach has lots of iron, but it's not in a digestible form. (I think I heard it from a reliable source, but don't remember, so don't stop eating raw spinach, I still eat it, and like it!)

Balanced diet is the key, for people and for chickens, and cooking or not cooking, from a nutritional status is probably less important than avoiding contamination. So cook or don't cook, and feel good about either choice, and enjoy your food and your chickens!

 

[bucky52]

i crush them and throw them in my flower bed.that is the first place they go to when i let them out to free range.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I keep an old pan in my oven that I throw egg shells in. Whenever I am finished using the oven but while it's still hot I put the pan in to dry out the shells. The purpose isn't to cook them (not necessary) but simply to get them crispy dry so they are both either to crush and won't stink. When the pan is full I dump the dry shells into an old #10 can I keep for the purpose and crush them with a potato masher. When the can is full it goes down to the feed room to be mixed half and half with the ground oyster shell and fed out to the birds. It's free calcium so I'm going to take advantage of it.