Eggshells - what do you use them for

[Bacchus]

I've been meaning to ask this for some time and another poster reminded me of the topic.

Eggshells are a valuable resource for a gardener and people use them for many purposes. I'm just wondering what the opinions are for the best use of them. What gets you the biggest bang for your ...er...shell.

[Jay-ell]

I don't use that many eggs so saving them up separately means having another container hanging around.

I just crush them up and pop them into the compost.

[roitelet]

Bake 'em, crush 'em and mix them with the chook food.

[veggiechicken]

^^^^ Same as roitelet

[Jay-ell]

CANNIBAL CHICKENS

Someone told me (no idea who) that feeding chickens eggshells encouraged them to eat their own eggs (or something like that - I wasn't paying too much attention)

[veggiechicken]

Not if you bake them first. Its the remains of the egg left on the shell that gives them the taste for eating them, (I think)

[Dorothy rouse]

I just chuck them in with the veggie peelings, in the compost bin.

[brownfingers]

I crush the up and add them to the final potting mix for my tommies. BER is caused by lack of calcium, and eggshells are calcium. Just seems common sense. Only had one or two with BER since I started doing this.

[Nicos]

Hens....baked and crushed as above .

[Jay-ell]

Korean Natural Farming uses eggshell dissolved in vinegar to make water soluble calcium as a plant tonic

https://rooftopecology.wordpress.com...luble-calcium/

[Madasafish]

We have a plastic box on top of our boiler: shells are placed in there to dry. We crush them with a meat tenderiser every so often and empty into a big sealed plastic container every so often.

Used for adding to tomato fertilser - calcium, to brassicas as a anti slug dressing and to spread on raspberry and strawberry beds.

[Bacchus]

Tomato feed enhancer is what I normally use mine for but I see there are many options. If only I was friendly with a local bakery I'm sure that would be a treasure trove of them.

[mothhawk]

CANNIBAL CHICKENS

Someone told me (no idea who) that feeding chickens eggshells encouraged them to eat their own eggs (or something like that - I wasn't paying too much attention)

Au contraire, Jay-ell, feeding chooks baked crushed eggshells will STOP them eating their own eggs, by providing the calcium they are seeking.
Baking makes them easy to crush to small fragments, and also kills any bacteria.

[Bigmallly]

Baked, crushed & put in't Wormery.................I need the free bait...........

[FlawlessVictory]

I've been crushing them up and throwing them in my composter.. I've read somewhere that if you don't crush them up they take an age to decompose... I also heard the tea bag bags are the same.. so I cut them and tip it out