Feeding chickens egg shells

[MaureenHall]

I collect all my egg shells in a tin tray and pop it into the oven when I've finished baking. This cooks any egg white left (rats are partial to that!) and sterilizes them. I've got an old coffee grinder that I use to crush the shells to a powder that's easily mixed in with their mash or dusted onto treats like strawberries, tomatoes etc. I've got loads at the moment, but as I've no chooks to feed it to I'm going to use it as slug repellent

[Suechooks]

I sprinkle mine around the brassicas to help with soil alkalinity.

[Flummery]

The baking helps to crush them - makes them brittle - but as Hilary says, the main reason is to sterilise them.

[lettucegrow!]

I bake the shells, crush them and mix them up with boiled potato skins and any other peelings and pellets and form the whole mush into chicken feed balls. I put three a day into one of those bird feeders you put the fat balls in and they love them. My little effort into self sufficiency feeding! I make them after Sunday dinner's done-there's always enough for the week.

[Hilary B]

Linking to another thread on here, it may actually be illegal to give eggshells to chickens. When rules on feeding scraps to pigs were first tightened what was controlled was described as 'waste food' and at the time it meant meat OR EGGS. Fish was not controlled, and we collected trimmings from the local fishmonger to feed our pigs.

[pdblake]

Would microwaving work just as well as baking? Only I'm loath to burn all that expensive gas when I could use a minutes worth of electricity

[Flummery]

I don't know about microwaving - I save my shells till I put the oven on then shove them on a tray underneath the loaf/cake/roast or whatever. The trick is remembering and not leaving them in for an hour!

[hmk]

I thought the baking was also to change the taste somehow and to avoid giving them a taste for their own eggs?

I don't know as I have an on/off problem with egg eating, and do not want to do anything to even slightly encourage them, so I use my egg shells as a slug deterent or put them in the compost.

[Flummery]

They don't associate the finely crumbled shell with their own eggs. It doesn't look like egg shell if it's crushed finely. I use a pestle & mortar and it gets it down very fine. Our breeder said their own calcium is more easily absorbed than that from an oyster, which makes sense. Mine totally ignore their eggs when they've laid them.

[DJ_Chook]

Google says to sterilize something it needs to be heated to at least 125 cels for 25 minuntes. Microwaving them or boiling them in water won't get it to 125 cels. So I guess baking them is the only way. Then 5 seconds in the blender.

[Campobello]

Hi there

I'm new to chicken keeping and wonder how others feed crushed egg shells back to their chickens?

Kind regards
Tracey

Dry the shells in a warm place then crush into really small peices and mix with their grain. Don't give them anything that still looks like an egg shell, shape that is, or you will run the risk of encourageing them to eat eggs.

[pdblake]

Well, I tried this at the weekend and they wolfed the lot down in seconds

[sheena]

Mine totally ignore their eggs when they've laid them.

Mine do the same, they lay, then get off straight away and go do what chickens do best - scratch!

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear they think it's a big smelly poo and try and get out of the way quick lol