Feeding eggshells to your chickens

There are many articles and blog posts about giving calcium supplements to your chickens. Egg laying is a real drain on calcium, and all chicken keepers will have encountered the odd wierd softie in the nest box, or inadvertently put their finger through the shell of an oh-so-fragile egg.

Dry the eggs fully

Some people give eggshells to their chickens, so I decided to have a go and share my experiences via my blog.

It takes a bit of planning. I normally throw the eggshells into the kitchen compost bin, so I had to train myself out of that.

Each time I use an egg, instead of throwing it away, I drop it in the sink. I then wash the inside out thoroughly. If you leave too much of the membrane inside, it can be difficult to crush the shell - it sort of sticks together. 

Crush the eggshells

It is important to dry the eggs before attempting to crush them. Some people bake them in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. I simply leave them out for a couple of days before putting them into a plastic freezer bag.

Crushed eggshells

Once I have enough eggshells in the plastic bag, I crush them using a rolling pin. This can take a little while, but it is worth it. I then put the crushed shells into a washed out jam jar and add them to my hens' food every couple of weeks.

My hens eat layers pellets with added vermix alternating with omega mash which they love. Sometimes I mix the mash with the pellets. They don't seem to notice or care if there is eggshell added or not. However I do notice the eggs have good strong shells. I haven't had a softie or delicate shelled egg since I've been doing this, but without having a control group of chickens that I do not feed eggshells to, I can't be absolutely sure that the extra calcium is causing this.

I recently read an interesting blog post from The Prairie Homestead on how to feed eggshells to your chickens which suggested feeding the eggshells to your hens in a separate container from their usual food so that the chickens could choose if they needed extra calcium or not. I may try this. I don't want to overfeed them with calcium.

Update 21 Dec. 16 - I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but using a blender speeds up the crushing. It does generate a lot of dust, but it saves all that rolling pin work :) Also, since giving the eggshells in a separate container, I find my hens gobble them down, so they are clearly keen on the extra calcium.