Egg shell for chickens

[PunkinPeep]

I posted this same post over on BYC, but it's very SS for me, so i wanted to post it here too.

I've read about feeding egg shell back to the layers instead of oyster shell. But i've never seen anyone mention using the blender. Then it finally dawned on me yesterday. Use the blender!

This is the shells from about six months worth of eggs we've used in the kitchen for cooking and baking. When my jar fills up, i boil them, rinse them, dry them in the oven and crush them. But today i took everything i've been saving and pulverized it in the blender. I'm very happy with the results.

This jar is quite heavy.

It's coming out kind of the consistency of d.e., so you have to let it settle before you open the blender. Pretty dusty.

If i weren't planning to feed this to them when they get to be laying age, i would mix it in the bedding like d.e. Of course, i have no idea if it would help with pests, but it seems like it would be a great drying agent.

 

[Wifezilla]

I gather the shells, nuke em to dry them out and then just scrunch em up and mix them with oyster shells.

 

[me&thegals]

Very cool! I just dump my shells back in the chickenyard with the other food scraps. Is this the wrong thing to do?

 

[PunkinPeep]

I gather the shells, nuke em to dry them out and then just scrunch em up and mix them with oyster shells.

In the interest of ss, i would really rather not buy oyster shell. I would rather not even get in the habit of it, honestly.

How coarse is oyster shell?

 

[PunkinPeep]

Very cool! I just dump my shells back in the chickenyard with the other food scraps. Is this the wrong thing to do?

Do they eat them like that?

I think some people think that if they eat the shells in relative normal egg-looking form, that they'll want to eat the eggs they're not supposed to eat.

I personally don't know.

 

[Wifezilla]

The oyster shell is pretty course. I got it from a BYC member that is on the coast. With feeding back the egg shells, eventually you are going to need more calcium. You aren't going to get a 100% recycle rate. Fortunately dandelions are a great source of calcium.

 

[PunkinPeep]

dandelions? thanks for the tip!

 

[Wifezilla]

I let the ducks loose in the front yard for dandelion patrol periodically

 

[miss_thenorth]

Very cool! I just dump my shells back in the chickenyard with the other food scraps. Is this the wrong thing to do?

this is what I do. Way back when I first got the chickens, I read that feeding egg shells would make your chickens egg eaters so I dried them, crushed them like you did. It ruined my plastic processor bowl. so then I put them in a bag and used the rolling pin.

Then I dropped an egg leaving the barn one day, and they ate it--shell and all but never did turn into egg eaters, so now I just toss them out with the rest of my food scraps. Been doing this for almost two years, and no egg eaters. I do, however, have oyster shell. but I have had this bag for well over a year, and it's less than 1/2 empty. I jsut mix some in with their food when I get asoft shelled egg, which doesn't happen very often.

 

[freemotion]

Well, you all know by now that I crush chicken and turkey bones that boiled into broth and feed them to my hens for protein and calcium. They still have access to a bin of oyster shell, but it can go almost untouched for weeks or even months it seems. Especially in summer, so my guess is that beetles and grasshoppers probably have calcium in their exoskeletons. Too lazy to look it up. The birds know what they need, as long as they have access to a wide variety of stuff to choose from, they will balance their own ration. If you need to confine your hens, that is a different story.

My mom just sets the shells on a paper plate to dry and then crushes them lightly between her hands. No need to sanitize the eggshells if they did not come from a commercial operation. Very, very low chance of salmonella and such. I eat my eggs raw in shakes all the time, and in mayo. I won't eat storebought eggs raw.