If you have never heard of this, you may be wondering why you should feed your eggshells back to your chickens? Well, it is actually natural for chickens to eat eggshells. Animals are very smart and know exactly what their bodies need and how to go about getting it. For chickens, they will eat their eggshells when they need a boost of calcium in their diet. Eggshells are made up of 98 percent calcium, so it is vital for chickens to have enough of it in their diets in order to produce a nice hard shell. If you have ever had a member of your feathered flock break and eat their eggs, this is probably why.
Calcium also helps with the following:
- Blood Clotting
- The Reproductive System
- Digestion
- Bone Development
- Growth
- Maintaining a healthy heart rate
- Regulating their internal pH
Nutritional Benefits of Feeding Eggshells to Chickens
As mentioned above, calcium is an essential nutrients that chickens need in order to maintain overall good health. Calcium is important for the development of strong bones and ensuring that they remain strong throughout their lifespan. Healthy bones means active, agile, and happy chickens. Calcium is especially important for laying hens as without it, your eggs may have thinner, more fragile shells. Calcium deficiency in chickens can also lead to other potential health issues as well so it is important if you want to keep your feathered friends well taken care of. You can read about other common chicken health problems by reading this great article from the Almanac here.
Enhanced Digestion
Because birds do not have teeth and are unable to chew their food in the same way mammals do, they rely on a unique digestive organ known as the gizzard. The gizzard is a muscular organ that stores grit for breaking down and crushing food. For this reason, making sure your chickens have enough grit in their diet is important. Grit is essentially just small hard particles that your chicken can consume to aid in breaking down their food. Feeding eggshells to your chickens provides a natural form of grit that is also a valuable source of calcium, so it’s a win win.
Brooding Behaviors
Calcium has a significant impact on the brooding behaviors of hens. Brooding refers to a period of time when a hen’s “motherly instincts” are at their peak. During this time, she will want sit on her eggs to incubate them and later on, care for her newly hatched chicks. Calcium deficiency can result in decreased energy levels and weak muscle function that can be tied to issues such as difficulty maintaining the correct temperature and humidity levels for egg incubation or an inability to defend her nest. By making sure your hens are eating a calcium rich diet you can support good brooding behaviors and increase the success of a hatch.
Additionally, chicks absorb calcium from their eggshells during incubation which helps them develop properly. Therefore, a calcium rich diet for your hens means a solid foundation and a good start in life for your next generation of birds.
Feeding Eggshells Back to Your Chickens is Sustainable
As always, we are forever looking for more ways to be sustainable in our everyday practices. When focusing on sustainable living, it’s important to consider the impact of our food systems and how we manage waste. For us chicken owner’s, that means finding creative ways to reduce waste and promote a self sustaining system within our coops.
One simple way to achieve this is to feed your crushed eggshells back to your chickens. In doing so, you are not only reaping the previously discussed benefits but also closing the loop on waste within your backyard ecosystem. Additionally, relying on crushed eggshells as a calcium supplement for your flock means there is no need for commercially produced alternatives. This, in turn, lowers your overall environmental footprint by decreasing the demand for manufacturing, packaging, and transportation of commercial products.
How to Prepare your Eggshells
Eggshells have many uses so never throw them out! If you are not feeding them back to your chickens, you can add them to your garden or use them as an abrasive to get stuck on messes off of your dishes. Or you can always add them to your compost pile. If you don’t already have a compost pile and would like to start one, you can read my beginner’s composting guide here. Personally, I like to keep a large mason jar in my fridge and as I acquire more shells, I just add them in until it is full. I choose to rinse my shells out before placing them into my jar, but this is not necessary. Just keep in mind that if you are not rinsing them out and don’t refrigerate them, they could develop an odor. Once your jar is full, just empty it onto a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 400°F. Baking them will help to break down the shell, make them more brittle, as well as kill any bacteria that could be on the shells. Now just crush your shells into smaller pieces with your hands. You can feed them to your chickens just like this or you can grind them into a powder if you prefer.
When NOT to Feed
Do not feed eggshells to your chickens until they are of laying age. Chicks under 18 weeks do not need any extra calcium in their diets. Most “chick feed” contains all the calcium that their little bodies need. Small chickens are only able to absorb so much calcium and if you are feeding them more that what they are able to handle, it can cause kidney damage which can shorten their lifespan. Pullets require 2.75 grams of calcium per day. Adult egg laying chickens require 4-5 grams of calcium per day.
If you are worried about giving your chickens too much calcium, I recommend placing your eggshells in their own dish instead of mixing it into your chickens’ feed. As I mentioned above, chickens are smart, and they know what their bodies need. By just offering the shells, your chickens can choose when and how much they consume.
If you have any other uses for eggshells, I’d love to hear in the comments below. If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter below, our subscribers are always the first to know when new content drops and have special access to freebies such as ebooks and worksheets that we drop periodically. When you subscribe today, you will receive an email with access to my FREE foraging ebook that is filled with all sorts of fun information from recipes to information on how to identify native plants and even a foraging calendar.
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