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Feeding Eggshells to Chickens: How to Do It and Why You’d Want To

By Mindy 13 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Feeding Eggshells to Chickens: How to Do It and Why You’d Want To
chicken in yard

Wait. Why exactly am I feeding eggshells to chickens? I’m glad you asked!

Eggshells are made of mostly calcium carbonate. Chickens need lots of calcium so that their eggshells are thick and unbreakable (well, not totally unbreakable, but you get the idea).

If a chicken doesn’t get enough calcium she may not lay as many eggs or her eggshells may become so weak that they get stuck in the oviduct (called egg-binding), which, like crop issues, can be a serious, and life-threatening issue.

Chicken feed should provide enough calcium for any hen, but just like us humans, each chicken is different and has different dietary needs. Offering supplemental calcium will allow the ladies who need more calcium to get it.

Oyster shells are another option for supplemental calcium but I prefer not to buy something when I already have a perfect supplement on hand.

Feeding Eggshells to Chickens

There are many ways to do it and every chicken farmer does it differently. Here’s how I feed eggshells to chickens (an even simpler system below).

shells on sheet

I keep a jar for eggshells on my counter. When I use an egg I rinse the egg shell and let it dry on the counter for a while before putting it in the jar. If I put wet or eggy shells in the jar, the shells start to smell terrible(!) and they never dry out.

When the jar is full, I dump the eggshells out onto a large baking sheet. I bake it in the oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes.

When they come out I either throw them into the blender and pulse a few times or I just use my mortar and pestle. As long as they are dry you can also just hand crush them (which I do often).

mortar and pestal

I then throw a little crushed eggshell in when I bring scraps out to the chickens. Some people recommend offering it in a separate dish so they don’t eat too much eggshell but I just throw everything on the ground for them to scratch and peck through. They love it!

I also believe that chickens can instinctively get what their bodies need as long as it’s available. (I mean, they did thrive for many years before domestication, right?)

Note: eggshells shouldn’t be fed to baby chicks. Only laying age hens (6 months+ old) need calcium.

Why do I Crush the Eggshells?

crushed shells

Crushing them makes them unrecognizable as eggshells. Some hens will start breaking and eating her eggs after being fed eggshells, most won’t, but this helps ease my mind.

Update: I’ve gotten lazy with the crushing part but my girls still don’t eat their own eggs (unless I drop one and then they run over to check it out). I don’t worry about crushing anymore.

Need Something Simpler?

If you want to really simplify things, you could take uncooked shells out with scraps each day instead. Cooking the eggshells just makes them easier to crush, so if you don’t want to crush them then you really don’t need to bake them. Honestly, I just let the eggshells dry on their own then crush them a bit. It works great and takes way less time!

 Have you ever tried feeding eggshells to chickens? How did you do it?

Filed Under: Homesteading Tagged With: beginner, chickens

About Mindy

Mindy Wood is the founder of Our Inspired Roots, the place to go for inspiration and instruction on growing food & medicine in a way that is healthy for people and the planet.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan Thompson says

    September 26, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    I also feed my chickens their own egg shells. After letting them totally dry on the counter I put them in a gallon zip lock bag and run a rolling pin over them until they are crushed to my liking. Then I put in a bowl and put in the chicken yard for the girls to peck at.

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      September 27, 2016 at 12:13 pm

      Great idea, thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  2. Kelley Ashley says

    April 14, 2017 at 3:41 pm

    I need to know how old do my babies need to be before I them egg shells

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      May 10, 2017 at 9:24 am

      They don’t need supplemental calcium until around laying age which is about 6 months old.

      Reply
      • Laura says

        October 9, 2022 at 8:56 am

        I dry my egg shells and used the ziplock method to crush them but make sure you have strong bags as my shells Brooke through when I was a newbie I used sandwich bags. Lol. Not good. I send to pestol and mortar which works very well. Now I invested in a smaller countertop KitchenAid and I zap them up. I was mixing it into my girls scraps but as some girls are t the bottom of the pecking order they Don always get the first pickings so I will now servw them up seperatly. Thanks for the info oI love learning and sharing on these platforms.

        Reply
        • Mindy says

          October 17, 2022 at 10:20 am

          You are very welcome!

          Reply
  3. newbie says

    June 7, 2018 at 8:21 pm

    do you need to bake those old egg shells to keep chickens from getting salmonella?

    Reply
    • Keri says

      January 2, 2021 at 12:19 am

      Supposedly baking them changes the smell and taste and makes the chickens less likely to cannibalize their own eggs.

      Reply
  4. Sally White says

    July 2, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    Thank you for your help, if indeed the girl has impacted crop. I am not sure yet if this is the problem, what else couuld it be??

    Reply
  5. Amy says

    March 30, 2020 at 11:17 am

    After baking the egg shells how long would they keep?

    Reply
    • Keri says

      January 2, 2021 at 12:22 am

      I would say indefinitely. They’re a mineral, not something organic that naturally decomposes.

      Reply
      • Reza says

        July 22, 2022 at 8:36 am

        Hi Madame dear
        Do you help me
        I have making eggshell powder please send methods to us
        Thanks

        Reply
  6. ellis says

    November 20, 2022 at 10:50 am

    I feed my chicken there eggs shells too same as ya’ll do but in add cayenne pepper to it when the eggs are in the blender. I put about 1 tps spoon or so for smell. then put there hen scratch on the ground then there eggs shells. Or mix in there feed. there are time in make corn bread for them when it is very cool I live in tx to to cool i add cayenne pepper with it water mix only it’s warm let them have it.

    Reply

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Mindy Wood is the founder of Our Inspired Roots, the place to go for inspiration and instruction on growing food & medicine in a way that is healthy for people and the planet. Read More…

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