Myth: Eggshell should be mixed right into your chickens’ feed. Shell should always be fed free-choice so each chicken will eat as much or as little as she needs (and roosters and not-yet-laying pullets) won’t eat any. If you mix the shells into their feed, you’re just going to find that you end up going through way more than is necessary.
One of the next things we wanted the answer to was; should you feed chickens egg shells?
One source stated chickens require adequate and even additional calcium in order to form shells and lay new eggs. However it is important only to feed egg shells to egg laying aged hens (6 months old+) while chicks do not need nor should be fed them. To feed egg shells to chickens all you need to do is dry them, crush them and mix into their regular feed.
When we were writing we ran into the query “Can chickens eat oyster shells?”.
Switch to ground oyster shells if your chickens start eating their own eggs. Sometimes, chickens will enjoy the taste of eggshells and eat eggs they’ve just laid. If you notice this happen, remove the eggshells from their coop and replace them with an oyster shell enrichment.
Do you feed your chickens eggshells?
I actually think that by feeding your chickens eggshells it helps prevent egg eating by providing them extra calcium, so they don’t go looking for it on their own. I feed my chickens dried and crushed eggshells, eggshell halves, raw eggs, cooked eggs, you name it.
You might be thinking “Do chickens eat their eggs when they lay them?”
Here is what we researched. This could lead to them eating their own eggs when they lay them. Place a dish of ground eggshells in their coop so your chickens can eat freely. Fill a food dish with the eggshells and set it near their bowl of water. The chickens will peck at the shells when they want to and get calcium in their diet.
You don’t have to bake the eggshells before feeding them to your chickens, but you need to break them up into very tiny pieces. Keep in mind that your chickens may start eating the eggs they lay if they get used to eating big pieces of shell.
Can I give my chickens hard boiled eggs?
You can hard-boil the eggs, peel them, smash them up and feed them to your chickens, or, you can just smash them up with the shells still attached and feed them to your chickens. The calcium from the eggs shells is an extra benefit for your laying hens and it makes it easy if you just smash up the eggs without having to peel them.