I'm wondering, we have always just mashed up the shells and fed them back, but someone recently told me that we should dry the shells in the oven beforehand.....?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 24, 2002

Answers

My Grandmother set them on the wood stove to dry, crushed em up and then gave them back to the chickens. I would guess you would not want the chickens to know where the calcium came from in case they decide to peck at their own eggs. So crushing them up would disguise them?

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), January 25, 2002.

Hi Tracy, I was one who suggested drying the shells. It is just because they crush up into smaller pieces that way. The object is, as you guessed, to disguise them. Once chickens start pecking at the shells of whole eggs they will discover that they break easily and make good eating. If you have had no trouble with the way you are doing, don't bother changing.

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), January 25, 2002.

I didn't have egg eaters (lots of egg shells etc.)until winter came and I seemed to not be feeding high enough protein? Anyway, once they started they didn't stop again till spring was on and they had more than they needed for feed and space.

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), January 25, 2002.

my dh puts them in the microwave for a "quick dry". then he crushes them to feed them to the chickens.

-- Dena (ddew1962@earthlink.net), January 25, 2002.

So do the egg shells take the place as an alternative to oyster shell? Do you still need to provide that too? We keep a large coffee can on top of the woodstove to put the used egg shells in and when it gets full we just crush them up and give to the chickens.

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 25, 2002.

We also dry ours in the cookstove, it is much easier to crush them. Then we mix with their grain, I've had egg breakers before, so I'm always careful now......

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), January 25, 2002.