Someone told me to feed our chickens their own eggs crushed up small. Is that good or not?

Question

Someone told me to feed our chickens their own eggs crushed up small. Is that good or not?

Answer 1

yup definately

we did the same with ours, helps the shells of their new eggs grow strong

x

Answer 2

No it is not a good idea as it is known to incite nest box egg eating. Chicken should eat corn feed, cereal and grain. Oyster shells (used as grit) will provide them with calcium. See the link below for further information on this and suitable diets:

http://www.chickenhop.com/info/info.html

Answer 3

It's good, but it doesn't have to be THEIR eggs. What you're doing is supplying the chickens with calcium that they need to make their eggs.  This can be done with crushed eggshell, or with crushed seashell--check some of the farm supply stores for calcium for chickens, you can buy it in bulk.  The chickens do better with laying when their bodies get an outside source of this, so it's standard in the industry to give them supplements like this.

Answer 4

You can do, as this is a calcium source for chickens.

It's best to break the eggs up roughly, place them on a baking tray and cook them in the oven for around 15 minutes at about 180. This dries up any of the remaining white and removes any bacteria. Afterwards, allow the eggs to cool and then bash them up to make a coarse powder and include it into the hens feed.

Alternatively if you think your hens are lacking calcium you can add Davinova C to their drink or Limestone flour to their feed. I have found these to be more effective if my hens appear to be requiring more calcium.

What you don't want to do is feed them shells in a form that they'd recognise it as part of the egg as this could encourage the hens to crack the eggs they lay.

Answer 5

you shouldn't be feeding them their eggs. But other eggs like boiled ones provides a goood sorce of protein

Answer 6

Yes, you can do that but you have to either bake or boil the shells first to make sure that there is no bacteria such as salmonella on the shell, otherwise you will make your birds sick.

The advantage of this is rather than having to buy oyster shells to add to your birds feed, you can recycle their own eggs shells for free.  It should provide all the calcium they need, however if you notice that their eggs shells are getting a bit thin you will need to top up their calcium intake with oyster shell grit.

If the shells are crushed up small enough and added to their feed, the birds won't recognise them as their own eggs, and they won't be tempted to start pecking at them.

Answer 7

Yeah, hard boiled eggs are often fed to hens with their chicks because its so high in nutrients.  But its an expensive way of feeding them for every day, it sort of defeats the object on having chickens really if you give back the eggs!

Answer 8

Yep, I have heard that too. They say to crush the shell up really fine. It is said to be really good for there calcium intake. Only the shell though not the white or yolk.

We have chooks too.

Answer 9

That's like someone feeding you something that came out of Ur nether regions,not sure the chicks would appreciate that to be honest.

Answer 10

it won't harm them, they have been known to eat their own eggs if their bored! so it won't harm them!

but everything they need as far as vitamins and stuff to make their eggs hard (usually crushed oyster shells) should be in the food you give them!

ask in a pet store or farm supplies store about what food contains everything they need!

you can also give them kitchen scraps, like BOILED potato peels, carrot, boiled rice/noodles . . . . . (no meat, processed foods, junk food or anything high in fat or sugar)

Answer 11

HI yes they mean crushed egg shell or (grit) as it is called.  They need the calcium and it helps to make the new egg strong otherwise they will crack during laying anyway.  You should be able to ask for the "grit" from you chicken feed supplier - they should know what you mean

Answer 12

Its ok. Its harmless.  My chickens eat their own eggs- sometimes & their white neck feathers are covered with yellow egg yolk. They eat their own kind that's the animal kingdom.