Recycling Egg Shells

What's your go to breakfast?

Here, On our homestead it isn’t unusual for us to have eggs for breakfast 5-7 days a week. They’re so many creative ways to eat eggs that I'll be sharing with you overtime!

We got our first set of laying hens back in 2016 and I'll be honest, we had no idea what we were doing.  Sure I watched all the YouTube videos so I wasn't 100% clueless but the truth is... I never grew up on a farm or homestead.  I did however have a babysitter whose parents had chickens. She took my brother and i to see them. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to collect eggs from the coop for the very first time. After entering the chicken coop, I was quickly chased out by a territorial rooster. I remember running around the yard until I got to the house. I guess you could say my first experience wasn’t everything I dreamed of.  This didn’t intimate me. When you want to live a different type of life style, you just simply have to start and learn as you go and make mistakes along the way. I always pretended as a kid to live on a farm with all my pretend farm animals and toys… It has always been a part of me and something I knew I wanted at an early age.

Today I want to share one of my chores I do at least once a week that gives back to my chickens and helps they're overall health and egg laying.

Egg shell baking.

I start off by washed the outside shell with water, After cracking your eggs for whatever use, wash the inside as well. I then place them on a window ledge on top of paper towel and let them dry for the day. Everyday I collect the dry and washed shells into a bowl and when it's full, I put them on a tray to bake.

Bake at 250 for 15 minutes. After they cool, It's time for the fun part! Crunching and breaking the shells.  Its important to bake your egg shells to kill any potential bacteria. Once the pieces are broken down, I mix them into my chicken fed. 
You must be thinking...Isn’t that like, cannibalism or something?

Actually egg shells are a great source of calcium for your chickens. They help with egg production and thickens the egg shell. Keep in mind that your chickens may start eating the eggs they lay if they get used to eating big pieces of shell.

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

Note:

Eggshells shouldn’t be fed to baby chicks. Only laying age hens (6 months+ old) need calcium. Introducing excess calcium prematurely can actually harm young chickens and cause kidney damage

We try to have zero waste and use things for multiple purposes on our homestead. Feeding chickens back what they produce is a great tool and I love the benefits they give back to the chickens. Isn’t nature amazing?