A free, natural calcium supplement for chickens? Heck yes! Hens need calcium in their diet in order to lay eggs that do not have too thin of a shell (or no shell at all). Many people purchase something like crushed oyster shells to add to their chickens’ diet. However, if you raise chickens, you already have something that you can use as a free, natural calcium supplement for your hens. Feed egg shells to your chickens! It takes very little time to process egg shells to feed your chickens.

Feed Egg Shells to Chickens Video

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Steps to Feed Egg Shells to Chickens

Collect egg shells

Do not use shells from store bought eggs for this purpose. You do not know how the chickens were raised and you will be feeding your flock with the end result. If you have your own flock or are confident in someone local who raises chickens, those are the shells to use.

We collect the egg shells as we use them in a clean coffee can. Dan crushes the egg shells down as we go so we can fit more in. When the can is full, we process these to feed egg shells to chickens.

Spread egg shells out on parchment paper lined baking sheet

Try to get somewhat of a single layer, although a lot will be in small pieces.

Bake egg shells in a 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes

The shells should be getting browned when you remove them from the oven.

This is an important step!

First, in order to feed egg shells to chickens, you need to be sure the shells do not resemble an egg in any way. You do not want them to taste any raw egg or have any visual of an egg shape. If a chicken learns to eat raw eggs, you will have a problem on your hands. They can become an “egg eater” and peck and consume their own eggs.

Second, right underneath the shell is a membrane that holds the shell together. It is difficult at best to crush an egg shell into tiny little bite-sized pieces for your chickens with this membrane intact. Baking dries out the membrane and makes the shells much easier to crush.

Third, if you’ve been collecting to feed egg shells to chickens for a while and you are concerned about bacteria, baking will kill bacteria and germs that may be present. Bacteria cannot survive temperatures above 212°F, and most germs die off at about 140°F.

After the egg shells have cooled, use the parchment paper to funnel the shells into a gallon-sized freezer bag

Squeeze out all the air, seal it up, and use your rolling pin or hands to crush the egg shells. You could use a food processor or blender to process these, but then you also have another piece of equipment to clean and it is easy to crush by hand.

Store in a clean coffee can (or other container) until ready to use

Next time, instead of filling up with crushed oyster shells, use your processed egg shells.

This is a great, FREE natural calcium supplement to keep your hens laying good, healthy eggs. Did I say FREE? And the chickens love it – so it is a WIN-WIN. Will you process and feed egg shells to your chickens? Do you do this already? Please leave us a comment down below with your thoughts!