Eggshells as Calcium Supplements for your Chickens

Did you know that eggshells provide a perfect calcium supplement?

We are fairly new chicken owners. We purchased our first flock last September. It was so exciting watching those little furballs run around their brooder box.

They got big fast.

And they started to smell really quickly.

I loved those little furballs, but I was very excited when it was time to send them out of the house into their permanent home.

And then we waited for eggs. We waited, and we waited. I had done enough research to know when to expect my first egg and those ladies did not disappoint.

One of my favourite parts of the day is when I go collect the eggs. I still can’t believe this perfect food is provided to me by these chickens every single day.

It helps me overlook that they peck at me. It makes me forget the time I started one of them in the coop and she flew on top of my head and right out the door into the snow. The deep snow that she had avoided up until now. The poor thing sat there in the snow completely stunned until I picked her up and carried her back into the coop.

Never a dull moment around here, I tell ya.

I was noticing that sometimes when I was collecting the eggs I’d have eggs with paper thin eggshells. Turns out, the girls lose a lot of calcium when they are laying eggs. Which makes sense. There are two main ways to get some calcium back into them. One i to buy oyster shells. The other is to use what you have on hand – crushed up eggshells.

All you need to do is start collecting eggshells. Rinse them out and throw them in a bowl until you have a good amount.

Lay the eggshells in a baking dish, and place them in a preheated oven with a temperature of 375F. Let them “cook” for about 7 minutes. This heat helps kill any bacteria on the shells, but I also find they are easier to crush once dried out.

Take them out of the oven, let them cool down, and crush them. The purpose of crushing them is so that they don’t resemble an egg. You don’t want them to associate the supplement with an actual egg or they might start eating their own eggs. It doesn’t need to be a powder, just bite-size pieces.