5 Things You Can Do with Your Chicken Egg Shells
If you have been throwing away the shells from your fresh chicken eggs, stop! I am going to tell you about five of the things you can do with the chicken egg shells of your laying hens once you have used the incredible egg.
To save my shells, I put them in a quart size glass canning jar as soon as I use the egg. As the shells build up, I will smush them down with a wooden spoon so that I can fit more in the jar at a time. (unless using for projects like planting seeds. Then I take them out and keep them for planting as below).
As the jar fills up with smushed shells, I will decide how I am going to use the them. If feeding to the chickens or using in the garden, I will dump into a baking dish and bake in the oven until they are very crispy. The temp doesn’t matter too much and you can pop them in the same time you are cooking something else to save energy.
When I take them out, I continue to smush them with the wooden spoon into fine pieces. This is a great job for a child and my daughter has done her fair share of egg shell crunching.
Some people use a blender and I have done that before, but it’s more work than I like to do!
Also, not everyone would say you have to bake them, but I find that they crush up better and I don’t mind this extra step. You can skip it if you would like.
If you are using the shells to protect from pests, don’t crush the shells as much.
Keep on reading to see what I do with the shells in our home after preparing them.
1. Feed them to your chickens
Laying hens need calcium intake to produce the shells of the eggs they lay. Other options you can find at the feed store are oyster shells, but they will cost you. I like free so I use the crushed shells. Some people add the shells to feed but I usually just toss the crushed shells out in the run for them to scratch around and eat at their leisure. Don’t worry about your hens overdoing it on the shells either. If they have enough calcium, they won’t eat them – so you can’t go wrong here. However, if your hens are low in calcium they may eat their own eggs or produce eggs with too thin of shells. Here’s a quick Youtube video that shows best practice for feeding hens their own egg shells.
2. Use the shells in your Garden to Protect from Pests
This is a great way to keep slugs and snails at bay by piling the shells around (better to have bigger shell pieces than powder here) plants that slugs are drawn to – green beans, lettuce, or any new start since they especially love younger tender plant leaves.
3. Use for the Health of your Garden
You can either toss the shells into the compost pile (without worrying about the whole baking and crushing part) to add extra calcium and minerals to the compost. You can also mix them directly into the soil before planting after crushing them. I like to do this in the fall so the chicken egg shells have time to break down, but any time works.
4. Help Your Tomato Plants Thrive
Tomatoes tend to get blossom end rot caused by not enough calcium. If you have ever grown your own tomatoes, you know how devastating it can be to see the beautiful red fruits succumb to this. To protect from this problem, feed your tomatoes extra calcium in the form of crushed egg shells. You can put the shells in the bottom of the hole when planting your tomatoes or around them after planting. Eggplants, peppers, and roses are other plants that will also benefit from this treatment.
5. Start Seedlings in Chicken Egg Shells
If you are planning to start any of your vegetables or flowers from seed, a frugal way to do this is with egg shells. Take an egg carton and fill with half chicken egg shells. Then poke a hole in the bottom of each shell for drainage and fill with potting soil. Start seeds indoors like you would in any other container except this one is free!
There you have it! Five easy ways to use up all those egg shells your laying hens are blessing you with. Do you have any additional ways you use egg shells?
Other Blog Posts About the Homestead
6 Reasons to Have Rabbits on the Homestead
10 Reasons to Add Laying Hens to Your Backyard
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Pin for Later – What to do With Chicken Egg Shells
