[ychook]

can you give eggshells back to hens as part of diet and do they need any special prep?

[Honeysuckle]

I was told if you bake them and crush very tiny, it's ok to feed them to the chooks but this maybe an old wives tale! 

[VickyW]

I bake mine and give them back, read it in a book, it adds calcium to their diet and the baking changes the taste so they don't eat their own eggs

[joyfull]

the baking is to remove any bacteria and the crushing is for two reasons - one to make it small enough to eat and the second is so they don't recognise it as being an egg.

[Lindeggs]

I don't bake mine but I crush them and put them into my worm farm/compost system.  By the time they come out of the system and go on the garden six months later, they are quite finely crushed and chalky.  The chickens just pick the bits up as they are scratching through the garden and eat them.

The system also works for me as the chickens scratch through the compost looking for worms and worm eggs, and mix the compost in with the soil while adding their own special brand of manure. It's a win-win-win-lose situation! (The losers are the worms. )

[ychook]

Thanks everyone for your help. Much appreciated.  :

[Spana]

If i find a nest of eggs in the barns or I have a lot of eggs to spare i hard boil them, cool under the cold tap them whiz the whole lot shells an'all in the magimix and feed back to the hens .  They love it.