What to do with egg shells?

Every time I throw an egg shell away I think there must be more I could be doing with it, other than crushing it up and adding to compost bin (I can't KEEP adding to the compost, there's simply too many).  Any bright, sensible ideas please?

If you do decide to feed them back to your girls ensure they have been crushed to a point that they do not look like an egg or part of. Also bake them to sterilise them, however I think from a green point of view it's rather wasteful to turn the oven on just for these so put them in when you are making a cake, roast etc. or you could microwave them for a minute. I don't think it actually gives your birds that much more in way of calcium especially as you will of course be giving your birds oyster shell and that's cheap as chips.

If you are creative and have children who enjoy crafting  try this.

Buy an flavour and marinade injector (I bought mine from Wells Poultry). It looks just like a large syringe.

Using a pin make a hole one end of the egg. Make the hole about 3cm across.

Push your injector (about half extended) into the egg and wriggle the needle part around to break the egg. Slowly depress the plunger. You will be able to feel the pressure building up inside the egg. Pull the needle part out and loads of egg will very swiftly follow. Keep doing this until your egg shell is empty of egg.

Wash your egg in hot soapy water to remove any of the cuticle (the protective layer on the outside of an egg) and use your injector to flush out the inside with hot soapy water to. Leave our eggs to dry for a few days on the back of an Aga/Rayburn/radiator or in an airing cupboard.

Decorate in your own way and hang on pieces of string for a lovely Easter tree.

My kids adored doing this especially with White Star eggs and we now have a lovely long standing collection dating back to their little people days.

Of course use your blown egg in cakes etc. It's less yucky for kids to do as they don't always have strong enough lungs. You also end up with a blown egg with only one hole in it.



My only other suggestion is to crush the shells roughly and scatter around your Hosta plants to help keep slugs at bay.

OL

leggy girls I have removed your duplicate post that was asking exactly the same question on the hen house 

Orchardlady I was just about to ask how big your hens eggs were 

I bung all mine in the compost bin and did so when I ran a B & B.  Lots of lovely gritty compost results and slugs hate it 

I bung all mine in the compost bin and did so when I ran a B & B.  Lots of lovely gritty compost results and slugs hate it 

I'm sure there's no such thing as too many egg shells in the compost!  I've got quite used to our vege gardens looking like they have been mulched with sea-shells, due to the density of white flecks on the dark soil.  And the vegetables don't seem to mind at all.

And when the compost worms smile at me, they have lovely white teeth due to all the calcium.