We go through a lot of eggs in a week, so we end up with a lot of eggshells! I previously have just thrown them into the chicken coop so the chickens could eat them, but I've noticed they usually don't, so now I have a method to get them to eat the shells and boost their calcium consumption.
Chickens need calcium in their diet so their eggshells are strong and don't break. I've had some chickens lay eggs that were thin and quickly broke open when other hens tried to get into the laying box where the soft-shelled egg was.
Now, I try to lay out all of the eggshells on a cookie sheet in a single layer. I then put them out in the sun to "cook" for a few days. I wait until they crunch easily in my hand, and I figure they're dry enough then!
Sometimes I crunch them up and let them sit in the sun for a few more days. I typically have about 3 trays of these sitting out in the sun. Like I said, we go through a lot of eggs every day!
After they are totally dried out, I put them in the food processor or blender and start it up. Within a few seconds, this container full of eggshells turns into a fine powder of calcium goodness!
I have read that grinding up eggshells dulls the blades of the blender, so I now try to just grind them up in my food processor. It doesn't work as well at making a powder, but the pieces get pretty small.
The full blender of eggshells typically makes a few cups of powder for me. I then mix it into the chicken feed really well, and the chickens have no idea they're getting some extra calcium in their feed! I know that eggshells can also be used in the garden, but I haven't done that very much.
I also recently learned that eggshell powder can be consumed by humans, as long as the eggs are washed before they are dried out, but that's another post for another time. I haven't tried it just yet, and hubs isn't sure it'd be worth the effort. What do you do with your excess eggshells?
