# Feeding store bought egg shells to your chickens



## Kristi (Feb 28, 2016)

My chickens haven't been laying, one of them is just picking up this past week. No eggs means I gotta get them at the store, but I've always been a bit concerned with feeding the egg shells to my girls for fear they would pick up salmonella from them. I tend to just throw kitchen scraps all in one bowl, then take the bowl out and dump into the compost pile, where the chickens can take over from there. I don't usually rinse the shells, esp. if the eggs come from home-raised chickens.

Do you guys think this is risky? I've googled around about it and I don't see where people are very concerned, but I'm still not sure.


----------



## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I give the chickens the shells all the time. I imagine that the shells of store bought eggs are much cleaner than the home raised eggs because they have to be cleaned sell to the public. I hardly ever wash our eggs. We've never had any problems.


----------



## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

You can always bake them first.


----------



## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Me personally i would never feed egg shells from anyone else's flock to my chickens.
Biosecurity 101


----------



## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

Kristi said:


> My chickens haven't been laying, one of them is just picking up this past week. No eggs means I gotta get them at the store, but I've always been a bit concerned with feeding the egg shells to my girls for fear they would pick up salmonella from them. I tend to just throw kitchen scraps all in one bowl, then take the bowl out and dump into the compost pile, where the chickens can take over from there. I don't usually rinse the shells, esp. if the eggs come from home-raised chickens.
> 
> Do you guys think this is risky? I've googled around about it and I don't see where people are very concerned, but I'm still not sure.


Do you feed your hens layer feed or just kitchen scraps and egg shells?


----------



## Kristi (Feb 28, 2016)

nannypattyrn said:


> I give the chickens the shells all the time. I imagine that the shells of store bought eggs are much cleaner than the home raised eggs because they have to be cleaned sell to the public. I hardly ever wash our eggs. We've never had any problems.


Thanks Nanny! I was thinking more along the lines of if the chickens were sick with salmonella, if I didn't wash the insides of the shells out. I was doing that before, but got lax about it, then thought I'd better ask. Thanks for your answer!



seminolewind said:


> You can always bake them first.


Thanks Seminolewind! I have done that a couple of times and baked my shells right onto the aluminum foil, lol. Maybe no foil next time!



Nm156 said:


> Me personally i would never feed egg shells from anyone else's flock to my chickens.
> Biosecurity 101


I thought of that when I was typing my post. I have been feeding eggshells from my friends' chickens to mine for a long time. I wonder if that has been detrimental to them. Gosh. I wonder if I made them sick doing that. Sheesh.



dawg53 said:


> Do you feed your hens layer feed or just kitchen scraps and egg shells?


Layer feed, scraps, egg shells/oyster shells, primarily.


----------



## tenn1207 (Nov 29, 2015)

I feed all my egg shells back to my hens. Bake at 350 for 10-15 min.


----------



## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

If salmonella is inside the eggs I think we would all have it.


----------



## crabapple (Oct 27, 2013)

tenn1207 said:


> I feed all my egg shells back to my hens. Bake at 350 for 10-15 min.


For 50 years my family have baked all egg shells to feed to the hens.
Never had a problem.


----------



## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I've never baked them. They get them right out of my kitchen scrap bucket and we've never had a problem.


----------



## tenn1207 (Nov 29, 2015)

I've even microwaved them. If it kills all the bacteria in my kitchen sponges I figure it will in my egg shells.


----------



## Kristi (Feb 28, 2016)

tenn1207 said:


> I've even microwaved them. If it kills all the bacteria in my kitchen sponges I figure it will in my egg shells.


Great point! Now this I can definitely do.


----------



## crabapple (Oct 27, 2013)

nannypattyrn said:


> I've never baked them. They get them right out of my kitchen scrap bucket and we've never had a problem.


We baked them, because we were told that raw shells could cause hens to eat whole eggs.
Never know if it was true, just do as I am told.
My mother bake home made biscuit every morning, she pulled the biscuit out put the shells in & turned the oven off.
Remove the shells when the oven was cool.


----------

