Recycling egg shells

[tobyandbarb]

I have been carefully breaking off just the top third of the eggshell, rinsing out the larger part, drying and saving to plant seeds in this spring. I am hoping the shell will be enough space to start seedlings and then I can put the whole thing in the ground.

Recently I read someplace that you can save the shells, bake them, grind them up and mix in with your chickens feed for extra calcium. I have been saving shells to try this but I don't know how long to bake them or what temperature to set. Has anyone done this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Any other ideas for recycling egg shells?

Thanks so much.

 

[Cheyen]

I bake my eggshells for the girls. I set the toaster oven at 350, and bake them for about 3 minutes. You only need to bake them long enough for the shells to dry.

Another way you can recycle egg shells is by blowing them. If my girls lay a really pretty egg, I drill a tiny hole on either end of the egg, and blow through one of them. All the gunk falls out, and you have a pretty shell left over. I like to use them as ornaments on my tree. Sometimes I paint them!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Small seedlings should be ok in there but I'm not sure the roots can penetrate the shell.
I have microwaved the eggs just enough to dry up all the albumen, crushed them very thoroughly and put them in a container with the oyster shell. They main thing is that you don't want them to associate the taste with their own eggs.
You don't want to mix it with the feed or they will be getting too much calcium.
Also the larger particle size of the oyster shell is superior to even the calcium in the chicken feed as it stays in the upper digestive tract longer and contacts the calcium absorption sites in the intestine during the night when they're not eating and the egg is in the shell gland.

My preferred method of recycling is crushed up in the compost pile.