[MrsJ]

I have always used grit for my birds but read somewhere (I can't seem to find it on this site) that you can crush up eggshells and bake them and use them instead.  Is this right?  I like to save money where I can so this would be a good thing but I worry that it's a bit cannibalistic!

[kegs]

They eat the grit to grind up the food in their crops.  The baked, crushed egg shells are used as an alternative to crushed oyster shell for their calcium levels which helps maintain strong egg shells.  Hope that helps. 

[MrsJ]

Thanks kegs.  How long do you bake them for?

[MAK]

We bought oyster shell once but now we keep a  try in the oven all the time and chuck in eggs shells when we use an egg - we crush them down - add more and after a long oven session give them to the chickens I guess that they get grit from ranging about
 

[kegs]

Thanks kegs.  How long do you bake them for?

Sorry, I haven't a clue.  I only tried it once and I forgot them.     They were so black I didn't have the heart to feed them to the chickens so I just stick with the oyster shell!  It's a good job my hubby does the cooking!   

[MrsJ]

Tee Hee

[MAK]

bake till they crush - we use a pestel and morta or my knuckles if they are hard enough
One bake with whatever you have in the oven is enough
we tried to bake our oyster shells but they stank and did not flake up
The pigs get the prawn shells - they luv em   

[MrsJ]

Thanks Mak.  Our Aga is on all the time so they can just sit in the bottom oven overnight I guess.  Will try it out.

[Castle Farm]

Sorry to dispel any old wives tales here, but poultry cannot assimulate egg shells into calcium.

If your feeding layers pellets it has calcium in it, so go easy on the oystershell or they will get calcium overload.

The grit they need for the gizzard is flint or granite. (Builders merchant, but wash it or leave it out in the rain).

[chrismahon]

You bake the shells so that there is no taste of egg and no cross infection. Otherwise they will associate shells with nice taste and eat the eggs.

As Castle Farm says, avoid calcium overload. 3% is the maximum intake for a laying hen. 1% is in growers for bone development. Too much causes liver failure. Common problem is people giving layers to broody hens with chicks and the chicks overload and die. We give neither crushed shell or Oyster grit. If you are feeding good quality layers pellets they need no more Calcium. If they were free ranging with a grain supplement (like MAK in France) you would need Oyster shell grit. Standard grit is non-soluble, so no extra Calcium.

[Eve]

We have some ex-batts who recently arrived and had several soft shelled and shell-less eggs in the first week or two, and then another one again yesterday (they've been here for a month). We did give them crushed egg shell which seemed to help, but if they can't absorb calcium that way then the improvement in shell would have been a coincidence.
We have oystershell as well, but were under the impression that it didn't work as well as egg shell, though then again this may be due to a calcium overload (Chris's advice about the 3% came up just as I tried to post this message, and we probably gave them too much) or, again, be a coincidence. Or would there be other reasons for soft shelled eggs?

How long would it normally take for hens with a calcium deficiency / overload to get back to having the normal required calcium levels? It is a matter of days or weeks?

[chrismahon]

With ex-bats (and any chickens) it's not necessarily a Calcium problem Eve. They have had a hard life and can start producing soft shelled eggs because they system is just worn out. But they also produce soft shelled eggs as a result of stress, which could be from their move. They could also be suffereing from a lack of vitamin D (I think?) caused by lack of sunlight, which prevents them from taking up the Calcium.

Give them another month to settle down and the weather to improve (they have never experienced temperature change before -being cold and wet).

[Castle Farm]

Give your ex batts some cod liver oil.

[Eve]

Thankyou both 

[northfifeduckling]

I add my egg shells to the grit - makes it last longer  . I chuck the plate full of rinsed shells into the microwave about 6 minutes, after that they are usually quite crunchy and easily cruched.