Some people advocate cooking them, some don't. I don't because I wash my eggs before they go into the fridge, and I feed mine back to the hens immediately after I take them from the fridge and crack them into a dish.

The hens don't leave any of the shells lying around long enough for dust to settle, let alone bacteria to grow! :)

Velvet ~:>

I thought you want to crush them first, because you don't want them confusing them with the ones they are laying, and start eating those too.

My chickens get all of our table scraps and that includes (uncooked) egg shells that aren't even crushed. They eat everything that they feel is good for them. Today I threw out a bunch of potato peelings and they always avoid those. If they don't like something, I guess the raccoons get it.

BTW, we have never had a problem with egg eaters. I think if that ever happens it is because an egg in the nest got cracked and nature tells the birds to clean up the nest so they will not attract predators. We collect eggs twice a day, so any cracked ones are gathered by us. Those and extra dirty ones are boiled, crushed up in the shells and fed back to the chickens. Great source of protein.

I have heard that if you feed the potato peelings to the chickens you should cook them. I don't know why. Linda

I have a question about this topic, what benefit does feeding chickens egg shells have? I'm still relatively new to raising chickens. I have 7 hens right now, but I ordered 12 more chicks which will be here on April 23. Also is it good to give my new baby chicks pedialyte when they first arrive? And one more question , how much space should there be in the brooder? Thanks Mabellyn

I have one chicken who lays an egg you can barely get into the house with, it is so fragile. And every now and then we find an egg with no shell.. same chicken?

Jess,I have one hen like that too.Right after I feed egg shells,she lays normal eggs!I don't think she likes oyster shell.I had some old bread and some old powdered milk and some old protein powder around so I mixed it all up and fed it to my chickens and no more soft shells.I think fancifowl said to feed milk maybe to chickens?And the calcium was more readily available in the shells than in oyster shell.It all helps make the eggshells harder.I had a dear old friend that had tons of chickens that taught me about cooking eggshells for the chickens.Posy Pet

I have found that feeding a natural yogurt when egg shells are thin sorts out the problem. I have one who occasionally lays them so soft they are little more than a bag, but one little pot of yogurt (mine like the ones with a fruit layer) has her laying regular eggs the next day.