Egg Shells As...

...a chicken and garden supplement?  Absolutely!

Now, up until a couple of years ago I had no idea that egg shells were good for anything except waiting for me to crack them open.  So, now that I know better, I'm happy to spread the news...Whether you keep chickens and have an abundance of egg shells, or buy a carton or two each week from the Farmer's Market or a grocery store, you can get more out of them than just a yummy meal!

Egg shells, being pure calcium, can easily be used in the garden and are very good for tomatoes (and several other veggies) if you add a couple of tablespoons to the soil when transplanting your tomatoes into the garden at the beginning of the season.  You can also feed them back to your own chickens as a supplement when they are molting or simply to help their new eggs have stronger shells or add the shells to your compost pile where they will decompose faster.

Saving and using eggshells is easy.  Simply keep a bowl or paper bag handy to throw your shells into once empty  (we keep ours under our kitchen sink...rinsing them out first helps to limit the potential for smells).  As you collect the shells you can either wait patiently for your shells to dry out on their own or you can put them on a cookie sheet and into the oven at 250 degrees for 5-10 minutes. 

Once the shells are completely dry you can place them into a paper bag and crush them using the palm of your hand (the paper bag helps protect your hand, egg shells are sharp).  You can also use a mortar and pestle or the bottom of a cup to crush the shells in a bowl.  

Now, we don't do this often at all.  We save all our shells in a bag under the sink and once the bag is full, we go through the process of drying and crushing them.  Some people even grind up their eggshells into a powder, but that seems like a little too much effort to me.  Sometimes the least amount of effort can still reap wonderful rewards ;-)