Many chicken owners know that their flocks enjoy snacking on eggs they lay themselves, though this should be done carefully so as not to develop an affinity for their own eggs.
Eggs provide chickens with protein as well as important vitamins and minerals like calcium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin A.
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Raw Eggs
Chickens love eating anything they can get their beaks on, including raw eggs. This is part of their natural diet and can even serve as a means of recycling their shells – an often wasteful activity among poultry owners. But feeding raw eggs to your flock could expose them to Salmonella infection as well as potentially encourage cannibalistic eating behaviors in them.
Chickens love cooked eggs! From scrambled to poached, boiled or fried varieties, eggs offer chickens an enriching diet with protein, healthy fats and lots of vitamins and minerals such as phosphorous, iron zinc vitamin A equivalent folate B complex choline calcium.
Raw eggs contain avidin, a protein which binds biotin and prevents it from being absorbed by chickens; for this reason it’s best not to feed young chicks raw eggs. And if using cooked eggs instead, be sure to remove their shells as this could attract insects or predators which could harm chickens.
Cooked Eggs
Cooked eggs will not give your chickens an affinity for raw eggs and can serve as a tasty treat during times of high egg production. In addition, this provides extra protein during molting and laying cycles – and boosts their health too!
Eggs contain vitamins A, D and E as well as calcium, phosphorus, zinc, iron and potassium. Eggs also provide 13% of their recommended daily value of protein which helps poultry thrive by building feathers, nails and muscles as well as mitigating heat stress.
Boiled eggs can be consumed whole or mashed, though boiled ones should be blown out to reduce bacteria risk. Mustard can be an ideal filler to encourage chickens to eat these blown-out eggs; additionally, this will also discourage those hens that have developed the habit of eating their own eggs!
Egg Shells
Eggs are an invaluable natural source of essential vitamins and nutrients, including protein, fat, iron, vitamin A, D, Thiamine Riboflavin, and Calcium. In addition, their clear casing contains lecithin which acts as an emulsifier.
Laying hens need ample calcium in their diet in order to produce strong eggshells, yet often do not receive sufficient amounts. Enough calcium must be available during 18-20 hours of egg laying to form and assemble its shell properly.
The gizzard of laying hens is used to digest calcium carbonate for absorption by their bodies, and crushed eggshells may provide additional sources of this essential nutrient in addition to limestone or ground oyster shell supplements that may already be provided as supplements in their layer feed. They can even be scattered around their coop or garden as a soil amendment that contains calcium-rich soil amendment.
Supplements
Chickens require 38 different vitamins and minerals in order to thrive and lay large, nutritious eggs. If a hen doesn’t receive her full daily allotment of nutrients, she could produce small or thin-shelled eggs as she attempts to replenish any deficiencies with foraging or pecking at uncollected eggs in an attempt to recover vital vitamins or minerals she’s missing out on.
Recent research discovered that supplementing laying chicken diets with microalgae oil rich in docosahexaenoic acid led to an impressive rise in omega-3 fatty acid content within egg yolk. Unfortunately, too much docosahexaenoic acid could negatively impact reproductive performance as well as alter ovarian morphology in some cases.
Vitamin A is necessary for normal growth, vision health and immune functioning; vitamin B12 promotes red blood cell formation and supports nervous function; its deficiency can lead to anemia. Chickens require calcium-rich feed in order to digest their food efficiently and develop strong gizzards – using hanging feeders made from limestone or oyster shell or layer diets with at least 2% calcium can serve this purpose effectively.
