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7 Ways to Use Eggshells (and tips you need to know)

07 Apr
Eggshells can be ground in a blender and used for many purposes, indoors and out.

Eggshells can be ground in a blender and used for many purposes, indoors and out.

If you eat eggs, make sure you make the best use of those shells! Most of an eggshell is calcium. In fact, about 95% of shells are calcium carbonate…the same stuff that sea shells, coral, and limestone are made from (the other 5% includes proteins, calcium phosphate, and magnesium carbonate). Here’s a list of what you can do with those shells so the calcium and its brittle shell don’t go to waste.

USE EGGSHELLS FOR THIS

1) Give your hens a calcium boost. Eggshells contain 95% calcium, and hens need calcium to lay eggs that have those strong shells. There is nothing unhealthy about feeding your hens eggshells, as long as those shells have been sterilized to kill bacteria (see below on how to do this) and offered in ground form. Pay special attention to shell sterilization if you get some of your eggs from another source where you can’t be sure of the laying hen’s health.

2) Give your pets a calcium boost: In the case of eggshells, what is good for chickens is good for your pet. Adding pulverized eggshells to their food provides extra calcium for bone health. And just like using shells for chickens, be sure to sterilize the shells first.

3) Give yourself a calcium boost: Consuming calcium from eggshells can help you, too. In a 2003 study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research, eggshell consumption helped stop bone loss in postmenopausal women. While you can consume pulverized eggshells for added calcium, remember that calcium amounts very greatly in shells, so there is no way to tell exactly how much calcium you are getting (but we know you are getting more than if you didn’t consume the shells at all). Be sure you bake the shells before consuming to prevent ingesting any bacteria if you haven’t washed the shell before eating the egg (see below).

The finer your grind your eggshells, the sooner the calcium will be available to garden plants.

The finer your grind your eggshells, the sooner the calcium will be available to garden plants.

4) Incorporate them into your soil: It’s a great practice to add ground eggshells into your garden soil (and your indoor pots, too). But realize that it takes awhile for those shells to break down enough for the calcium to be available to your plants. In fact, eggshells can take many years to decompose fully and it will take several years to see the benefits of those eggshell additions to soil. But don’t let this deter you as adding eggshells to soil is great for plants! Start now…in a year or two you’ll start to see benefits (the finer you grind the shells, the more quickly you’ll see benefits). And don’t forget to sterilize those shells before adding them to the soil to prevent adding bacteria to your garden.

5) Keep garden critters at bay: Slugs are slippery little devils, and they dislike the chalky sharpness of ground eggshells. Cutworms don’t like it, either. Sprinkle the eggshell around plants like tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and cabbage to keep their stems safe and destructive critters away. Make sure you cover the surface of the soil around the entire stem.

6) Clean your pots and pans: Yes, you can grind your eggshells into a powder and use it as an abrasive. But, it being an abrasive and all, it will scratch! I’ve used this for especially stubborn spots on cast iron pans or stainless steel (on the insides). Don’t use this on any surface that you want to see a scratch on.

7) Make your coffee sweeter: Adding crushed eggshells to your coffee grounds helps to lessen the acidity of your coffee. Then you can toss the used grounds and eggshells in your compost bin. Better yet, toss them both into your garden soil! The eggshells have the calcium, but the coffee grounds provide the nitrogen.

You can use a blender to grind eggshells fine. (Bowl by the Little Pottery Venture.)

You can use a blender to grind eggshells fine. (Bowl by the Little Pottery Venture.)

PREPARE EGGSHELLS LIKE THIS

For most eggshell uses, it is better to make sure they are clean and free from bacteria. If you don’t wash the eggs thoroughly before using, bake the shells at 150 degrees Fahrenheit on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes.

You can grind your eggshells either wet or dry. I personally find grinding  them dry to be easier, but decide which method works best for you in your kitchen:

To grind eggshells wet, simply take all of your eggshells, place them in a blender and fill the blender with water to about 1/2 way up the eggshells. Then whizzzzzzzzz, and drain. What to do next is where I find the difficulty. Small bits of wet shell are not necessarily cooperative, and most uses for eggshell are easier to implement when the shells are dry.

To grind eggshells dry, you can either leave them sit in a bowl until they are thoroughly dry (I keep the pretty bowl shown above next to my sink and simply stack eggshells as they accumulate), or you can bake them. Baking to dry and sterilize them can serve double duty here! If 10 minutes baking at 150F doesn’t dry all of the wet egg remnants inside the shell perfectly, just leave them bake in the oven until the insides of the egg are perfectly dry. (To see a video on how to use your blender and a mason jar to grind your eggshells and other foods, click here.)

DON’T USE EGGSHELLS FOR THIS

I just can’t recommend that you use eggshells to start seedlings, even though this is a popular infographic on Facebook and all over the interwebs as an eggshell tip (I know…I’m the problem child sometimes). Seedlings are like icebergs…at best what you see above the soil is equal to what is going on below the soil. In fact, sometimes the root system is much larger than the seedling. Half an eggshell just doesn’t have the space necessary to support a growing and intricate root system unless you transplant it pretty quickly to the garden. In drier climates it is also difficult to keep such a small amount of soil moist enough to keep a healthy seedling happy.

Eggshells do not sharpen garbage disposal blades. I don’t think it harms the garbage disposal any more than anything else, but I have read that egg shell bits in the drain, because they are heavier than usual kitchen sink refuse, can contribute to drain clogs. The idea being they settle into a pipe at some point, and slowly start to trap debris. Even more reason to use eggshells for one of their many beneficial purposes!

Rural Spin

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2013 in Animals, Gardening, Home Remedies & Apothecary, Homesteading, Kitchen Tips

 

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Ginger One Eye: A Chicken Hatched for Fame

12 Jun

Near-blind Ginger One Eye is one hen destined for fame. She isn’t afraid to look a person in the eye.

Behold Ginger One Eye, the newest addition to my massive flock of four chickens. I got her when I had to give friends at The Lyons Farmette my young hen-turned-rooster, Louis. Louis was a fine bird, but local chicken laws forbid roosters and Louis had to go.

Betsy, owner at The Farmette, asked if I wanted to take one of their hens in Louis’ stead. Bumpina — as she was affectionately called because her left blind eye bumps out from the side of her head — was overwhelmed in the flock of 80 hens at The Farmette. Betsy and I both agreed that a mostly-blind Bumpina would be much better off in my wee flock where I could keep an eye on her. So, Bumpina made her way home with me.

Now, I am the first to admit that my hens get some odd names. Louis’ full name is “Louis The Man.” Another chicken is named “Prison Break” for its propensity to make a mad dash for the gate whenever I open it. And two hens are both named “One of The Twins” simply because I can’t tell them apart.

Bumpina’s name quickly changed when I told my friends that “I got a chicken with one eye.” They would say, “How’s the chicken?” And I’d reply, “You mean the one with One Eye?” It stuck. Admittedly, this name creeped my neighbor out a tad, as she is much more sane than I. We decided One Eye needed a first name that was a bit more genteel for everyone else to use who wasn’t abnormal like me, and Ginger popped into my head as an appropriately dichotomous foil to “One Eye.” Think of her like a character in a Quentin Tarantino film.

Fast friends, River and Ginger One Eye, discussing the day’s events.

Ginger One Eye has a wonderful personality and she is without a doubt my favorite hen, though Phyllis is right up there. Ginger One Eye’s blindness gives her a certain quirky edge that makes her hard to resist. Whether it’s because she can’t see me or because she really likes me I can’t tell. And sometimes it’s just better not to know these things so we can delude ourselves that it’s the later. But whenever I walk into the run, she walks slowly up to me and lays on top of one of my feet…like she’s trying to hatch me. I do have to watch out when I take care of things in the run, so as not to step on her gentle self.

Ginger One Eye and my dog, River, also have a special relationship. They bonded immediately through the run fence, and as Ginger had a propensity for escaping the run early on, she and River carried their friendship even further over the fence line. While One Eye has seemed to stop her forays into the wild world away from the coop, she always walks right to River when River plants herself next to the fence run. In fact, River will whine for Ginger One Eye to come to her if she doesn’t do so on her own. It’s quite sweet, and indeed puts life into perspective after a trying day.

 
7 Comments

Posted by on June 12, 2012 in Animals, Farm Profile, Homesteading

 

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The Feeding of Poultry…a 1924 Perspective

29 Feb

(Note: The text and images are taken from “A Study of Farm Animals,” by Charles S. Plumb, 1924)

A white orpington, 1924

The foods suitable for fowls vary widely in kind and character. In fact, farm poultry will eat almost anything that has any nutritive value. So adaptable are fowls to local conditions, that, as a rule, they are fed the cheapest and most common foods grown in the region in which they are kept. Very naturally, in America corn is most commonly fed, with wheat or its by-products next in favor. In Japan, rice is the food generally used. The kind of food, however, should vary according to the age and condition of the birds, and the purpose for which they are kept. If for fattening, then a carbonaceous food is best; but if for eggs, then that of a protein nature should be used. Protein foods recommended for fowls are meat scraps, fish meal, and milk of various forms. The common grains and cereal by-products, such as corn, wheat, oats, bran, middlings (the leftovers from milling whole wheat), etc., supply the necessary carbohydrates.

Green foods for fowls causes them to respond very rapidly in increased growth or egg production. When on a range of good grass no other green food need be provided, but during the winter season succulent food is most desirable. Coarse vegetables are often sliced or chopped into small pieces before feeding, although entire cabbages or roots may be hung in the house or fastened to nails on the walls, from which points they will be picked to pieces. In recent years sprouted oats have been used in a small way for feed, especially for young chicks. The common plan is to make a wooden rack-like arrangement, to contain series of shallow pans. The desired amount of oats is put into a vessel and covered with warm water and let stand over night. The surplus water is then drained off and the oats are spread over the pans to a depth of one half to three fourths of an inch. The oats should then be placed in a room, preferably a basement or cellar, having a temperature of 60 to 65 degrees. The oats should be sprinkled daily with tepid water and, to provide drainage, should be perforated with small holes. In about ten days the sprouts will be ready to feed to the chickens, but they should be used sparingly in the first of the feeding.

Rations for egg production used in different sections of the United States, vary more or less, according to material available. The following rations are recommended by various authorities engaged in research work in feeding fowls.

RATION NO. 1

Chicken anatomy from 1924 (Click to enlarge)

Mash:

  • 16 lbs corn meal
  • 6 1/2 lb meat scrap
  • 1 lb bran
  • 1 lb middlings

Scratch Mixture:

  • 1 lb cracked corn
  • 1 lb wheat
  • 1 lb oats

RATION NO. 2

Mash:

  • 2 lbs corn or barley meal
  • 1 lb bran
  • 1 lb middlings
  • 1 lb meat or fish scrap

Scratch Mixture:

  • 2 lbs cracked corn
  • 1 lb oats
  • 1 lb wheat or barley

A fine white leghorn from 1924

.

Feed the grain mixture morning and afternoon in a deep litter of straw. Feed sparingly in the morning, but give the hens all they will eat in the afternoon. Feed the dry mash in a hopper which is open at all times. Keep grit and shell in open hoppers. Feed green food once a day.

It will be noticed that in all the above rations, corn , wheat, oats, and wheat bran or middlings are the standard foods used. Meat meal or beef scrap, skimmed milk, and clover or alfalfa are always desirable. In the far West Kafir corn or millet seed may be used to advantage. When barley is commonly grown, this is to be recommended as a feed, and may be used in place of corn, if desired.


 
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Posted by on February 29, 2012 in Animals, Historic Reflections, Homesteading

 

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Step 1 for the Urban Homestead: Dream and Plan

20 Jan

Turning this blank slate of a backyard into a productive space for fruits, vegetables, an orchard, dog run, and chickens will be fun and rewarding.

Last June I moved into a small brown house on the Colorado Front Range. My plans for turning my new backyard into an urban homesteader’s dream started to form before the house was even officially mine. It’s basically virgin territory back there, so I can do what I want. Starting over from scratch in a new house can be a daunting task, but my brain quickly organized the parcel into potential use areas. Now the growing season is moving in and it’s time to nail down these vague ideas into specific plans. I’m impatient, and I want my property to become as productive as possible as quickly as I can manage.

Coming up with a master plan for your garden is always a good idea. A master plan allows you to do three things: 1) it allows you to really think about what your goals and needs are, and plan to those needs through time, 2) it allows you to build and expand as your budget allows while sticking to those plans, 3) it allows you have a lot of fun.

The first thing you need to do when you sit down and start to plan your homestead (big or small) is determine where the sun is. This involves you checking out your yard in the summer and noting where the sun/shade is once every hour. Do this from sun up to sun down for a few days (say, two Saturdays in a row). Vegetables, fruits, and herbs need a solid six to eight hours of sunlight a day, so if you want food plots in your yard their location is 80% dependent upon sun exposure. What’s the other 20%? Access to water. This is especially important if you live in a semi-arid environment like I do. The basic gist is that if you will need to supply supplemental water to your plants, you don’t want to be hauling hundreds of feet of hose around every day; it will soon become a pain and your plants will suffer. But if you get plenty of rain in your area, I am jealous!

Once you know how the sun behaves in your yard, you can decide what you want to include in the whole area and plan their locations accordingly. There are many options for space use, but they generally fall into some main categories, and you can have fun with a rough-drawn plan of your yard and some tracing paper, sketching out locations for different spaces (if you have a plat of survey that’s ideal). Here are some popular use areas and things to keep in mind as you plan out your space:

Animals: If your local city codes allow it (and many do so don’t assume you can’t keep small food-producing animals) adding some protein-producing critters like chickens or rabbits to your urban homestead can bring many rewards in both food and fun. But first do some research to determine what kind of environmental conditions the animal you’re interested in needs. If you want to keep some chickens, for example, you want them located close enough for easy care and in an area where they can get some protection from excessive wind and sun, but maybe you don’t want them right up against your deck. And make sure you include protecting your food plots from foraging biddies.

Cut Flowers: I’m a huge believer in allowing garden space for cut flowers. There’s just nothing quite like being able to go outside and cut some zinnias, sunflowers, salvia, marigolds, or other pretty plants to bring joy into the house. Starting them from seed and growing your own allows you to have fresh flowers in the house all season, at a fraction of the cost of buying them at the store.

River says, "I need space, too." Who can deny such a face? I sure as hell can't.

Dog/pet run; If you have a dog you might consider a way to separate the dog from the garden at times. I love my dog and she’s well-trained; when she and I are in the garden together I have no worries that she’ll rip into anything. But when I’m gone for an afternoon, I feel better knowing she’s in a nice dog run, protected from her own dogness with a barrier between her, the chickens, and the beds. Plus, it’s just an added barrier against her being stolen or escaping the fenced yard.

Entertaining: People tend to underestimate the value of planning formal entertaining space in their yards. This can be deck or patio space, but also allow room for ornamental plantings and maybe things like a fire pit or badminton area if you’re into that sort of thing. You’re putting all this effort into planning your yard space, and you may also want to include areas where you can share it with your friends.

Fruits and Vegetables: People spend most of their time planning these areas. We’ll write more posts on planning how much space is needed to grow food for a family, but you can grow more food in, say, a 4-foot by 8-foot bed than you think. My advice here is start smaller than you think you’ll need until you are skilled at preserving all of your produce.

Herbs: Nothing beats fresh and fresh-dried herbs to season your food with all year long. And let’s not forget herbal teas. Herbs can also be used as ornamentals, and when I worked as a professional horticulturist long ago, I frequently incorporated herbs (and even vegetables) in with regular landscape plantings. An herb garden supplies us with wonderful tastes, smells, and beauty and a well-planned garden should include space for herbs.

Orchard: Don’t think you need acres for an orchard; an orchard can include just two or three fruit trees. And you can incorporate your fruit trees in your larger landscape, overlapping with other uses such as entertainment areas, or the chicken/animal area. For small yards there are plenty of dwarf orchard trees available and with proper pruning, you can maintain small, productive fruit trees in the space you have available.

Allowing space for cut flowers in the garden is well worth it!

Ornamental Plantings: I know there are folks out there who feel that plants that are strictly for ornamental purposes are a waste of space, but to me that’s like saying paintings are a waste of space…or music. Some things are worth having simply because you like the texture of the leaves, or the fall color is exceptional, or the sounds of a water garden. Don’t put beauty on the back burner. Life is too short for that.

Perennial and Shrub Food Plants: These productive plants are planted and stay there, year after year. Not only are asparagus and rhubarb included in this mix, but woody plants like blackberries, gooseberries, and currants are, too. Again, these plants can double as ornamentals, so feel free to incorporate them around your deck or patio, or even your front yard. But once you plant them, they’re there for good (unless you rip them out), so make sure they’re in an area where you can maintain them for full food production.

Utility: Last but not least, your plan must include a utility area for compost or storing tools if you don’t have a garage. But don’t think such an area needs to be hidden away–it doesn’t. In fact, I believe a well-working compost pile is a thing to show off! Healthy compost piles do not smell, and hiding them away will only make them hard to maintain, and they need sunlight, too. You should be proud of everything you plan in your garden, and the utility area is no exception.

If you have any tips or ideas for planning a garden, please share them!

 
3 Comments

Posted by on January 20, 2012 in Garden Construction

 

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