tinysaurus-rex:

Pro tip: don’t listen to “animal rights” groups that tell you to give ALL of your eggs back to your hens. Too high protein can actually lead to kidney failure amongst other things, especially if you’re already feeding a an appropriate diet. If we gave ALL our eggs back to our chickens it would actually be pretty dangerous and unhealthy.

Flock feed mixes (around 16%-18% protein) should cover all the protein they need to make their eggs, free choice oyster shells takes care of the calcium, sunlight allows proper absorbtion of calcium. Giving them back their eggs doesn’t really benefit them unless their diet already doesn’t contain proper nutrition, in which case you should switch to a different feed instead of trying to supplement with their own eggs.

We always give excessively dirty eggs back to them, usually one a day but sometimes more. I like to mix up a big scrambled egg meal with bird seed and herbs about once a week during seasons where there aren’t many bugs out (early spring, late fall, winter).

And a friendly reminder, of course, that chickens really don’t care about eggs. I’ve had broody hens who were actively setting on a clutch of eggs launch out of her nest to eat an egg I accidentally dropped. My broody hens with chicks will do the same and call their chicks over to eat the eggs. Not all breeds of chickens go broody (want to have babies) and eggs only start developing after several days of incubation.

Chickens don’t know what eggs are, not really. Their instinct tells them what to do when they’re brooding, but you can get broody hens to take golf balls and anything that’s round and roughly the same size. They also learn very fast that the inside is edible if they get the chance.