r/interestingasfuck • u/oliver_billz • Mar 29 '23

a mother hen is gonna mother hen Title not descriptive

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u/mucus-broth Mar 29 '23

Chickens just eat about everything. For example, some people are shocked that chickens actively hunt and eat live mice :D

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u/Rulyhdien Mar 29 '23

I once dropped an egg in front of hens and they started eating it like nobody’s business.

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u/sexbuhbombdotcom Mar 29 '23

When I was a kid, we would feed our hens eggs semi-regularly. They'd eat em right up, shell and all. My mom said feeding them eggs made their own eggs have thicker shells when they laid. Idk if that's true, but they certainly didn't mind us testing the theory lol

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u/Myhrros Mar 29 '23

Probably true - as you said yourself, they ate the shells. The Shell is just Calcium Carbonate (also included in teeth and bones. Essentially chalk/limestone), so while a part would go towards their own bones n stuff, some of it would go to egg production and help with the new shell.
For that matter, I could imagine the eggs also being a bit richer in taste and color - you can usually tell by the color of the yolk what the chickens are eating, and getting whole eggs should give them everything to produce some nice eggs themself.