I was actually researching how to give our free range hens some calcium and came across this site. I mentioned the lemon to my husband and so I have an egg sitting in lemon juice as I type - sort of my scientific experiment.

Our chickens have just started laying and the egg shells are very thin. They get oats only and have access to sand. They roam acres and eat grasses, flowers, bugs and all sort of things I wouldn’t put in my mouth. I am curious if anyone knows if when they start laying eggs - whether the shells get thicker over time?

We are raising organic eggs because our dogs are allergic to a wide range of things including Corn, Alfalfa, one is allergic to Beef, Chicken, turkey, etc. (which typically eat corn and alfalfa), Their protein source is fish but I like giving them eggs scrambled with olive oil - they seem to really like it. Once the hens actually produce better eggs, we will start giving them the eggs and using the shell for calcium.

I have to mention something pretty interesting - when we were purchasing “organic - free range” eggs at the grocery store, I believed they were exactly that. Once I opened the cardboard carton at home - on the inside there was a note that their “free range” chickens were free in the barn - hmmm, that seems like a bit of a lie on the package. So if there’s say a thousand jammed into a small barn, I guess they would still consider that free range and healthy organic chickens. Needless to say, that was exactly what drove me to getting our own chickens because at $5.99 for 12 little eggs with that title, I would rather know what ours eat and the fact that they are really roaming and eating grasses. We have four hens and I am guessing we will have more eggs than we can consume. Before all the salmonella scare, I would have gladly given any extra eggs to neighbors, now to protect us I am thinking I will just put them in the compost pile.

I’m trying to build my bones/teeth/tooth enamel,

I’m wondering whether the lemon juice will not dissolve the tooth enamel. Perhaps the egg shells in it prevent this? I know I should stay away from acid foods - talking from experience - as it really dissolves my tooth enamel.

Kind regards,

Harm

Thanks for the awesome article here. I was curious to be sure i was understanding the proportions properly for the amount of lemon juice with the eggshells. I should take 1/2 of a lemon and squeeze the juice over 1/2 a teaspoon of powdered eggs? what if i wanted to do a larger portion, like 3 or four egg shells or let’s say 3-4 teaspoons of powdered eggshells would i then need 3-4 lemons? forgive my ignorance but i want to be sure i mix this properly. =D Thx and God bless you guys!

Thanks for the awesome article here. I was curious to be sure i was understanding the proportions properly for the amount of lemon juice with the eggshells. I should take 1/2 of a lemon and squeeze the juice over 1/2 a teaspoon of powdered eggs? what if i wanted to do a larger portion, like 3 or four egg shells or let’s say 3-4 teaspoons of powdered eggshells would i then need 3-4 lemons?

I keep seeing some say they DRINK MILK FOR CALCIUM, well I’ve also read that this is a VERY POOR WAY TO GET CALCIUM, you get very little calcium from milk. Not to mention that commercial milk is just plain garbage unfit for any living thing. Also, I would highly recommend AGAINST using COMMERCIAL egg shells. Go with ORGANIC, free range chicken eggs. Commercial eggs are bad for humans, period. I also noted there is now 2 companies I found selling eggshell calcium with magnesium and vitamin D. Somewhere in all my googling around one thing I read is that magnesium doesn’t help calcium absorption, you might want to check on that one too.