Reuse eggshells – don’t throw them away! If you’ve been tossing your eggshells, I’m about to convince you to keep them. We eat a lot of eggs around here, thanks to our backyard hens. But you won’t find any eggshells in my trash cans. I reuse my eggshells and you can too! There are so many ways you can reuse eggshells right on your homestead.
8 Fantastic Ways to Reuse Eggshells on the Homestead
1 – Compost them!
Eggshells add lovely calcium and other trace minerals to your compost. Then later when you use your compost those minerals will help your garden grow. You can put eggshells straight into your compost bin or let them dry out, crush or pulverize to a fine powder for faster breakdown. Also see 10 Things to NEVER Compost
2 – Feed them back to your hens!
Yep, that same calcium you can feed to your compost can also be fed back to your hens. This will give them stronger egg shells (win!). Let your eggshells dry out a day or two. Then crush them and lay them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake the crushed eggshells at 350 for about 5 minutes. Before you feed them to the girls, you want to make sure they don’t look like eggs (don’t want to teach them any nasty habits); so you can crush them down a bit finer after baking. Then just mix this up with their regular feed.
Check out Improving Your Chicken’s Health
3 – Start some seeds in them!
You can reuse your eggshells as seed starters. Forget buying pots – eggshells are the ORIGINAL biodegradable seed pot. Check out Frugal DIY Seed Starters on how to use your eggshells for seeds.
4 – Give them to your tomatoes!
If you grow tomatoes then you know all about the dreaded blossom rot. Well, did you know that eggshells can help you fight it? Use a coffee bean grinder to make your eggshells into a powder (you’ll need a dozen per plant). When you’re ready to plant your tomato seedlings, just add the powder to the hole first. This will give your plants a boost of calcium (easier to use as a powder) right at the source. See How to Grow Tomatoes
5 – Keep nasty pests out of your garden!
Use eggshell powder to dust leaves – killing beetles and preventing their return. Crushed eggshells in the soil can prevent slugs and snails who prefer to steer clear of the sharp edges. Also see Dealing the Aphids Naturally
6 – Clean your garbage disposal with them!
Ok, I know you’ve heard that eggshells in the garbage disposal are a BIG no no. But in moderation they can help clean off the yuck down there. Don’t believe me – check out Fix It Yourself.
7 – Use them in your vermicomposting!
If you’re vermicomposting you can feed your little worm workers by reusing your eggshells as worm food! You’ll want to pulverize your eggshells to make the easier for the worms to eat. According to Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm eggshells can be a great food source and bedding material.
Start Your Own Worm Farm!
8 – Reuse eggshells to scrub your pans!
Talk about your all natural cleaners – your eggshells can even help you scrub out your pots and pants. Simply mix your crushed eggshells with some hot water and use the natural abrasion to get the pans squeaky clean. Then use soap and water to sanitize.
I hope these 8 Fantastic Way to Reuse Eggshells convinces you to save your shells! I know there are lots of other uses – how do you reuse your shells?
Great article. Dried and powdered egg shells are also good to add to homemade toothpaste and even taken as a vitamin supplement. Egg shells have better bio-absorbtion than most commercial vitamins and supplements. Sprinkle on your food or mix some in water or juice. What is good for your chickens, garden, and worms is just as good for you.
Love it – thanks Cheryl! 🙂
I used my naturally died eggs from easter to make mosaic egg shell art jewellery! so very awesome and creative. next up is an art canvas that has a tree trunk painted first, then egg shells pressed down to make the leaves.
My wife and I use the baked egg shells as a calcium supplement in our homemade dog food. Great article, Thanks!
Would like to text with you further as to your food prep for your dogs! thanks!
I mix eggshells and used coffee grounds for my garden.
Garbage disposals are terrible for a septic system or a municipal wastewater treatment system. Those systems are designed to treat sewage, killing pathogens, not for disposal of garbage.