Egg shells for Martins

[Spiderman]

I have never put out left over egg shells from the kitchen before this year. Tried the crushed oyster shells, even crushed them finer into almost sand but no takers.

But the chicken egg shells are a different story. Had a bare spot in the yard with just dirt. Broke the shells into small pieces, put out 6 egg shells. There are 10 or 12 Martins at a time feeding on them as l'm walking away.

If you have the time you should give it a try.

[PMDavid]

WOW ! That’s pretty cool. I had considered when I get some established birds installing a raised platform next to my gourds for eggshells,say maybe 8-10 ft high.

[taxidermy lady]

The females will chow them before egg laying. Also they feed them to the babies as their bones develop. They love the eggshells! Good luck!

[pmlover]

dont forget the scrambled eggs also lol

[handyman315]

I've tried platforms to get my PMs off the ground (I worry about hawks), but they won't touch them, but crunch the eggshells up very finely on the concrete driveway with my feet after the eggs are well sun baked and dried and the PMs flock to them, along with the Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows. Maybe it's the grit, maybe it's the calcium, but whatever it is they want them.

[Spiderman]

Ours are eating 6 egg shells a day. I started mixing the whites from the boiled eggs and they ate them too.

They wouldn't go for the scrambled eggs. Not sure what the difference was with that.

[handyman315]

Eggshells might be one of my biggest PM successes as a second-year landlord, i.e., they devour them, and yes, they do in fact feed them to their babies; I've watched them with binoculars, and my egg shells are really disappearing now that several pairs have babies.

They still prefer them crunched into fine pieces on the nearby concrete driveway, and will not go to the elevated feeder. The Barn Swallows join in as well, especially in late afternoons.

[Hanover Bill]

Mine love the egg shells taken off my bed & breakfast platform, and I am hoping it will help to train them to take supplemental feeding as well. So far I have had no luck with supplemental feeding, but they readily take the egg shells.

Hanover Bill.

[flyin-lowe]

I must be lucky because mine always take the oyster shells. They are cheap and I have a raised try. Fill it up before egg laying and they use it all season.

[Dave Duit]

Parent martins will take crushed small egg shell pieces back to the cavity for their young. Calcium in the egg shells help build strong martin egg shells as well as replenish the females own calcium in their bones. It is also an excellent source of grit for martins.

[TheSmiths]

We have both eggshell and oyster shell in a tray ~5' off the ground. We've not seen any kind of bird use it. I put some eggshell on the edge of the road (dead end street) where we often see birds pecking; I think it remained there until the rain eventually washed it away.

[Ed Svetich-WI]

A readily available source of calcium is critical to females for properly formed eggs. Calcium depletion is possible if the female of any avian species does not replentish the calcium that she loses when egg shells are deposited on the egg. Any source of calcium is better than none.

I used egg shells many years ago until I read a research article in the Purple Martin Quarterly which compared egg shells with oyster shell as a source of calcium for purple martins. To make a long story short, providing oyster shell to martins resulted in more eggs and more chicks when compared to egg shells.

With only 24 gourds, the martins here consume two 1# coffee cans of oyster shell on a raised platform during their stay here. Egg shells are better than nothing, but apparently not as good as oyster shell.

Produce as many martins as possible.

Ed

[Dave Duit]

Good point Ed. I put out both oyster and eggs shells for the martins. I go through about 2 gallons of eggs shells per season.

[Jim Beatson~SC]

I offer crushed eggs shells and pullet-sized crushed oyster shells on a sand pile in the corner of my garden near the gourd racks. The Martins and other birds eat them during egg laying time and feed them to the young.
Jim

[BillieJR]

Where do you guys get your oyster shells at? I've only used egg shells.

[vman]

Billie, you can get oyster shells at fleet farm, probably farm and fleet in your area, but they sell them in 50 # bags for 10.00. However, we put out shells for our one pair but they never looked at them, for that matter, we've not seen them touch the egg shells either,not sure why.

[TheSmiths]

Ours is a 7 lb bag of Nutrena NatureWise Oyster Shell. According to Blain's Farm & Fleet website, your local store has four of the 7 lb bags in stock for $5.79 each. I've read some brands are extremely dusty. Nutrena isn't bad but it still makes me sneeze.

[BillieJR]

Thanks! I assume these shells keep well over the winter if I were to get some now - I mean - they don't "spoil", right?

[Spiderman]

I put them in a zip lock freezer bag and store them in the freezer during the off season.

That way I have plenty on hand when the Martins are here.

[handyman315]

Crushed oyster shells will not spoil, and should keep without any special handling; however, as I mentioned, my Martins will only eat (chicken) egg shells, that do need special handling to avoid spoiling if kept long(er) periods. Some landlords boil them.