By Lyzzie Owade

ChickWorld Poultry has cut its calcium feed costs by almost 100 per cent and stopped losing weak chicks by crushing and mixing its own eggshells into the feed.

Laura, a staff member at ChickWorld, said the farm used to spend Sh7,500 on a 10kg bag of calcium-rich feed, enough to feed just 15 to 20 chicks for four days. “We have around 800 birds, including both chicks and layers, so it was very expensive for us,” said Laura. “We stopped buying the calcium feed because we could not manage the cost. We started looking at how we could reuse the eggshells we were throwing away after hatching.”

Within a month of cutting out commercial calcium feed, ChickWorld noticed a third of its chicks could not stand for long or walk properly. “We did research online to find out why and learned they were lacking calcium,” said Laura. “We discovered that eggshells contain calcium carbonate, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium, so we began crushing them and adding them to our feed.”

The results were immediate. “Before, we were collecting only two eggs from every ten hens, which was too low,” said Laura. “After mixing crushed eggshells into their feed, we began collecting eight eggs a day. The laying age also improved — instead of starting at 20 weeks, they began laying at 15 to 18 weeks.”

She said that before adding eggshells, “our chicks could not stand even for two minutes, so they couldn’t reach the feeder and grew slowly. But after feeding on eggshells, those who could not walk started walking again after a few weeks.”

Because ChickWorld incubates its own eggs, the farm now gets calcium at no cost. Laura said they prepare the eggshells by removing the inner lining, soaking them in a mix of water and vinegar to kill bacteria, rinsing them, drying them in the sun for two days, then crushing them into powder before mixing 10g of the powder into every kilogram of feed.

Feeding starts when chicks are about three weeks old, once their digestive systems are fully developed. “Our chickens eat about a kilogram of feed a day for every 15 to 20 birds, and we add 10g of crushed eggshell to each kilogram,” said Laura.

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She said farmers should not feed eggshells every day or give them alone, as too much calcium causes swollen bones and can make birds start eating their own eggs. “You can skip some days because too much calcium is not good for the birds,” said Laura. “When the hens reach the laying stage, you stop giving them eggshells gradually so they get used to it.”

To reduce egg-eating, she said, they provide enough calcium and phosphorus, debeak the birds, collect eggs often, give them a specific place for laying, and feed them frequently so they stay busy.

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