# Have you ever fed your goats hard boiled eggs?



## Junkscouts (Jul 18, 2010)

Hi All,

I haven't tried it yet, but have any of you ever fed eggs to your goats? Do you think it is ok? What about the shell, do they need to be peeled?

I'm not sure they would eat them, but we often have excess eggs and I thought it might be a good protein source for the goats and I hate just throwing the old eggs in the compost. We use to board a horse that loved raw eggs shell and all, it was a little weird. Thanks.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

No, but I feed cracked eggs back to my hens. Sometimes I baked them a "casserole".


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Nope, never fed them to the goats. I do feed them hardboiled and smashed back to the hens. The goats have sniffed at the eggs as they sat waiting to be fed out at chore time but wrinkled their nose at them and never tried to take a bite. Not sure it would be a good mix in their bellies.


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## funnyfarmtexas.com (Oct 3, 2012)

i have heard of baking the shells, crushing them into a powder and putting them on their feed as a good source of calcium. Haven't done it because i am a chicken (scared) - has anyone done that? sounds good, but would like another opinion.


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## Qz Sioux (Feb 21, 2009)

With goats being herbivorous, I wouldn't even chance giving them eggs. I wouldn't have allowed a horse to eat them either.

Extra eggs are good for dogs, cats, chickens as well as other people. You can donate them to some food pantries or even post a free add for free eggs for people who want to come get them. Make them bring their own egg cartons so you are not out that expense. If you can't put a free add in the local paper, put up a sign (like a garage sale sign) and let people know you will give out free eggs on certain days.

Just an idea


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## smithurmonds (Jan 20, 2011)

I would feed them back to the chickens, either hardboiled and crushed or baked into something like jiffy corn bread shells and all. Before we had a pig this is where our extras went.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

We donate our extra eggs to a food pantry.

Our chickens free-range and sometimes they will lay in the corner of one of the doe pens or in the buck pen. The goats don't touch them. Now if they are laying in the hog pens, forget it. We've never found any eggs in the pigs' shelters, but I do suspect some of them lay there.


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## Junkscouts (Jul 18, 2010)

Thanks for all your responses. Sounds like giving them to the goats is a bad idea, vegetable protein only, got it.

I do feed the eggs to the meat birds and the roosters, but I'm scared to give them to the layers because I'm worried it will encourage them to peck and eat the eggs in the nesting boxes. Also most of these eggs aren't good for human consumption, either I miss a collection so they've been in the coop too long or they have been sitting in the walk-in for weeks so giving them away is not an option. 

We never fed the horse eggs, but I moved him to a new stall one day and their was a clutch of eggs in the wall feeder and he gobbled them down with gusto before I could even try to stop him. He'd obviously had chickens lay eggs in his stall before.

Thanks again.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Hens eat their eggs when the shells are weak and/or they don't have enough to eat. Keep the shells strong, and they won't eat them, even if you feed them crushed raw eggs. Their instinct is to clean up broken eggs.


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## Qz Sioux (Feb 21, 2009)

Yep, you are right. The hens tend to clean up any broken eggs and weak shelled ones. It is a thing that one egg would spoil the rest if allowed to stay there. 

If you crush the shells up well before feeding them to the layers or other hens, they won't eat their own eggs. Plus, the shells do help the hens lay stronger eggs.


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## NWgoats (Jul 17, 2008)

I hardboil them, put them in a bag and smash them. Everything
all together. Then I give it to the hens. Extra protein and calcium.
They don't know that they are eggs.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

I hard boil my extra eggs, run them through the food processor shell and all & make a mush out of it... Sometimes I'll dump a quart of goat milk in it then feed it all back to the hens.

They LOVE it. My flock is only layers (no meat birds here right now) & I've never had them start eating their eggs.... 

I never give them full shells or any pieces that resemble an egg.... My grandma said if you fed shells back in tiny pieces they'd never know it was shells, but if you gave them the shells from just cracked eggs they'd learn that was a yummy treat & start eating eggs in the nest.... I have no idea if that's true, but either way, I only feed shells smashed to tiny bits & mixed in with something just in case 

And no, I wouldn't feed a goat eggs


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I have friends save all their egg shells for me. I dry them, crush them and feed them back to the hens. I also hard boil extras for the hens and the dogs. I smoosh them up for the hens so they no longer resemble eggs. They go nuts for them. I have been doing this for years and haven't had any problems with them eating their own eggs in the nest.

My hens get fresh goat milk every morning on their layer crumbles, sort of like a big bowl of cereal! I mix the eggs shells, table scraps and the smooshed up hard boiled with the milk and crumbles. Then I top it off with meat and fat scraps.

When I had bantams they ran at liberty. I had one hen who loved laying her clutch in the goat stall. She would set in the corner and hatch out her chicks with the goats standing guard. Even when the hen would leave for a meal, the goats were very careful not to step on the nest and when the eggs hatched, they would be very careful around the chicks.

One of my sons friends wanted to know if the eggs were goat eggs!


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## Junkscouts (Jul 18, 2010)

Ok, I'll start crushing them and giving them to my layers. We have some peafowl in there with them and I think they are the ones that eat eggs occasionally, not the hens. Thanks again for all the replies.


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## informative (Aug 24, 2012)

I might try separating the yolks from the whites and offering them individually - I'd bet you could get goats interested in one or the other. They are like two completely different foods. The yolks have all the cholesterol with loads of good nutrients and the whites have tons of protein and some nutrients with none of the cholesterol. The egg smell (rotten sulphury smell) only comes from one of the two I forget which (the yolk I think) and they probably just don't like that smell.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

informative said:


> I might try separating the yolks from the whites and offering them individually - I'd bet you could get goats interested in one or the other. They are like two completely different foods. The yolks have all the cholesterol with loads of good nutrients and the whites have tons of protein and some nutrients with none of the cholesterol. The egg smell (rotten sulphury smell) only comes from one of the two I forget which (the yolk I think) and they probably just don't like that smell.


WHY?? Goats are herbivores, designed by nature to digest vegetation...... Not animal protein. You wouldn't put a bale of hay out for your cat, and you wouldn't feed your horse a steak.... So don't try to feed a goat eggs.

Feed your animals a species appropriate diet instead of trying to fool them into eating something they aren't designed to thrive on.


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## Junkscouts (Jul 18, 2010)

Vegetable protein only, got it. I won't try it. I was just trying to find a good use for our extra eggs.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Junkscouts said:


> Yep, we covered that, vegetable protein only, got it. I won't try it. I was just trying to find a good use for our extra eggs.


Oh no, I wasn't posting that last bit to you, I was responding to Informative's post regarding ways to possibly get goats to eat eggs......

Anyone you can barter eggs with? I give eggs to 2 of my neighbors on a regular basis... Not with the intention of getting anything back, but the elderly neighbor insisted on doing a bit of sewing for me after she noticed I stapled a hole in my barn jeans (I seriously hate sewing & am bad at it too) & the other neighbor found a bunch of canning jars at a yard sale & got them for me as a "thank you".... Years ago before we moved, we supplied one neighbor with a dozen eggs every week, and in return when his pears were ripe he'd let us pick as many as we could use....

Perhaps you could barter away some of the excess?


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## smithurmonds (Jan 20, 2011)

What a great idea, Crystal!


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## Junkscouts (Jul 18, 2010)

Sorry Crystal,

I missed the post above and the part you quoted, sorry. We actually do give eggs to our neighbors on a regular basis, but we are getting 2 or 3 dozen a day so we end up with surplus. Normally we sell all we can produce with our farm boxes but we are on a "break" right now to get some projects done so I'm not as diligent at collecting as I usually am and I was tying to find a better use for the eggs that are past their prime or have spent more than a day in the nesting boxes. 

That is a good idea. Maybe I will post an ad in the Craigslist barter section and see if I can fine some more folks locally who could use them, or food banks. Thanks.


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## informative (Aug 24, 2012)

Might excess protein might help with wool/hair creation? Do you only feed vegetarian proteins then like beans and such?


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

For my goats, yes, only vegetable proteins. Alfalfa is the only high protein food I feed my goats most of the time but occasionally I have a goat or two who will need extra and that is usually a soy product, either calf manna or soymeal. There are some livestock feeds that contain animal proteins, but it is illegal to put ruminant by-product in a feed designated for ruminants.


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