Don’t get me wrong, I will always love fresh home-laid eggs from my chickens. But there’s only so much I can eat by myself and give away to friends and family.

I’m not alone here, and a lot of backyard chicken farmers have the dilemma of simply getting too many eggs – although it’s always a good problem to have.

Luckily, even if you’ve eaten your fill and supplied your whole neighborhood there’s actually one other way you can make excellent use of your eggs. And that, my friends, is to make scrambled eggs and feed them to your chickens.

Here we go through why chickens can eat scrambled eggs, what health benefits it really has, and how you can serve it to your chickens!

Can Chickens Eat Scrambled Eggs?

Although it’s often thought of as controversial, feeding chickens their own eggs are actually incredibly healthy, being rich in protein and vitamins which allow a chicken to stay warm, healthy, and keep producing more eggs!

However, there’s an important difference between feeding your chickens raw eggs and cooked ones. If you feed or encourage your chickens to eat raw eggs then there’s a chance they will make it a habit and can even eat their own eggs straight from the nesting box. 

But when you feed your chicken’s cooked eggs, there’s no reason for them to make the association, and they will just think it’s a yummy treat. Unlike when you cook eggs for yourself though, ditch the salt and pepper, butter, cream, oil, etc., and only mix in ingredients that are considered healthy for chickens.

Some other healthy foods to mix in a scrambled egg mix for your chickens are things like:

• Fresh herbs, such as oregano, mint, parsley, and sage.
• Sunflower or flax seeds.
• Oats.
• Chopped up leafy greens.
• Crushed up eggshells for extra calcium!
• Cooked chickpeas.

By feeding your chickens scrambled eggs once every week or two, you will provide them with a good boost of protein, vitamins, and if you include the crushed up eggshells for a well-needed calcium hit to keep them laying regularly! 

This goes for feeding ducks cooked eggs too!

Health Benefits Of Scrambled Eggs For Chickens

Cooked eggs are rich in minerals and nutrients for us, and for our chickens. Being incredibly rich in protein, it helps support growth and development. 

Not only that, but protein helps keep them warm and goes towards the next egg production! But, aside from the high protein content, there are actually many other indirect benefits of feeding scrambled eggs to your chickens. 

Contain Healthy Essential Nutrients

Besides protein, eggs are a good source of a long list of nutrients and vitamins. They’re important for keeping their immune system healthy and warding off diseases.

These nutrients also boost your chicken’s egg-laying process. They play a large role in promoting the production of fresh, wholesome eggs.

Here are just a few main minerals found in scrambled eggs:

• Beta carotene
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin C
• Vitamins B2, B5, and B12
• Calcium
• Zinc
• Magnesium
• Potassium

Preventing Vitamin B Deficiencies

For anyone who has had a baby chick or chicken experience vitamin B deficiencies, they will know just how important this vitamin can be. 

Shortness of vitamin B12 can show symptoms relating to a weakening of the nervous system. Some symptoms are curled toes, weak knees, or other problems with their joints including their neck. All of these can lead to a chicken always losing its balance or falling over.

This can eventually be fatal, due to the stress, weight loss/gain, and other health issues compounding from a simple vitamin deficiency.

Luckily, a chicken’s egg actually contains vitamins B2, B5, and B12, so any vitamins that are transferred from a chicken to its egg can go back into the chicken to retain. You can also feed your chickens an approved vitamin mix along with their scrambled eggs for an extra boost of vitamins. 

Speeds Up Molting

You may have noticed that when your chicken starts to molt it will stop laying eggs. This is actually because the protein that is normally used to create an egg is being sapped by the need to regrow a chicken’s feathers, which we know is pretty much all protein. 

This is sometimes why you see a chicken eating feathers off the ground, as it knows it needs more protein!

So, while your chickens are molting, it’s recommended to feed your chickens extra protein. Scrambled eggs are literally full of protein, and will provide a much-needed boost to your chicken’s protein intake. Other protein-rich foods include seeds like chia seeds, safflower seeds, etc. 

Can Chickens Eat Eggshell?

Again, a lot of new chicken owners are somewhat reserved about feeding their chickens their eggshells. But, so much research has shown that chickens can eat eggshells, and it’s actually beneficial to a laying hen’s health.

See, a chicken’s eggshell is almost all calcium. Hens that are laying regularly will go through a fair bit of calcium and so will benefit from a boost from their eggshells every now and then.

This is particularly important If you own hybrid chickens that lay almost every day, like ISA Brown Or Golden Comets, then your chickens will need a very high calcium intake to keep up their production.

Chickens with a calcium deficiency will lay much less frequently and may lay eggs with soft shells or partially deformed eggs. 

How To Serve Scrambled Eggs To Chickens

So, now that we’ve established it’s not only OK for chickens to eat scrambled eggs but it’s actually considered healthy in normal amounts, you may be wondering, what the best way to serve scrambled eggs to chickens is.

Well, there are actually two very easy and healthy ways you can feed scrambled eggs to your chickens:

1. The first way is to simply cook one egg per three chickens. Cook it the same way you would for yourself, but ditch the oil, butter, salt, and pepper and keep it 100% egg. If you think your chickens need a calcium boost then crush the eggshell up into small, fine pieces, and mix it in with the egg.
2. Alternatively, you can make your chickens a full meal out of eggs. Still, cook one egg per three chickens, but this time also adds some other healthy ingredients and make it a chicken-safe meal. Adding seeds, fruits, vegetables, eggshells, leafy greens, herbs, even spices like nutmeg or clove will go a long way for a chicken’s health and wellbeing.

Can Baby Chicks Eat Scrambled Eggs?

Baby chicks require a hefty 20% protein diet in order to grow and develop normally.  You would think then that scrambled eggs would be an amazing supplement to feed your baby chicks to ensure they are getting their protein hit.

However, baby chicks are very temperamental when it comes to their diet, and any malnutrition can very quickly show some unwanted side effects or lead to long-lasting effects on your chicken’s health.

For this reason, it’s recommended to not feed your baby chickens scrambled eggs until they are at least 12 weeks old. This is simply because if they fill up on scrambled eggs they may not eat enough of their formulated chick starter which contains every nutrient in its correct amount for the development of a healthy chick.

After 12 weeks old, however, you can begin to feed small amounts of table scraps to your baby chicks, including things like oats, carrots, and of course, scrambled eggs.

Final Thoughts

Some people are apprehensive at first, but in all honesty, chickens can eat scrambled eggs. If the protein benefits aren’t enough to convince you, then consider the vitamins, impacts for molting chickens, and calcium boosts if you include the crushed eggshell too!

Still, it’s important to ensure your chickens are eating a balanced diet. For this reason, you should feed your flock their layer seed mix or layer pellets for 90% of their diet. The other 10% can be made up from foraging, fruit, vegetables, safe table scraps, and of course, one meal a week of scrambled eggs!