If you have hens in your backyard, you may go through hundreds of eggs per year. Avoid sending the shells to the landfill by putting them to good use in your own yard and house
Check out these 15 Clever Ways to use an Eggshell!
Plant seeds indoors using eggshells
Plants can be grown in a variety of eco-friendly containers, such as peat pots, newspaper pots, gourd shells, and wooden flats; however, eggshells prove to be the most successful.
Fill half of the shell with dirt, carefully plant your seeds, and watch them grow. Return the used eggshells to the eggshell carton.
When your plants have reached a certain size, you can move the entire container out of the house and into the garden, where the shell will eventually break down and contribute calcium to the soil.
Garden mulch
After a hearty breakfast or baking a delicious cake, crush the eggshells and take them straight out to the garden.
The calcium in the eggshells will be released gradually as they degrade, and they will also assist to aerate the soil and increase water penetration. If you crush them finely enough, they’ll disintegrate in no time.
Give your tomatoes a calcium boost
In order to prevent weeds from taking over your new tomato plants, you can lay eggshells directly under them when you transplant them. Consider it a survivor and lavish it with additional love and attention.
By supplementing your tomato plants with calcium, you can reduce the risk of blossom-end rot.
For the same reason, eggshells are great for your broccoli, cabbage, and other cruciferous vegetables.
Use the eggshells as chicken food
Laying hens require a high calcium diet, and if your chickens are eating their eggs, it could be due to a calcium deficit.
The eggshells should be dried at room temperature, then crushed slightly, and then spread thinly on a baking sheet.
After baking the shells at 275 degrees for around ten minutes, crush them even further before giving them to the chickens in little amounts.
Use broken eggshells to repel pests in the garden
If you want to keep slugs and snails away from your plants, try putting some crushed eggshells around the plant’s base.
Add them to the compost pile
Again, the calcium content is important.
You should add as much biodegradable material as possible to your compost, and eggshells are a great place to start. Composting helps cut down on waste and is beneficial to plants in the garden.
Wild bird food
You can help the wild birds by feeding them, just like you would your own chickens.
You may also bake the shells, crush them into small bits, and put them in their feed mix or on the ground for them to find.
Boil eggshells in your coffee
There are two great things about this.
For starters, if you’re making coffee for a bonfire over a really high flame, adding some crushed eggshells will prevent the grounds from splattering all over the pot. Unless you are camping, you probably won’t run across this issue, but if you do, you now know how to avoid a destroyed cup of coffee.
Second, coffee that’s been brewed with eggshells in it has a lower acidity. Eggshells are here to save the day when the bitterness of a cheap cup of coffee or a pot that has been brewed for too long becomes intolerable.
Just one egg’s worth of powdered or finely ground up shell can provide four delicious cups of coffee.
Try it. If you’re looking for a dairy-free way to get some calcium in your coffee, this is it.
Throw the eggshells into the stock pot or bone broth
You can use the eggshells to make a nutritious vegetable stock or a rich bone broth.
The eggshells you eat will provide you with more than just calcium; they also have trace amounts of the following minerals.
- magnesium
- fluoride
- selenium
- zinc
- iron
- phosphorus
It won’t change the taste, but you’ll definitely notice the difference in nutrition!
Put them into your apple cider vinegar
Let mother nature have its course by combining some dried eggshells with some apple cider vinegar. The final product will be a soothing tincture that can be used to cure acid indigestion as well as minor skin irritations and itchy skin.
Eggshell toothpaste
There is no turning back once you decide to stop using regular minty fluoride toothpaste with a slew of unpronounceable compounds.
Then, you’ll see a variety of solutions for maintaining healthy, white teeth, from activated charcoal and clay and zeolite to baking soda, coconut oil, and essential oils.
One of the great options is to grind up some eggshells and use them to form a fine powder that we can use to clean our teeth and keep the cavities at bay.
Make a face mask from an eggshell
Put your dried eggshells through a mill and pestle to generate a fine powder that may be used to nourish and tighten your skin. Add the powdered eggshell to an egg white that has been whisked until it is moderately stiff.
Apply it on your face and let it dry. When you’re done, rinse your face with cold water and consider the mask a free facial.
Whiten laundry
Putting eggshells in a tightly woven bag (or old stocking) with a few slices of lemon might help restore the original brightness of whites if chlorine is out of the question in your natural laundry routine.
It won’t break the bank and is surely worth a shot.
Scrub any difficult-to-clean pans
Crushing a few eggshells and adding them to a dirty saucepan with soap and hot water will help get the job done in a pinch. The dirt will be broken up and removed by the shells because of how abrasive they are.
Crushed eggshells can be used to improve the shine of even the most difficult-to-clean vases.
Eat your eggshell
How should you eat an eggshell? You may grind them into a powder and put it in your drinks, smoothies, soups, and stews.
Take caution, though; if your diet already provides sufficient calcium, you may want to find a different purpose for these. Your daily calcium needs can be met using the calcium found in half an eggshell.