Composting Eggshells - or rather not...

[CAMRAMan]

Since I moved into to our house 2 years ago, I've been composting our kitchen waste, leaf fall and grass clippings. Now is the time to recoup some of that investment in effort.

I opened up the bottom of the LA-supplied compost bin and dug out the lower layer. I'm no expert but it looks very good stuff, except for the eggshells which are almost as pristine as the day they went in.

So what's the word on eggshells in compost? Doesn't seem like a good idea to me based on this experience. Should I be crushing them up first? I've been throwing them in whole up to now.

[mrcharly-YHT]

When you use them, store them up until you have a few, then put them in the bottom of the oven when you are next using it. This will bake off the remains of yolk/white (making them less likely to attract rats). They will also get very crumbly, so you can crumble them up into the compost or straight into your soil.

[Julian]

They're really good for the soil but they're worse than teabags for actually decomposing.  When you dig them in they'll crack up a bit more, so I just leave them in there in whatever almost-whole state they're in.  The plants don't seem to mind. 

[Si]

I'd keep them separate, smash them up, and then when your seedlings start poking through sprinkle them around.  This puts slugs off - they don't like crawling over the sharp (to them) edges (YS'sMMV), and still lets them rot into the ground eventually.

[Chris S]

Worms. You need worms. The boys and girls in my wormery happily get rid of the egg shells; in fact, they probably rely on them for good digestive health.

I crush them up first and blend them in with the other stuff. The worms love old teabags too. I tear them open first and mix well with shredded paper or card, but they would rot open eventually anyway.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Worms. You need worms. The boys and girls in my wormery happily get rid of the egg shells; i

You mean the boygirls in your wormery.

Or maybe ladyboys, as this is YACF afterall 

[Biggsy]

Feed the eggshells to boys and girls of the human variety.  They don't get enough calcium these days, what with boneless sardines, etc

Mmm.  Crunch, crunch.

[PaulR]

The main flower bed in my parents' garden was always referred to as the egg bed.  For most of my life I assumed that this was because of the huge number of egg shells in it, resulting from the inclusion of eggs shells in the compost heap.  It wasn't until quite recently that I noticed that the bed was actually egg-shaped.

[clarion]

Eggshells are excellent.  You must crush them very small to go in, and it's best if you dig them in deeply.

[hellymedic]

Like Bodger, we crush eggshells and leave around strawberry plants to deter slugs.

[Jules]

When we lived in Italy from 2001-3 we kept chickens and put hundred of eggshells in our compost bin. When I  looked last summer they were still there so it seems likely they are not going anywhere in my lifetime.

[Quisling]

I bake my eggshells if I've got the oven on, crush them up and feed them to the chickens to make new shells.  Perfect closed loop sponge cake making eggshell recycling facility.

[CAMRAMan]

Sounds like too much faff to me. I'll put them in the green bin which is next to the compost caddy instead.

[pcolbeck]

Egg shells are mainly Calcium Carbonate so they are not likely to compost as such, they won't break down like organic stuff. If you break them up then they are more likely to dissolve in water or get mixed in by worm action.

[SteveC]

If your compost mix is too acid (a bad thing) the eggshells will dissolve and help to neutralise things (a good thing).

S

[Jules]

Checked again last week. They are still there after 10 years.