I’ll never forget the time my buddy Carl dared me to feed his chickens leftover crab shells from our crawfish boil.<\/p>\n
I laughed and said “Chickens will eat anything!”<\/p>\n
So I tossed a few shells into the coop and waited to see what happened.<\/p>\n
At first, the chickens just stared at the shells curiously.<\/p>\n
But then one brave hen named Betty slowly waddled over and pecked at a shell.<\/p>\n
She seemed to like it, because then she started breaking it apart and eating the smaller pieces.<\/p>\n
Well, seeing Betty enjoy the crab shell made all the other chickens want some too.<\/p>\n
So within minutes, every chicken in the coop was gobbling up crab shells excitedly.<\/p>\n
Chunks of shell were flying everywhere as the chickens broke them apart and ate them.<\/p>\n
“See, I told you they’d eat it!” I said to Carl with a big grin.<\/p>\n
I was feeling pretty proud of myself for proving chickens will eat anything.<\/p>\n
Well, a few hours later those chickens got their revenge.<\/p>\n
Let’s just say there was an explosion in the coop that required me to spend 5 hours cleaning up the huge mess!<\/p>\n
So in my experience, chickens will definitely eat crab shells with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
But the aftermath isn’t pretty once those shells start passing through their digestive tracts.<\/p>\n
The crab shells don’t fully digest and just get pooped out in chunks everywhere, or cause digestive issues.<\/p>\n
Maybe that’s why you don’t see many chickens living near the ocean eating crab shells all the time!<\/p>\n
Table of Contents<\/p>\n