Gardeners are being urged to save their eggshells in March to help garden birds like blue tits, robins and sparrows, as the calcium-rich shells support female birds laying strong eggs during nesting season
Gardeners should consider leaving eggshells out in their garden in spring, as they can greatly help out bird
Feeding birds needn’t break the bank, as numerous kitchen leftovers can genuinely benefit them, which is why gardeners are being urged to put out eggshells.
Maureen Eiger, the director of Help Wild Birds, has revealed that eggshells are packed with calcium, which proves particularly valuable for birds during springtime when they’re producing eggs.
She said: “We throw eggshells in the garbage almost every day, but they are full of calcium and minerals. Birds need additional calcium, especially after nesting season.”
Birds require different nutrition throughout the year, and during winter, they generally need high-fat foods to accumulate energy stores that help them stay warm. In spring, female birds gain from crushed eggshells as they’re abundant in calcium, which enables them to produce robust eggs that successfully hatch and provides chicks with the optimal chance of thriving.
Eggshells contain calcium which will really help birds out in spring(Image: Getty)
Nevertheless, you cannot simply scatter eggshells onto a bird table because raw eggs harbour bacteria such as salmonella, which can damage birds and enable them to transmit infections to their offspring.
Rather, it’s preferable to spend 10 minutes initially baking the eggshells in the oven, as this procedure eliminates any bacteria and sanitises them, reports the Express.
How to feed birds crushed eggshells
All you need to do is retain the empty eggshells in the carton when you prepare eggs, and once the carton is full, rinse the shells under the tap. Raw egg yolk still harbours bacteria and can draw pests such as rats to your garden, so give it a quick rinse with hot water, but avoid using any soap, as that could be harmful to birds.
Next, arrange the eggshells on a tray and pop them in the oven. Bake them at 120C for approximately 10 minutes, and once finished, allow them to cool down.
The eggshells should then feel extremely brittle, and you can crumble them into small and gritty fragments until they look like gritty sand or gravel.
Do not scatter large eggshells in your garden as they are difficult for birds to grasp and they could risk choking on them.
Make sure to clean and crush up the eggshells for the birds(Image: Getty)
There is also a worry that birds might link eggs with food and start pecking at other nests, so it is best for your local wildlife to offer them eggshells in small fragments.
Then, you simply need to scatter the eggshells on a bird table or distribute them around your garden, and it will help provide baby chicks with the best start to life.
They will particularly benefit blue tits, sparrows, blackbirds, chaffinches and robins in spring, so you will notice plenty of them darting about your garden in March if you leave out eggshells.
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