oyster shells

**jimmy cee** 3/30/2013, 9:56 am

Just came back from our local farm shop. They have oyster shells all cracked and ground up for chickens to eat.
I am wondering at .25 cent a lb could this material be good for something ?

Other than drive ways

HillbillyBob 3/30/2013, 12:47 pm

I us it in the row garden for tomatoes and pepper plants Cool

we buy it for the hens to eat tongue

**RoOsTeR** 3/30/2013, 4:26 pm

Oyster shell will provide calcium...so would/do egg shells Wink

CapeCoddess 3/30/2013, 6:01 pm

Wonder how they crack them all up? I can get bags of whole seashells but I don't know how to crush them all. Any ideas?

CC

**camprn** 3/30/2013, 6:29 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:Wonder how they crack them all up? I can get bags of whole seashells but I don't know how to crush them all. Any ideas?

CC

Toss them into the driveway and run them over for a few weeks. Put them in a bucket and drop a sledge hammer into the bucket repeatedly. Shocked

CapeCoddess 3/30/2013, 6:49 pm

camprn wrote:
CapeCoddess wrote:Wonder how they crack them all up? I can get bags of whole seashells but I don't know how to crush them all. Any ideas?

CC
Toss them into the driveway and run them over for a few weeks. Put them in a bucket and drop a sledge hammer into the bucket repeatedly.

Excellent ideas! Thanks, Camp! The drive way it is. Then they go into the compost pile? Or could I use them as mulch?

CC

yolos 3/30/2013, 7:00 pm

I am not sure that driveway suggestion is going to work. I lived in North Florida for a while when I was a kid. All of our diveways were oyster shell driveways. They will not break up enough to be dust like. You would probably have to sift it with a very fine mesh screen or you are going to get pieces big enough to cause you problems. But maybe other sea shells won't be as tuff.

Triciasgarden 3/31/2013, 2:17 pm

j_HamiltonON posted that they put mussel shells in a bag and use a hammer on them.

**camprn** 3/31/2013, 4:52 pm

I hear tell that oyster shells can take 20 years to decompose and that the resulting elements are not particularly soluble in the garden. The Oyster shells may make a better pathway material or poultry supplement.

**jimmy cee** 3/31/2013, 7:49 pm

Camprn thanks
thats exactly what I needed to know, the stuff looked so nice sitting there at just 25 cents lb

Triciasgarden 4/1/2013, 11:01 am

That is good to know. It would be terrible to go through a ton of work and then the end result isn't what you wanted!

HillbillyBob 4/1/2013, 11:12 am

I just buy them already crashed Very Happy

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