Can chickens eat raw eggs?

Why

Avoid feeding raw egg in recognisable form. It is not toxic, and egg-eating in a flock usually traces to a nutritional gap rather than to diet alone -- but cooking egg and crushing shells before feeding is the common practice and removes the question. While raw eggs are not toxic, feeding them this way often encourages egg-eating behavior in the flock, which usually stems from a nutritional gap rather than the egg itself. The standard practice is to cook the eggs and crush the shells before feeding, which removes the risk of the behavior starting.

Watch out for

• raw whole eggs
• raw eggshells

Better choices