Raw eggs as fertilizer?

I’m thinking of using eggs as “fertilizer”.

I want something to help my plants at the same time I am building soil.

I have seem recommendations to bury a whole egg when you plant a tomato plant, and reasons not to.

I am thinking more along the lines of getting a watering can, breaking and stirring the eggs then diluting with water and pouring onto the ground.  Maybe dry then crunch up the shells, feed them back to the chickens or use in the soil in the no chicken areas.

I’m starting new ground, formerly rabbit hutches and accompanying weeds.  

High desert, alkaline soil, windy. Last year I had sheep on it and big bales of self service alfalfa.  It seems that should have provided some benefit, but things aren’t doing that well.  I left several large clumps of perennial grasses.  Chop and dropped annuals.

The parent material is clay and rock that may be limestone or sandstone.  Varying depths below the surface.  It’s canyon country.  The land that erodes to canyons is beneath a layer of soil.

Has anyone ever experimented with eggs as fertilizer?  And absent experimentation, what are your musings?

Thanks

Some musings,

Bad eggs from my layers are added to my compost. Critters seem to love fishing bad eggs out of my compost pile and I will find evidence of the excavation time to time. I'm wondering if this is just because I have some particularly pesky crows or if the eggs might attract some unwanted attention to your growing areas.

Tim, do you add the eggs to your compost whole?  What makes them “bad”?  Are they rotten, or what?

Crows are really smart!  True of all the corvids!  They might just know your compost pile as part of their food route.

The critter issue is real. I've had foxes nose around the compost when anything protein-rich goes in. Liquid egg waste is probably the safer route if you want to avoid digging drama. Though burying a whole egg under a tomato is one of those things people swear by even if the evidence is thin.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Tim, do you add the eggs to your compost whole?  What makes them “bad”?  Are they rotten, or what?

Crows are really smart!  True of all the corvids!  They might just know your compost pile as part of their food route.

Usually it is a cracked shell so I discard them, they get tossed in so some remain whole while others break. They are not rotten per-say, but disposed of. The crows seem to have my piles as a "stop" for the afternoons because I seem them on a semi-regular basis. They like to toss carbon material all around so I keep a pitchfork nearby.

Sounds about like corvids!

They recognize individual humans, and hold grudges!

Timothy Norton wrote: Usually it is a cracked shell so I discard them, they get tossed in so some remain whole while others break. They are not rotten per-say, but disposed of.

Cracked eggs that aren't rotten can be cooked and fed to dogs or other animals. That way they aren't in compost piles to attract rats.

Thanks for your thoughts everybody.😊

If I leave whole eggs around, one of my dogs will eat them!  I suspect her of stealing eggs from the nests if and when she can.🤣

I have a guinea hen who has been setting on a raft of eggs for almost 40 days.  Incubation is normally 25-28 days.  I suspect they aren’t going to hatch.  The hen hasn’t abandoned them but eventually she will.  Then what will I do with all those eggs?—— that’s what got me thinking about use as fertilizer/soil amendments.  I expect they won’t smell very good to me which is what gave me the idea of diluting with water.  And then possibly I will soak some fresh wood chips with the liquid to boost their decomposition… which might smell pretty bad to me but not to the dogs, which brings me right back to attracting unwanted wildlife…..

If your soil is low in calcium, (which mine is not) then eggs will add calcium to your soil.

What other benefits will soil get from eggs?

I feel the pest/predeter attraction is not worth that.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:... Then what will I do with all those eggs?—— that’s what got me thinking about use as fertilizer/soil amendments.  I expect they won’t smell very good to me which is what gave me the idea of diluting with water.  ...

Won't smell very good is an understatement! They will smell like rotten eggs. I've had them get to the point that I can smell which ones are rotten through the shell. As they get rotten, if the temps go up, they will start to crack and attract flies to the nest which I use a sign that things are going bad.

Being on the Pacific Wet Coast (which in fact, is very dry in the summer) I take the eggs to a semi-wild area of our property  and toss them against the base of trees or against rocks where they explode. My goal is for the slugs to clean the mess up quickly, but if there are larger bits, the crows and ravens will likely clean that up.

If you have hens... isn't mixing a hand full of chicken bedding into the soil when you plant a better bet for fertilising? Or top dressing in advance so it has some time to mellow and not burn plants?

The primary reasons I have hens are fertiliser (deep litter bedding), food scraps disposal, and eggs... in that order.

Yes, thanks, I DO use the bedding and manure, very much as you describe, Michael.

The question here is what to do with incubated eggs that didn’t hatch, and other questionable eggs.

My bait for fly traps is egg in water.  Yes, stinks to high heaven, but attracts the flies to the trap so I'll take it.  Black Soldier Flies would love your eggs and turn them into excellent ...not stinky...fertilizer for your property.  And I read, but I don't remember where, that if you have BSFs in your pile, you don't have filth flies.  Dunno if that is accurate, but it seems to be true for my BSF bin.

I grow Peruvian cactus apples and a friend told me that if you plant the cuttings to put a raw egg in the hole (I'm assuming cracked) and it will grow much faster. I haven't tried it yet but plan to the next time I plant.

Thanks for the ideas.  Before I started this thread I did a few related websearches, and read about people burying a whole egg when planting out tomato starts.  There seemed to be consensus that it was helpful on two counts, nitrogen store available to growing plants, and calcium in the eggshell - like other sources can prevent blossom end rot.  But many there were many reports of the scent of the egg attracting various animals to dig it up, and thereby kill the plant.  It put me off the idea of burying whole eggs.

I think what I will try is breaking the eggs into water to form a dilution, then soaking wood chips in it before applying the woodchips as mulch in the garden.

I have been delayed because we’re having a second massive grasshopper hatch.  There are the little tiny brown ones by the millions, and the 3/4 - 1 inch brown ones that are already flying around, indicating that they have reached maturity and can now breed and lay eggs.  We have not even reached the solstice!  It’s early to have this degree of pressure from grasshoppers!

I use my raw eggs in a Bokashi outdoor compost. Odd in that is a dry compost, quite acidic as low pH 2.9 it handles human waste if need be (5 gallon bucket anaerobic culture) yet it maybe the best digester of proteins. And of course with all compost I cheat, some.  Meat. Poo, a tinkle. or two, (that rhyme isn’t mine) in a 3 walled mortared stone 6’ long compost bin, a bit pyramidal in shape. Wide back6’ on the inside, narrowing at the top to 3’ wide.  Interior is Rubberized with liquid tire chemically inert (you’ll have to look that one up). I layer with semi rotted alfalfa sheets which are just damp and compressed but form almost airtight pockets where the meats, cheese , and eggs can go in the back widest part compressed by plywood sheet often a large rock on top.  I rake it forward after a few weeks, shorter if it’s hot.  Then mix in some aerobic compost and/or I add pig/+cow manure for a dense concentrated compost. Nifty in that rats rarely dig into it, in fact almost nothing bothers the Bokashi (it’s that acidic) except rain causes  dilution). So it’s got a roof, and about 40-50 days you have a high caloric compost.  Used on my raspberries, blueberries, anything that likes acidic soil… we had raspberries until November, 2025… so weird. I think it was the Bokashi, my son said berry fairy’s. Cheers.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Thanks for the ideas.  Before I started this thread I did a few related websearches, and read about people burying a whole egg when planting out tomato starts.  There seemed to be consensus that it was helpful on two counts, nitrogen store available to growing plants, and calcium in the eggshell - like other sources can prevent blossom end rot.  But many there were many reports of the scent of the egg attracting various animals to dig it up, and thereby kill the plant.  It put me off the idea of burying whole eggs.

I'd bury them deep. Nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, sulfur, all in one neat package. Any roadkill in my neighborhood gets buried between tomato plants, too, ten to twelve inches down. Then I cover with mulch, coffee grounds and/or Vitamin P.  Even the raccoons leave them alone.

Showing an adequate level of calcium in the soil does not mean extra (available) calcium should be overlooked. Many soil nutrients are complexed for various reasons and I believe calcium is high on the list. The eggshells sound like a good soil amendment as the calcium was available to the chicken to make the shell. I think they feed calcitic lime right from the mine to the chickens. I like gypsum on my garden as an available calcium and sulfur source. Two key nutrients and gypsum does seem to help loosen and dry waterlogged soil.

This link explains the lime amendments.

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/should_i_use_dolomitic_or_calcitic_lime

I do bury them under my tomatoes when I plant. We get blossom end rot in our clay heavy soil so I started doing it a few years ago. I dig the hole about a foot and a half deep, Make a nest of hot chicken bedding in the bottom of your hole. Layer some dirt on that to make sure it has time to mellow. Add a egg or two. Then add amended soil to the hole to the desired depth for your seedling. If you plant your eggs to shallow something will come along and dig up your plants to get it. I had shoved some down beside a few squash plants last year and discovered that. 6 inches of soil on top seems to be the sweet spot where they wont get dug up.

Eggcellent!
Thanks.
Looks like we have consensus, bury them deep.