Hens can recycle seventy percent of their bone calcium to build eggshells
To produce a single eggshell, a hen must mobilize an incredible seventy percent of her bone calcium, utilizing a specialized internal skeletal reservoir that functions like a biological battery.
Modern hens are biological marvels of mineralization, laying over 300 eggs annually compared to the twelve laid by their wild ancestors. To build a shell, the hen's body must concentrate calcium in the blood plasma twenty thousand times over a twenty-hour period. Because this demand exceeds what she can digest from food alone, she draws seventy percent of the necessary calcium from her medullary bone.
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