When to gather eggs, and cleaning the nest box

Oh, take that warm egg and put it right up against yer cheek. I love that feeling. Oh, did I say that out loud?

I have never heard of any issues w/ putting an egg directly into the fridge. I leave the day's eggs out until they are all collected (I have a bowl just for that purpose) so I can see the flock's output. Plus, it's purty.

I go out periodically throughout the day and gather eggs - but I just stick them in a carton on the shelf in my work area. I bring them in in the late afternoon and leave them out on the counter. I had a few that were nasty this week so I did wash those and stick them in the fridge (had them for dinner tonight) but as for the rest - I don't wash them at all - I just leave them out on the counter for days, or weeks......they are still fine......the bloom protects them from spoiling too quickly - I'm going to take one of my eggs from tomorrow and write the date on it - then put it on the shelf in my kitchen. I want to see how long it takes before it gets icky......maybe I'll do it with a few eggs.

I just read an article on the Mother Earth website about the best way to store eggs...... Personally, I am getting 12-16 eggs a day at this point in time and I just don't have the fridge space to store all of those so I am grateful I can just leave them out on the counter or in the closet......just remember to turn them every couple of weeks if you are going to leave them in the closet long term......

They stay fresher in the fridge if you don't wash them so I wash eggs right before I use them. My eggs are almost always clean but if they one were really dirty I would probably just wipe it down with a dry paper towel.