How can I tell if it's frozen?

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I had two eggs this week that had slight cracks in the shell - you could tell it froze. Will it always crack the shell if it freezes? How can I tell if an egg is frozen? It is so cold now that if an egg is laid out for a while I am figuring their done for. But it was in the coop and the water in the bowl is icy, but not frozen.

Is the egg bound to be frozen?

 

[EliteTempleton]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

I had two eggs this week that had slight cracks in the shell - you could tell it froze. Will it always crack the shell if it freezes? How can I tell if an egg is frozen? It is so cold now that if an egg is laid out for a while I am figuring their done for. But it was in the coop and the water in the bowl is icy, but not frozen.

Is the egg bound to be frozen?

Will it always crack the shell if it freezes? Nope, it won't always crack the shell.

How can I tell if an egg is frozen? Um well you can try shaking it, or throw it at someone near by and see if it hurts or gets them all wet, lol! You could try candling it I guess, not sure I don't care if it is frozen or not so I don't check.

If you want to keep them for hatching then I guess you would just have to check often or install a baby monitor and listen for proud squawking?

If you are just going to eat them, don't stress, many people freeze eggs just to keep them, though they put them in ice cubes, and generally only use them for scrambled after that. Also, this kind of cold will not allow any of those nasty make you sick germs grow anyway.​

 

[waynesgarden]

I find a good way is to put it in your pocket because your hands are full and go inside. Then open the crawlspace access and lay on the floor to shine a flashlight down at the frozen water pipes. If you hear a crunch, you'll know it's not frozen.

At least that's how I did it this morning.

I think the eggs I collect in the late afternoon are partly frozen but it doesn't seem to affect their taste.

Wayne

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Quote:

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

So did the shining of the light and sacrificing of the egg defrost the pipes??

I posted a pipe question of my own on random ramblings. I'll sacrifice the egg if that'll do the trick!

 

[cmom]

I'm curious too how to tell if an egg is frozen. I live in Florida so I don't deal with it. The lowerst temp here was 18 degrees. None of my eggs froze but I keep a 250 watt heat lamp in the coops when it's freezing or below. My bird baths outside have frozen solid, but my waterers in the coops were ok.

 

[waynesgarden]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

So did the shining of the light and sacrificing of the egg defrost the pipes??

I posted a pipe question of my own on random ramblings. I'll sacrifice the egg if that'll do the trick!

Oddly enough it did. Or at least it lead to the method.

As I stood up and thought about how I had to climb down there with a hair dryer and also about how long it would take to wash and dry the coat to wear it to work, it occured to me that I might run the electric dryer vent hose to the bathroom crawlspace access hatch and dump a lot of heat down there pretty quickly.

I had two lengths of the flexible vent hose but they weren't long enough to reach. That was solved by cutting a hole through the wall between the dryer and the bathroom with a drywall knife. A half hour later the toilet worked and 40 minutes after that the shower worked.

That's when I discovered the burst hot water pipe down there.

But that's tomorrow's project. A small price to pay to live in Paradise.

Now, I believe we were discussing frozen eggs....

Wayne​

 

[Beverrlly]

We live WAAAY up north and it was -40 degrees yesterday (before windchill). Our eggs are pretty much guaranteed to be frozen unless the heat lamp is on. All of ours that froze cracked. The ones that didn't crack were fine for cooking/baking/eating so even if they were frozen, they tasted great. If your looking to hatch them, then I don't know...You could try our method of keepign a heat lamp over the nest boxes.

 

[ChandlersChickens]

I found a frozen (for sure) egg when I got home from work. Well is was
-12 here today without the wind chill and nobody checked during the day for eggs.....why I'm not sure.

The shell was cracked all over and the egg started oozing out....and obviously frozen.

That one went in the trash.

 

[KareyABohr]

I live in Iowa...it was 50 below zero with wind chill here last week! So I know all about frozen eggs!

The easiest way to tell if it is frozen is to spin it like if you were checking for hardboiled vs. fresh eggs. If it spins very fast on the counter, it is froze. Leave it out it will unthaw and be fine. (Don't try and incubate it though...wasting your time the embryo is dead)

If the egg is not frozen it will spin slowly and wabble all over the place. The egg will spin fast even if it is just partially frozen too!
Hope this helps!