From beauty treatments to household tasks. Eggs can be used for a lot of things, beside eating!
If your egg experience has been anything like ours you went from the excitement of that first egg, then multiple eggs in one day, to being overrun with eggs in a short time. As I write this I have 7 doz. eggs in the fridge and have given away 3 doz. and our first egg was just under a month ago. Well you can only give away so many eggs, and finding that first customer(s) can be a real pain. So I began searching online and in old books for ways to use these eggs up, other than the standbys of feeding them to the flock, cats and dogs or eating eggs everyday.
Here’s a list of things I knew of and some things I’ve found in my search. There are some uses of egg shells and other parts of the egg as well.
Beauty Treatments:
The first uses to come to mind were ones I’ve done myself for years, two of which I was doing as I typed this.
1. Hair and scalp treatment/conditioner (daily to monthly):
For normal hair use whole eggs, oily hair use whites only and for dry hair use yolks only. Whisk the egg, whites or yolks until frothy. Use ½ cup or more depending on length of your hair (I have long hair that goes to just below my shoulder blades and I use 1 ½ cups if whole, whites and yolks alternately). Apply to clean damp hair and leave on for 20-30 minutes. Rinse with cool water. Cool water should always be used to rinse hair (especially shoulder length or longer) as it helps seal the cuticle, this helps prevent frizziness, breakage, and improves color retention for colored hair. You do not want to add heat as it will “cook” the egg, another reason to use cool water to rinse. You can follow this with your favorite conditioner.
Variations: add olive oil (or any oil you keep in your kitchen) to create a natural mayonnaise mask, add scented oils if you don’t want your hair smelling like egg, add 2 Tsp lemon juice to help with dandruff (can also be oil and lemon only).
2. Skin pore strips:
Things you’ll need: One egg white, whisking tool (I use a fork), a bowl and toilet or facial tissue. First wash your face as you normally would. Now separate the white and yolk, whisk the white until frothy, use your fingers or a clean makeup brush to apply wash to your skin, lay pieces of tissue over wash, applying pressure until they are damp and stick to skin. Allow wash to dry for about ½ an hour, the paper will become stiff. Gently peel paper and you should see all kinds of crud on there. Rinse skin and continue with your normal routine. Avoid broken skin, and eye area. One advantage to this method is you can do this almost anywhere you have blackheads, or clogged pores, and can do a larger area than you ever could with those strips from the store. Not to mention it’s basically free since this stuff is on hand anyway.
3. Tightening/toning mask:
Things you’ll need: 1 egg white, juice from ½ lemon (strained). Whisk egg and juice together for 3 minutes. Apply to clean skin, avoiding the eye area, leave on for 30 minutes, and rinse with warm water. This will help with small wrinkles, large pores and slight droopiness.
Variations: egg white and 1 peach (peeled and stoned) blended using a blender until smooth, pat onto skin and follow remaining directions above. Above ingredients with a dab (1/2 tsp or so) of mayo, follow remaining directions above.
4. Egg white facial wash: Whisk 1 egg white with a tad of water and use for a face wash, rinse with warm water.
Variation: yolk wash, prepare and use the same as above.
Around the house and arts and crafts:
1. Shells make a great starting pot for seedlings. The calcium in the shell gives them a good head start and can be placed right into the soil for planting.
2. The water from boiled eggs is great for adult plants. Again the calcium is the key.
3. Leather cleaner: Used 2 egg whites, whisk slightly and apply to leather. Wipe off any residue.
4. Egg glue: use the white for light weight repairs of paper or cardboard.
5. Candle mold: Use a blown shell with the wick treaded through one hole. Pour melted wax into other hole, allow to cool, and peel like a hardboiled egg.
6. Paint holder: if you are doing a small paint project, or maybe painting a blown egg, the shells can make a great tray. Plus you can reuse the shells and carton, unlike using only the carton.
7. Oxidizing/tarnishing silver: hard boil an egg, place the yolk into a sealable container. Place your silver onto something that keeps it off of the yolk, but still in the container (wire rack, paper towels). Seal the container and sit outside of the fridge until desired level of oxidation has occurred. Open container in a well ventilated area, due to potential odor. This is a nice technique to help make a design stand out without paint. Buff any unwanted tarnishing off. Note: will not work on fine silver (.999), but should work on most sterling (.925 or lower)
8. Add crushed egg shells to the soil before transplanting.
Medical:
1. Makeshift band-aid: hard boil an egg, and when peeling you retain the membrane between the shell and the white. When fresh the membrane can be used as a temporary band-aid, and contains vitamins and minerals that help reduce/prevent scaring. Although to be honest, unless you’re already boiling eggs this one is a bit off task, unless you do not have any band-aids.
2. Bruise reducer: Boil an egg, and while still warm peel. Rub the still warm shell onto affected area. You can also leave the egg intact to make handling easier. Note: This should not be done until at least 24 hours after the injury, ice should be the first thing placed on this kind of injury.
3. Apply egg white to bee stings to help reduce swelling and relieve pain. The membrane between the shell and white could also be used.
4. Apply whites to burns helps reduce scaring, and cool the burn.
Some uses I did not list are pysanky eggs, or other decorative eggs, egg based paints or larger (emu/ostrich) egg shell uses. If there are other uses anyone can think of or knows of please let me know.
I did not site sources, as the few uses I did not know about can be found on multiple sites if you Google “alternate uses for eggs.”
Note: PLEASE use common sense when doing anything with raw eggs. If you are worried the egg may carry salmonella do not use it on broken skin.
A little information on our flock, we have 30+ hens/pullets and about 10 cockerels, and 13 ducks. All the chicken hens are under 6 months, but not all are laying. If I had to put a number on our currently layers I would guess 15-20 are currently laying. Our flock is fed FF in the evening only as long as there is forage available, and free range the rest of the day. I do not know how often we will be feeding FF come winter since this is our first year with chickens and ducks.
If your egg experience has been anything like ours you went from the excitement of that first egg, then multiple eggs in one day, to being overrun with eggs in a short time. As I write this I have 7 doz. eggs in the fridge and have given away 3 doz. and our first egg was just under a month ago. Well you can only give away so many eggs, and finding that first customer(s) can be a real pain. So I began searching online and in old books for ways to use these eggs up, other than the standbys of feeding them to the flock, cats and dogs or eating eggs everyday.
Here’s a list of things I knew of and some things I’ve found in my search. There are some uses of egg shells and other parts of the egg as well.
Beauty Treatments:
The first uses to come to mind were ones I’ve done myself for years, two of which I was doing as I typed this.
1. Hair and scalp treatment/conditioner (daily to monthly):
For normal hair use whole eggs, oily hair use whites only and for dry hair use yolks only. Whisk the egg, whites or yolks until frothy. Use ½ cup or more depending on length of your hair (I have long hair that goes to just below my shoulder blades and I use 1 ½ cups if whole, whites and yolks alternately). Apply to clean damp hair and leave on for 20-30 minutes. Rinse with cool water. Cool water should always be used to rinse hair (especially shoulder length or longer) as it helps seal the cuticle, this helps prevent frizziness, breakage, and improves color retention for colored hair. You do not want to add heat as it will “cook” the egg, another reason to use cool water to rinse. You can follow this with your favorite conditioner.
Variations: add olive oil (or any oil you keep in your kitchen) to create a natural mayonnaise mask, add scented oils if you don’t want your hair smelling like egg, add 2 Tsp lemon juice to help with dandruff (can also be oil and lemon only).
2. Skin pore strips:
Things you’ll need: One egg white, whisking tool (I use a fork), a bowl and toilet or facial tissue. First wash your face as you normally would. Now separate the white and yolk, whisk the white until frothy, use your fingers or a clean makeup brush to apply wash to your skin, lay pieces of tissue over wash, applying pressure until they are damp and stick to skin. Allow wash to dry for about ½ an hour, the paper will become stiff. Gently peel paper and you should see all kinds of crud on there. Rinse skin and continue with your normal routine. Avoid broken skin, and eye area. One advantage to this method is you can do this almost anywhere you have blackheads, or clogged pores, and can do a larger area than you ever could with those strips from the store. Not to mention it’s basically free since this stuff is on hand anyway.
3. Tightening/toning mask:
Things you’ll need: 1 egg white, juice from ½ lemon (strained). Whisk egg and juice together for 3 minutes. Apply to clean skin, avoiding the eye area, leave on for 30 minutes, and rinse with warm water. This will help with small wrinkles, large pores and slight droopiness.
Variations: egg white and 1 peach (peeled and stoned) blended using a blender until smooth, pat onto skin and follow remaining directions above. Above ingredients with a dab (1/2 tsp or so) of mayo, follow remaining directions above.
4. Egg white facial wash: Whisk 1 egg white with a tad of water and use for a face wash, rinse with warm water.
Variation: yolk wash, prepare and use the same as above.
Around the house and arts and crafts:
1. Shells make a great starting pot for seedlings. The calcium in the shell gives them a good head start and can be placed right into the soil for planting.
2. The water from boiled eggs is great for adult plants. Again the calcium is the key.
3. Leather cleaner: Used 2 egg whites, whisk slightly and apply to leather. Wipe off any residue.
4. Egg glue: use the white for light weight repairs of paper or cardboard.
5. Candle mold: Use a blown shell with the wick treaded through one hole. Pour melted wax into other hole, allow to cool, and peel like a hardboiled egg.
6. Paint holder: if you are doing a small paint project, or maybe painting a blown egg, the shells can make a great tray. Plus you can reuse the shells and carton, unlike using only the carton.
7. Oxidizing/tarnishing silver: hard boil an egg, place the yolk into a sealable container. Place your silver onto something that keeps it off of the yolk, but still in the container (wire rack, paper towels). Seal the container and sit outside of the fridge until desired level of oxidation has occurred. Open container in a well ventilated area, due to potential odor. This is a nice technique to help make a design stand out without paint. Buff any unwanted tarnishing off. Note: will not work on fine silver (.999), but should work on most sterling (.925 or lower)
8. Add crushed egg shells to the soil before transplanting.
Medical:
1. Makeshift band-aid: hard boil an egg, and when peeling you retain the membrane between the shell and the white. When fresh the membrane can be used as a temporary band-aid, and contains vitamins and minerals that help reduce/prevent scaring. Although to be honest, unless you’re already boiling eggs this one is a bit off task, unless you do not have any band-aids.
2. Bruise reducer: Boil an egg, and while still warm peel. Rub the still warm shell onto affected area. You can also leave the egg intact to make handling easier. Note: This should not be done until at least 24 hours after the injury, ice should be the first thing placed on this kind of injury.
3. Apply egg white to bee stings to help reduce swelling and relieve pain. The membrane between the shell and white could also be used.
4. Apply whites to burns helps reduce scaring, and cool the burn.
Some uses I did not list are pysanky eggs, or other decorative eggs, egg based paints or larger (emu/ostrich) egg shell uses. If there are other uses anyone can think of or knows of please let me know.
I did not site sources, as the few uses I did not know about can be found on multiple sites if you Google “alternate uses for eggs.”
Note: PLEASE use common sense when doing anything with raw eggs. If you are worried the egg may carry salmonella do not use it on broken skin.
A little information on our flock, we have 30+ hens/pullets and about 10 cockerels, and 13 ducks. All the chicken hens are under 6 months, but not all are laying. If I had to put a number on our currently layers I would guess 15-20 are currently laying. Our flock is fed FF in the evening only as long as there is forage available, and free range the rest of the day. I do not know how often we will be feeding FF come winter since this is our first year with chickens and ducks.
