Are these eggs safe to eat?

[Vian]

I wasn't sure what forum to post this in. I hate to admit, but I haven't gathered eggs from my hens all week. It's been getting pretty cold here and staying below freezing even during the day. The coop is in the shade, so it's still pretty cold. My hens don't lay their eggs until the middle of the day when I'm usually at work anyway, so I end up gathering them the next morning, or like this week, not until the weekend. Well, all the eggs in there were frozen and had cracked open. They were still completely frozen solid. I brought them in, peeled the shells off, and rinsed them quickly under hot water because the eggs had some poop smeared on the shells.

So are they safe to eat? Would you eat them? Could I just keep them frozen and use them for scrambled eggs where they will be thoroughly cooked and texture is less of an issue? I hate to waste them

Also, I added a heating pad to the coop to prevent this problem in the future.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would feed them back to the chickens, once they are cracked they are unsafe. Beware of a heating pad, that could make your eggs unsafe as well.

 

[aart]

Agrees, scramble them up and feed them back to the birds.
And make time in your schedule to gather eggs when you get home form work everyday.
How do you keep your waterer thawed out?

Also would be leery of a heating pad in the nest,
could be too warm and 'cook'/incubate them,
might work but would take some careful testing.

One guy heated his nests with a seedling mat.

 

[enola]

Roll away nests with a seedling mat will keep eggs from freezing.

 

[Carson213]

I have back roll outs and read about the seedling mats on another thread. I bought a Thermocube on amazon and four seedling mats that are about 3x20” each. I zip tied them under the roll out part of nesting boxes and then plugged them into a power strip and plugged the power strip into the Thermocube. The Thermocube has two outlets, so I plugged a night light into it as well to see when the mats were on. The temperature where I live has varied over the past week from below freezing to almost 50° during the day. However, the Thermocube seems to always be “on.” I thought it was supposed to turn off around 45°. Has anyone had a defective Thermocube? The seedling mats I bought are low intensity...they just get hot enough to be about 10-20° warmer than the ambient temperature so it hasn’t been a problem but I would rather know that this system is actually functioning correctly. One thought was to bring the Thermocube in the house to warm up and see if it turns off in warm environment. Can anyone recommend another product that is better than the $10 Thermocube from Amazon?

I also have one in the coop with submersible water heaters plugged into it...so I am more concerned about keeping the waterer from freezing than having eggs freeze...

 

[aart]

The temperature where I live has varied over the past week from below freezing to almost 50° during the day. However, the Thermocube seems to always be “on.” I thought it was supposed to turn off around 45°. Has anyone had a defective Thermocube?

Is it 50° where the thermocube is?
Double check the range of your thermocube, I had to do this the other day.

 

[Carson213]

I have an outdoor thermometer in the storage area of my chicken house. The storage room is roughly 12x12’, not insulated...just framing, plywood and siding with closed windows. The thermometer in there read approximately 50° yesterday during the afternoon and the nightlight was on. I just read the description on the Thermocube and it says that it turns on when temps drop “approximately” below 35° and off above 45°...so, I am assuming the turn off must be “approximately” as well...but I’ll test it.

 

[aart]

I have an outdoor thermometer in the storage area of my chicken house. The storage room is roughly 12x12’, not insulated...just framing, plywood and siding with closed windows. The thermometer in there read approximately 50° yesterday during the afternoon and the nightlight was on. I just read the description on the Thermocube and it says that it turns on when temps drop “approximately” below 35° and off above 45°...so, I am assuming the turn off must be “approximately” as well...but I’ll test it.

Is this new unit that you'd not used before?
Might bring it inside, where I assume it's warmer than 50°, and if it's still on take it back for another.

 

[Carson213]

Is this new unit that you'd not used before?
Might bring it inside, where I assume it's warmer than 50°, and if it's still on take it back for another.

it’s new...i just got it when i bought the seedling mats