Can "Poopy" eggs be saved?

[Beekissed]

Mine freerange, so I don't deal with mud issues like most but it does happen. I notice more poop smears when I switch feed sources or types of grains, as the chickens seem to need a time to readjust.

I rake all feces out each day, or every other day, and my next boxes are opposite of the roosts in my coops. I also like to put down some fresh hay in front of the nests on rainy days, just like having a door mat for muddy feet. I change out my nesting material as needed to keep nests clean and dry.

 

[newchickmom]

I wash them and make sure I put them in the fridge right away. If I find cracked ones, I save in the fridge, till I have a few, then cook them up for the chickens.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
would you please put this in bold highlighted type or maybe post it in some way that my DH will understand lol this trives me crazy! he cracks them on the edge of the frying pan

eta:
I wash my poopy eggs off right away, for some reason my gilrs will stand right on the edge of the nest and poop in it like it is going to stop someone else from using that nest i just wash them off with warmish water right away, and put them in the fridge. my eggs never last long enough to worry about how "fresh" they are sometimes I am back ordered.

 

[Opa]

Washing eggs does not present any problem. All eggs that are sold commercially are washed. Here is some information I found that you may find helpful.

Dry Cleaning. Washing eggs in water is a lot more complicated than dry cleaning with abrasives, so we'll talk about abrasives first. You can clean up lightly soiled eggs with various abrasives. Sanding sponges from 3M and others are good, and can be found in any hardware store. Loofas are also good. Some people use sandpaper or steel wool, but these aren't as good as the first two.

Basically, you rub the egg until it's clean, or you give up, or it breaks in your hand. This happens more often than you'd think, because dirty eggs are often cracked as well.

Dry cleaning doesn't work very well to clean up eggs that have been smeared with the white or yolk of broken eggs in the nest.

Whatever you use to clean the eggs, it's best to wash and sanitize it from time to time. Clean loofas or sanding sponges in soap and water, sanitize them in water with a little bit of bleach, then allow to dry.

These methods of cleaning are very slow and tedious. They are suitable for small flocks, but when you have significant numbers of eggs to sell, the labor involved in cleaning the dirty ones can become a big barrier to success and satisfaction. If you want to have a small commercial flock on your farm, you will almost certainly want to look into wet cleaning.

Wet cleaning is more complicated. The basic issue is that dirty eggs are covered with bacteria, which have trouble getting through the shell so long as it's dry. As soon as the shell is wet, they pass through the shell more easily. Also, if you cool the egg, the contents shrink a little, causing a partial vacuum inside that tends to suck foreign matter into the egg.

The upshot is that you should always wash eggs in water that's warmer than the egg is, and you should sanitize the eggshells to kill any bacteria on the shell.

,Clean your work area before starting, and have a trash container for paper towels and broken eggs, and make sure you have a sink nearby that's not full of eggs, so you can wash your hands when they get dirty, which they will.
Get one or more large plastic watering cans.
Fill a watering can with water at about 100 F (35 C), a little unscented commercial dishwasher detergent, and enough bleach to bring the free chlorine to 100-200 ppm. Chlorine test strips are used by every restaurant and commercial kitchen and can be bought at any wholesale grocery or restaurant supply store.
With your dirty eggs in wire baskets or plastic washer flats, water them generously with the watering can. Allow the water to go down the drain. Letting the eggs stand in water violates USDA rules (though this may not apply to you), and tends to give rise to the same problems seen in immersion washers.
Let them sit for a couple of minutes. If the eggs are particularly disgusting, you might want to wet them again after a couple of minutes.
Take the eggs one at a time and wipe them with a paper towel. If the eggs are too dry to wipe clean, pour some of your unused wash water onto a clean paper towel. You can dip a brand-new towl in the water, but once the towel has touched and egg, don't dip it again; we want to keep the water clean. Discard the towels as they become dirty. Cloth towels are against everyone's rules because people keep using them after they're dirty. Put the cleaned eggs into another wire basket or washer flat. You may want to have a separate area for stubborn eggs that need to be sprayed and rubbed again.
Next comes a sanitizing spray. A watering can with 100F water and bleach at 100-200 ppm is good. Don't stint; use plenty of water. This gets them cleaner, and the bleach helps make the stains go away.
Dry the eggs in some responsible manner. They'll stick to the cartons if you box them while wet. Some people dry them on racks, using 1/2 in. hardware cloth on a wooden frame. Putting the eggs directly in the refrigerator, still in their baskets or washer flats, is the simplest method. The refrigerator will cool and dry them at the same time. Don't be alarmed if some parts of the egg seem darker than others; the parts of the egg that are in contact with a flat or another egg will dry more slowly than the the exposed portions, and will look darker. This will vanish when the egg is completely dry.
An even simpler method of egg washing is as follows: Fill a metal bucket with 160F (70 C) water and a little unscented dishwasher detergent. This water is hot enough to scald you, so be careful. Slowly pour the water over a basket full of eggs, allowing the water to go down the drain. Don't let the eggs stand in the water or they'll cook (not to mention that allowing eggs to stand in water violates the rules of the USDA and many states). That's it. The water is hot enough to sanitize the eggshells without added chemicals. This method doesn't work as well as one where the eggs are wiped, such as in the Aquamagic (using rotating brushes) or the watering-can technique (wiping by hand with paper towels), but it ought to be okay on eggs that are only lightly soiled. It's certainly simple, provided you have an adequate supply of very hot water. CAUTION: 160F water is hot enough to scald you, and pouring a bucketful over yourself is not an experience you'll forget in a hurry.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like the information here, you'll love my newsletter. Sign up below!
And use the "Share This" button to share this page with your friends.

ShareThis Sign Up for