Collecting your eggs

[whitehart]

How often do you collect your eggs? I am at the coop around 7:30 am. to do chores change water etc. I often see one egg from my 6 PR's. Then about 10:30 I'm there just to check say hi and again around 1:00 in afternoon generally does it for laying although occasionally we will find a straggler before they turn in for the night. I collect each time and refrigerate . After reading a food safety website that says eggs should never be left out , maintained at 40 degrees after an hour or they should be discarded . I'm thinking when my dog sitter comes when we are away surely I can instruct her to collect just once per day instead of having her running up there 24/7 !

 

[Imp]

Yes, once a day is more than often enough. Some people do less.

Imp

 

[OneTenthAcreAndAChicken]

I'll be interested to hear what others have to say about this, but I'd have to believe that 'food safety' admonition must be for who-knows-how-old-they-are-already store-bought eggs.

There's an old but interesting report on long term egg storage based on some research done by the folks at Mother Earth News - you can find it here.

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

Imp x2.

In some sort on non-existent, ideal, world (that lives only in the imaginations of bureaucrats and trial lawyers) chickens would get up off their new-laid eggs to have them delivered by gravity to a 40-degree environment. I don't know that any such system ever existed. Chickens were domesticated for their eggs and thier meat long before refrigeration was a possibility.

Once a day from a chicken sitter will be fine.

 

[HEChicken]

Sometimes I collect them every time I'm outside, but other days, my hands are full when I'm headed indoors so I leave it til later in the day and wind up only collecting once that day. Many people don't refrigerate their eggs so I see nothing wrong with leaving them at "room temperature" for a few hours until I'm ready to bring them.

 

[bairo]

We collect twice a day at 8am and about 4pm. But we only do this because we are out there anyway doing something to the yard, dogs, chicken coop, etc.

// I would easily feel comfortable just collecting once in the early evening after everyone has laid ( we have 2 that lay around 3pm ) //

What was stated about food safety is just one more reason we DO NOT wash our eggs. Eggs are laid with a "sealing" type substance on them that is easily washed off under water. Eggs then of course are porous without this substance and subject to microbial infection. (Our Opinion)

 

[Yonaton]

I collect once, maybe twice a day, depending on if I feel like it. I also do *NOT* ever wash or refridgerate them. They all go into a big bowl we have sitting on the counter. When it gets full, we get another bowl out and 'rotate' the eggs so the newest are on the bottom of the new bowl, etc. I've kept eggs 2 weeks like that and they were still good (I probably wouldn't go much longer, but I'm going to try an experiment and see as soon as this new flock starts laying and if I can remember to do it and not eat them, lol).

 

[LiLRedCV]

We collect twice a day (no real set time, it varies depending on what's going on - at least once in the morning and once in the evening tho'). I don't always refrigerate them right away - sometime's they'll set out for a few days in a bowl on the counter. Only time I may wash them is when one's been broken all over the other's. We've never had a problem with this method.

If you don't have a rooster to fertilize the eggs, they should be good for several days out in the nests! Of course, if they get too many eggs in their nests or there's not enough bedding for cushion, they can get crack and even possibly make a mess on the other eggs. I, personally, wouldn't eat it and toss it to my dog... but my hubby's aunt said that they used to go to a local person for eggs and buy up the cracked ones to eat (cooking them right as soon as they got home) since they were cheaper!

Just an FYI - most Europeans don't refrigerate their eggs as they have teeny tiny kitchens with teeny tiny dorm-like 'fridges and no room to spare insdie. They'll have them set out on the counter top in a bowl or egg carton.

 

[gale65]

When I had chickens before (our pullets now aren't laying yet) I worked a full time job and a part time job. I would usually collect at noon if I came home at lunch (rare) and then 5 but if I was working my 2nd job, I couldn't collect eggs until 9 or 10 at night. Some people here don't refrigerate their fresh eggs at all. Not sure if I will or not when we start getting eggs.

 

[whitehart]

Quote:
Oh you are so correct! Best not repeat least we give those bureaucrats and trial lawyers any ideas! I'm hearing there is a move to make illegal the selling
any food items at farmers markets without an FDA inspection. I think we'll be good going with an afternoon collection for our pet sitter . Between 5 and 7:00 should work.