Do you wash fresh eggs? Refrigerate or no?

[MarcieDM]

Thanks y'all! I will boil it and feed it to the girls!!

 

[chynasparks]

Thanks y'all! I will boil it and feed it to the girls!!

I just mash them up she'll and all. I don't give them too much at a time and not every day. Since my girls can't free range I try to mix up the treats. Since the first eggs I've gotten are small I will feed them to them. But right now they're getting cold watermelon. We're having a heat wave here in the Houston area so they are really liking to cold watermelon

 

[MarcieDM]

Yes.....it's hot here in South Louisiana too! My girls love watermelon and grapes! I try to offer them different snacks but it seems those are their favorites.

 

[Sherry Abbot]

for the past 5 years Ive never refrigerated our chickens eggs.  Our eggs are usually a mess from one of the chickens breaking it or eating it.  We just put the dirty egg in a container on the kitchen window ledge and use them when we need to.  for awhile I was getting so many eggs that they would go weeks before eating and we never had any issues.  Also we have no air conditioning in our house and it stays in the 80s all summer long.  If I do wash an egg for some reason then I will refrigerate it.

 

[Sherry Abbot]

I am a newbie so take what I say with a grain of salt, we don't wash our eggs and do not refrigerate them. We do not have air conditioning in our home either. That being said, I haven't had a dirty egg yet but when I get one I will wash it.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

This is what I've been doing...clean eggs are dated and put on the egg skelter on the counter and washed before they're used. Dirty eggs, we've only had a few, are washed, dated and put in the fridge. Any cracked eggs are thrown away.

 

[Glock a Doo]

I am doing a victory dance, because we found two little eggs in our hen house tonight.  I wasn't expecting eggs yet, as our chicks are only 15 weeks old, and I expected a longer wait.  Anyway, now what?  Do I wash them before refrigerating?  Leave them on the counter?  I'm a novice and not sure what is best.  We do have a rooster, so if they are fertilized, should I do something different?  Also, the hens layed the eggs on the floor of the coop under the perches instead of in the nesting box.  How do I train them to lay in the nesting box or does it really matter?  Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Glock a Doo]

I wash my fresh eggs with warm water and dry them before I put them into my fridge to be eaten. It will also help of you put some hay in their nesting boxes of you have any. It will also not hurt you to eat ferilized eggs as long as they aren't too old.

 

[PatiHF]

My 3 young hens started laying one egg a day, but now, within just a week, I get one or 2 eggs a day. Is that normal? There isn't anywhere else they could hide them....

 

[GC-Raptor]

My 3 young hens started laying one egg a day, but now, within just a week, I get one or 2 eggs a day. Is that normal? There isn't anywhere else they could hide them....

Yes 2 eggs from 3 pullets a day for an average breed is normal. If you have white leghorns, sex-links or production reds, you could get 6 a week on average per pullet, before the first molt. I have golden comets, a sex-links type of chicken. They are 23 weeks and they had a stretch of 10 days when they laid 50 eggs from 5 pullets/hens. But I get 4 or 5 a day, mostly 5. Yeah I do feel short changed when they only give me 4. Sometimes a pullet will lay an egg while roosting, so check under the roost. I have about 4 inches of straw to cushion the fall. Feed them a fresh good quality feed, 90% of their diet, clean water, crushed oyster shell in a separate container and granite grit in a separate container. No more than 10% treats. I give my girls scratch grains scattered on the ground twice a day, what they can consume in 10/15 minutes each time. I cut some grass with a manual hedge trimmer close to ground level and lay it out and cut into 1 inch lengths and feed once a day. Of course if you free range, you can skip that step. I use no pesticides or weed killers on my lawn. If I did I would feed some other greens.
Keep the coop and nest boxes clean and put some golf balls or ceramic eggs in the nest boxes. I have 2 nest boxes for 5 pullets and sometimes a pullet is waiting for a nest to lay, so she may lay on the floor. GC