Eggs--Happy dance!!

[Eluria]

I haven't posted in a while--these are our four girls, all grown up (hatch date was August 25). Two Welshies (Ivy and Harley), a Cayuga (Luna), and a Blue Swedish (Erin).




A few weeks ago, I was thinking that they were 5 months old, but wasn't holding out hope for eggs till the days got longer. Lo and behold, the very next day:



Better yet, we continued to get an egg every day! By Sunday we had seven eggs, which was enough for a nice family breakfast:


A few days ago, we started getting two eggs per day, and today we were up to three I suspect the Cayuga is the holdout, because all the eggs are white so far and from what I understand, Cayuga eggs are darker (but someone correct me please if that is not the case).

Anyone have tips for washing and storing the eggs? So far I have left them on the counter unwashed, but at some point I know I will need to wash and refrigerate them once they are laying more per week than we can eat.


(Oh, and they "knock" on the sliding door too lol...)

 

[Amiga]

The ag expert in our state told me don't wash duck eggs. Wipe them off with a dry cloth, but don't wash them until immediately before using them. He said that the water can carry bacteria through the shell.

I don't want mine, and I store them in a cool place but not refrigerated, if I have more than a dozen. I do keep a dozen in the frij just to be handy. Once they are refrigerated, I keep them that way. The logic is that if I set cooled eggs out, they will get moist and that goes back to what I was told about moisture speeding up the movement of bacteria through the shell.

I know there are different ways people handle eggs, but this has worked well for us for five years.