Eggs what do you do if they are dirty and how dirty is acceptable? Maybe you could show me your eggs you collect?

[RubelliteRose]

In nearly 30 years with chickens I have not found that feeding their eggs back to them caused any to become egg eaters.
Broken eggs, thin shelled eggs that get a crack, shell less eggs are always consumed by my birds regardless of if they are in the nest or not.
Curiosity had me wondering so I put a fresh uncracked egg in their dish in the morning right on top of their wet mash. In the evening it was the only thing left in the dish and totally unharmed. Yes I cracked it open for them and they came running to eat the treat.

This is true for my flock too. Sometimes very poopy eggs, MUCH dirtier than the ones in the picture, are feed back to my flock if I don't feel like cleaning them that day. When I have one of these eggs, I bring it into the run and everyone gathers around. If I throw the egg to the ground and it doesn't break, all the chickens stare at the egg and then at me as if to say "why are you throwing our eggs around Mom?" If I throw the egg again and it breaks, they turn into a school of piranha, devouring the egg in seconds. Only broken eggs are consumed. Even shell less eggs are left alone if they are intact.
We refrigerate all eggs unwashed unless they are pretty dirty. If dirty, we rinse them off in water warmer than the egg before refrigerating. We do rinse eggs before using.

I wanna add gravel and all sorts of stuff mulch

We get some flooding from heavy rains and wind driven flooding. I would not recommend gravel or sand. The poop will not break down and the gravel will start to reek. We had sand in our original set up. After two years, it smelled so bad we had to remove it. We spread it out on the driveway and it continued to smell for months

 

[Snoopchick]

Interesting debate. I don't wash our eggs or refrigerate them either. Some of them do get dirty but I leave them like that on the kitchen counter until I'm ready to use them and then wash them if they are dirty. I also give the chickens back the shells.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

It's generally pretty dry here and our nest boxes are off the ground. We typically use eggs within a few days so I don't mind removing the bloom. I have a bucket I use to collect eggs. I fill it with water and just a drop of dish detergent and gently swirl it around. I remove the eggs one by one and rinse them. If they need more cleaning I use a Magic Eraser very gently (the Magic Eraser is for cleaning eggs only). Then they go in the fridge.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

For one, you could collect them every day so that they don't have as much time to get dirty. I suggest you don't throw away any eggs at all, they don't even look that dirty to me, but if you are going to throw them away, don't give them to your chickens with their shell on because they might start looking at their eggs as food and that just makes the eggs even more dirty if they have raw egg all over them.

I collect everyday, I compost them if I feel like I don't want the chickens eating them or if they been on the counter too long. Im bad at cleaning or putting them in cartons everyday and Im trying to get better at that. They won't eat them if I throw them at them and they dont breaknthey just look at me. But yeah I dont really like doing that either. I dont usually find broken eggs its only like once in a blue moon. Mostly its just dirty from their feet.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

Refrigeration slows bacterial growth as well as lengthens shelf life. Even with bloom left intact eggs at room temperature don't stay "fresh" as long as ones kept at a constant cold temperature. Since we're heading into winter I'm stockpiling eggs now for use 3, 4, 5 months from now, which is only possible with refrigeration or some other form of preservation like water glassing or freeze drying.

O okay interesting I have frozen mine in water bottles likely scrambled and ice cube containers to use for baking. I just recently saw if you freeze an egg then you can slice it and fry it up that way fornkids to eat on breakfast sandwich or something

 

[Jmcintosh23]

It's generally pretty dry here and our nest boxes are off the ground. We typically use eggs within a few days so I don't mind removing the bloom. I have a bucket I use to collect eggs. I fill it with water and just a drop of dish detergent and gently swirl it around. I remove the eggs one by one and rinse them. If they need more cleaning I use a Magic Eraser very gently (the Magic Eraser is for cleaning eggs only). Then they go in the fridge.

I'll have to try that, magic eraser. I thought we would be going through a lot but it turns out my kids are super picky eaters even when it comes to eggs. So im always trying something different.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

Refrigeration slows bacterial growth as well as lengthens shelf life. Even with bloom left intact eggs at room temperature don't stay "fresh" as long as ones kept at a constant cold temperature. Since we're heading into winter I'm stockpiling eggs now for use 3, 4, 5 months from now, which is only possible with refrigeration or some other form of preservation like water glassing or freeze drying.

I've wanted to water glassing but I usually sell most eggs so thats probably something for the future. And I dont have a freeze dryer but I have a dehydrator.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

People keep their eggs in a lot of different ways.

We put our unwashed eggs (unwashed to preserve the bloom) in a bowl and store them in the fridge. When we need more eggs for cooking, we egg wash enough for a week or so of eating and then store them in an egg carton, the signal that they’ve been washed.

We don’t (yet) have enough of a surplus to store them up for winter, though.

We dont either so my mom said she freezes her so I thought I'd do the same as well. Seems easier ill have to experiment with the refrigerating unwashed to see how they do.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

If washing eggs the water should be hot not cool. Cool water can cause bacteria to seep into the egg through the pores. Think contraction of the egg contents drawing in whatever is on the outside vs expansion with hot water preventing seeping.
Washed eggs have no bloom left so should be refrigerated.

Edited to add...

In nearly 30 years with chickens I have not found that feeding their eggs back to them caused any to become egg eaters.
Broken eggs, thin shelled eggs that get a crack, shell less eggs are always consumed by my birds regardless of if they are in the nest or not.
Curiosity had me wondering so I put a fresh uncracked egg in their dish in the morning right on top of their wet mash. In the evening it was the only thing left in the dish and totally unharmed. Yes I cracked it open for them and they came running to eat the treat.

They love it and yeah they are like i cant open that lol

 

[Jmcintosh23]

This is true for my flock too. Sometimes very poopy eggs, MUCH dirtier than the ones in the picture, are feed back to my flock if I don't feel like cleaning them that day. When I have one of these eggs, I bring it into the run and everyone gathers around. If I throw the egg to the ground and it doesn't break, all the chickens stare at the egg and then at me as if to say "why are you throwing our eggs around Mom?" If I throw the egg again and it breaks, they turn into a school of piranha, devouring the egg in seconds. Only broken eggs are consumed. Even shell less eggs are left alone if they are intact.
We refrigerate all eggs unwashed unless they are pretty dirty. If dirty, we rinse them off in water warmer than the egg before refrigerating. We do rinse eggs before using.

We get some flooding from heavy rains and wind driven flooding. I would not recommend gravel or sand. The poop will not break down and the gravel will start to reek. We had sand in our original set up. After two years, it smelled so bad we had to remove it. We spread it out on the driveway and it continued to smell for months

Yeah okay well just have to keep thinking drainage pipes then..
Sonibjidt thought if I add vinegar to the water it would help get rid of any bacteria on the shell when I cleaned them i use that then I rinse them off n set them on a towel to our dry then carton them refrigerate.. but I write the date also bc I lose track of when things are made and or opened so i have to put the dates on a lot of things.