Freezing Eggs

[AinaWGSD]

How long does it take for an egg to freeze when the surrounding air temperature is freezing? And is there any way to tell if an egg has frozen if the shell hasn't cracked yet?

My coop is not insulated, and although we check for eggs 3-4 times a day (most days, some days work prevents us from checking more than twice) there have been a few eggs that have been very cold when I've picked them up. The egg I collected tonight at 6:20 had probably been there since 1:30-2:30 this afternoon, and our temperature never got above freezing for the high outside the coop.

 

[patman75]

Depends on how many laying hens you have and how many nest boxes. I have 3 nest boxes for 10 -12 laying hens so when on is done laying another hen uses the nest to keep the eggs warm while she is laying. I only have a problem when temps stay around 5-10 degrees.

 

[the_great_snag]

Can you still eat eggs when they have frozen?

 

[AinaWGSD]

Quote:
From my understanding, yes you can as long as the shell hasn't cracked. There are a lot of people who freeze the extras when they have more eggs than they can eat or so that they can stock pile eggs for use during the winter when their hens aren't laying as well. But I have also read that freezing can affect the texture, in particular the texture of the yolk (I have read that you can get around this issue by separating the white and yolk before freezing and scrambling the yolk or by scrambling the whole egg before freezing). But if the shell has cracked, then you will have introduced bacteria to the egg and it won't be "safe" for humans to eat. The one I had that froze solid and cracked we scrambled up and fed back to the chickens.

 

[Mak]

When mine freeze, if the crack has not ruptured the inner membrane, I just cook it thru and eat it. Or use it for baking. Hasn't hurt me yet. If the inner membrane has ruptured, then I cook 'em up, shell and all, and either feed them to the chickens or the dog.

And I've found the texture of the white to be more affected than the yolk. If you let it thaw, the yolk seems fine, but the white is more watery and cloudy looking. No difference that I can detect in taste.