frozen eggs, but shells intact: why?

[h c hennery]

This is our first year with chickens. Our 3 hens started laying in Nov/Dec.

This past week we've collected at least half a dozen frozen eggs, but none of the shells have been cracked. (We've been putting them in the fridge and eating them first, anyway.)

Does anyone know why some shells crack from freezing, and not others? Is it just a fluke? Or do new layers have stronger shells? Or . . . ?

 

[Welshies]

Depends on the climate, I think.

 

[h c hennery]

Interesting. I think one day this past week it averaged 20F, humidity around 55%. One of the eggs would have been exposed about 8 hours.

 

[chickens really]

Depends on how frozen they get..

 

[aart]

How do you know they were frozen?

 

[h c hennery]

Good question! We assumed they were frozen because they were exposed for 8 hours to temps in the teens. But we didn't try to crack them, and they seemed normal when cooked the next day.

But I've jinxed our cracklessness -- this morning we got a cracked one. I think it's because it was laid yesterday afternoon and was outside overnight. That exposed it to 18 hours of freezing cold, including a fair bit in the single digits (our low was 1F).

I used to think something was either frozen, or not. But maybe there are degrees of frozen?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Liquid expands when frozen. A fresh egg if frozen will indeed crack the shell. No maybe it will maybe it won't. It will crack the shell. There is no place to expand but through the shell. A cold egg with shell uncracked is not frozen.

Now an old egg from your grocher with large air cell may not crack when frozen.

 

[h c hennery]

Good to know. Thank you!