How do I Safely and Properly clean my Eggs?

[Siler]

It's hard to tell someone's intentions and feelings in black and white. When it may sound sarcastic to one, it's real and honest to another. Most of us are noobs to chickens and many are noobs to this forum so we all have to realize that just because some know quite a bit that there are many that have no idea whatsoever what they're doing and come here in need of honest help. I myself need a lot of help in learning what is best. I just recently discovered here that I should stop scrubbing my eggs clean. I still clean them but I don't scrub them clean anymore. I now just use an old finger nail brush that is soft and I run them under cold water just enough to brush off any spots. I do this the day I bring them to be sold(once every 2 weeks). I've informed my customers of my new practice and asked them to do the same if they should feel the need to wash them yet again.

Like another poster said, the egg shells can fall into the bowl when you're cracking them open. Washing them lightly can prevent the spread of germs.

And I wipe the tops of all my canned goods. You never know if a mouse has walked across it leaving poops or whatever. If you don't wash it then you could be contaminating your food with mouse droppings. Nice thought isn't it?

 

[Becky1961]

I rinse mine in warm water just before I use them. If they have a lot of debris on them, I'll gently wipe them off (with my fingers or a hand towel) before putting them in the fridge.

This is a good site with alot of nice people and a wealth of information. Don't let one bad experience represent the entire site. Hang in there!

 

[greyhorsewoman]

While there is a gray area as to how you handle your eggs, if you wash them, always use WARM WATER !!

 

[maggiemooscluckers]

Just a quick observation in regards to washing eggs. I grew up on a poultry farm with 13,000 chickens and EVERY egg was washed in hot, soapy water then rinsed. That may explain why store bought eggs seem to be already old when you buy them compared to our own "happy chicken eggs". I've never had trouble peeling a boiled store bought egg! unlike our nice fresh homegrown eggs. I Plan on only washing upon use of my eggs and if the hens have a problem with getting them dirty I will adopt the factory idea of slanting the nest floor and letting the eggs roll out of the nest away from the hens. Being a newegg, I don't know too much about raising chickens but I have seen a LOT of eggs.

 

[patandchickens]

I just pick out the most pristine and perfect ones to give/sell, and eat the slightly schmutzed-up ones myself. The very rare "horribly scary nasty" one gets composted or sometimes gets scrambled and microwaved and fed back to the chickens.

If you are getting more than a few occasional "too nasty to want to eat the way they are" eggs, I would say it's telling you something important about your coop setup or management practices. Cuz it needn't, and shouldn't, be that way.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[chicksuk]

Oh gosh, this seems to be more tricky than I thought! I haven't even got any eggs off my hens yet and already I am not sure if we need to wash them or not. They do seem to be pooping in the nest box at the minute so need to read up a bit more on that.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Thanks for this information, we will set the roosts in our coop higher.

As for getting offended, I think it is hard to read tone from the internet. A lot of people just have a way of writing, they aren't really offensive people, they just write a certain way.

'Clean', however, is a subject people get very, very adamant about...I don't know too many people who are middle-of-the-road clean, it's either 'super clean' or 'why bother'.

My friend was freaking out at the idea of us selling our eggs. The idea horrified her. THEN someone at lunch who's from India pipes up!

I thought the poor woman would faint when she found out eggs are still not refrigerated in places in India.

The chicken lays the egg, and before she gets to poop on it or even admire it, that egg has been grabbed and the egg guy is walking around yelling, 'fresh eggs for sale!', a mom has bought them, and they are cooked. The buyer probably knows the chicken personally.

 

[booker81]

Ya do what ya gotta do.

I do have a pretty extensive background with food safety and environmental safety (chemicals, foodborne illness, yada yada.) My experience and knowledge handling heavy volumes of extremely bad chemicals and bacteria somewhat cause me to be more....lackadaisical I guess on some of the "rules" and concern with "bad" things. I do follow lab procedures for some things, when processing meat, I still keep my utensils and surfaces clean with 10% bleach solution that I can whip up in my sleep (and I know it has to be "wet" on the surface for 10 mins to be effective, as it does NOT kill on contact....I've tested that for fun in the lab.)

I don't wash my eggs, and don't intend on it. The bleach solution sounds "nice", but I can honestly and definately say it will not kill most bacteria unless you are keeping the surface wet for about 10 minutes - and by that time, you're introducing bleach into the egg...tasty.

As for pathogenic bacteria, well, lets just say for "fun" we would test local foods. Your grocery store food does carry Salmonella, E. coli, L. mono., in some pretty decent levels. Most of those won't hurt you. If you do however manage to get E. coli O157:H7, even if you boil the living daylights out of it and kill it, cook your meat to a crisp, you will still get sick from the toxins released. It's not as much the amount of bugs as the type of bug. Keep a clean coop, and healthy chickens, and you shouldn't have to worry about pathogenic bacteria in load levels that would harm you. Of course, if you are immunocompromised, take the same precautions you always would take.

As for me, I shower every other day

Have a water softener for the indoor water lines, and that stuff is hell on my skin and scalp.

 

[Iheartchicks<3:)]

Thanks for posting this! Im getting chicks and i was wondering the same thing! And as for rude people... ignore. Haters will be haters and some just have a bad day.

 

[dieselgrl48]

We used to eat ton's of egg's from our old flock's of RIR Jersey White Rock even duck.Basic washing off with warm water to clean them a little.Think problem with comercial food now too many chemical's and stuff going in and on our food.People have been eating chicken and egg's since the EGG came along first lol.I'd trust an egg I got out of one of my nest boxes if it had a piece of poo I washed off of it before I would a store bought one.I can guarantee you will consume More Bacteria germ's and stuff you don't even want to imagine everytime you buy a meat from supermkt. or rest. than you will get from a well cared for and cleaned coop flock of chicken egg.