How long can my eggs be left outside?

[nataliepthorne]

Hello! I sell eggs outside my house in a little shaded crate. They never stay outside for more than 3 days. I know that chickens collect their eggs for up to 2 weeks at a time before they begin sitting them until they hatch. Since they are shaded, they never receive direct sun (unless in the morning when the sun comes in the crate, 7am ish, and it's still only around 60 outside) and they are never warm when I come outside to put out another dozen. They are especially never as warm as they are after a hen sits on them for a while. Is this okay? I know that at the farmers market they stay outside almost all day, and they sell just fine. I never had a problem with this until someone brought it up to me and I had never thought about them possibly being bad. I still get people who buy my eggs and have never received a note saying there was a problem with them.

Should I put a mini fridge/cooler outside? Or is what I'm doing okay? Please let me know!

I don't know if it makes a difference but I put them in styrofoam egg cartons. Thanks!

 

[3KillerBs]

How hot are your summers?

Here in the NC Sandhills it gets to 95+ in the shade for several months during the summer -- hot enough to potentially start embryos developing. When I lived in the NC mountains it barely broke 80 on the hottest days.

 

[iwltfum]

If they are unwashed, shaded, and don't ever get above about 60 or 65 degrees then they should be fine for a number of weeks (4 or 5?). One thing that is good to consider is how long they might sit in your customers refrigerator (or on their counter). Personally, I don't sell eggs more than one week out from being laid because you have to assume your customer is going to be reckless and let them sit out on their counter for 2 or 3 weeks before finishing the dozen or two that they may have bought. If you put an expiration date on them as four weeks out from being packaged (assuming you have stored them at a good temperature for no more than a week before packaging them), then I would feel safe selling them maybe two weeks out from being laid. We use an expiration date and a safe consumption label to make sure our liability is covered. Ultimately we feel like it's our responsibility if someone does not understand how long eggs keep or how to store them safely.

 

[WallyG74]

There’s a lady near us that sells eggs. In MS it gets hot. She has around 80 layers. She has a plastic/vinyl prefab shed with a full size fridge inside. If it gives you peace of mind to insure quality product then I say go for the fridge if the $$$$ make sense.

 

[iwltfum]

I'll add that I've eaten eggs from my chickens that were older than a month and sat out on my counter that whole time and they looked perfectly fine and I had no problems with them, but selling them to someone else is a different story.