How should dirty eggs be processed?

[Ponte]

Went to collect eggs this morning and found one with feces all over it.
Should I just rinse them with water and placed it in the fridge or do I need a more extensive cleaning ?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Wash it in water about 20F warmer than the egg itself. Use some sort of detergent and a scotch brite scouring pad or something similar.

 

[woodmort]

I keep a small vegetable brush on the edge of the sink that I use to clean dirty eggs with warm water, rinse thoroughly, dry and refrigerate for immediate use.

 

[aart]

Went to collect eggs this morning and found one with feces all over it.

Cleaning has been covered well.
Now onto why it was covered with feces.
Are your birds sleeping in the nests and soiling them overnight?

 

[Ponte]

Cleaning has been covered well.
Now onto why it was covered with feces.
Are your birds sleeping in the nests and soiling them overnight?

no they all go up to the roosting bar.
The day before for the first time since she began laying I changed the bedding material. The next morning I found that the bedding in both nesting boxes had been re-arranged into nest and the faked eggs pushed out.
All previous eggs had been perfectly clean, this one was completely covered with feces. Is their any correlation between cleaning the nesting boxes and them soiling the egg ?

 

[aart]

Usually soiled eggs are from birds sleeping in nests.
Occasionally a bird will have a 'faulty' vent that doesn't close off the intestine when the egg moves thru the vagina. I have had a couple of that always poop on the egg and a few that do it infrequently. I suppose some pullets may have an issue upon start up...and they love to really mess up the nests as they get started laying.

 

[Ponte]

aart

we had two days of almost constant heavy rains when the egg was soiled so maybe she did lay on her egg to stay out of the rain.

 

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

I just wash them with warm (or cold) water using a scrubby-side of a sponge. I sometimes use soap, too.

 

[kerbotx]

Like others have said, wash in warm water & refrigerate, or use immediately. Sometimes dirty eggs can be the result of a dirty floor - hens step in poop on their way to the nest, and the poop travels with them. Once in the nest, the poop gets transferred from their feet to the eggs. Having lots of bedding down along the path to the nest boxes can help. I get plenty of eggs, so if I come across one that's really dirty, I just feed it back to the girls.

 

[aart]

aart
we had two days of almost constant heavy rains when the egg was soiled so maybe she did lay on her egg to stay out of the rain.

Someone may have been sheltering in the nests during the rain. Always good to have other roosts and places to 'be' during inclement weather...that is why we stress larger coops. Rainy days here almost always make for dirtier eggs due to muddyish feet.

I just wash them with warm (or cold) water using a scrubby-side of a sponge. I sometimes use soap, too.

Do not use cold water...
...see the posts above about water temp, and here's more:
Eggs should be washed in 'water warmer than the egg'.
Simple physics, using colder water will cause the egg contents to contract, causing any 'germs' on exterior surface of egg shell to be pulled into the interior of egg thru the shell pores. Using warmer water will do the opposite.


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