How to properly wash eggs?

[ChickenGirl555]

I have 8 pullets and so far we think 3 are laying. The first egg was laid on February 8th,
and it was a green egg from my EE Robin. The first brown egg (we will get green/blue and brown eggs) was most likely laid by our Barred Rock, Batman. I have been simply washing them with hot water, drying them, and putting them in an egg Carton. This has worked fine since I eat them pretty quick, but now the third layer is unknown, and I’m getting one or two eggs every day.

I’ve seen the egg washing stuff at stores, but I also heard that you don’t need the fancy stuff, and you can use what you have at home. I understand the hot water won’t keep them fresh and bacteria-free forever, so what can I use that I may find in my home, or is easy to make, or cheap?

 

[PirateGirl]

If you are washing them for sale your state will have specific requirements in terms of the process and how eggs are stored.

If it's only for personal consumption, eggs don't generally need to be washed and/or refrigerated. Poopy eggs and cracked eggs being the exception, or if storing eggs for weeks before consumption.

 

[ChickenGirl555]

If you are washing them for sale your state will have specific requirements in terms of the process and how eggs are stored.

If it's only for personal consumption, eggs don't generally need to be washed and/or refrigerated. Poopy eggs and cracked eggs being the exception, or if storing eggs for weeks before consumption.

Yes, it's just for my consumption and giving to friends and family. So I'm guessing warm water is ok for washing the poop off? I wouldn't eat a cracked egg, I'd throw it away on the spot.

 

[Sublight]

Don't wash them if possible, you will remove the stuff that naturally keeps them from spoiling.

Keep them clean right out of the coop. Keep plenty of fresh straw in the nesting box, and you will rarely have poop on them. I don't know why, but it works.

We check our eggs at night when we put up the chickens. I know our straw is getting low, or dirty when the eggs start to have a little bit of poop on them. Otherwise they come out almost perfectly clean as long as I have plenty of pine straw.

Maintain the nesting box, and you probably wont have to wash them anyway.

 

[PirateGirl]

warm water is better to cold, the theory being when you wash with cold water the egg contents may shrink due to temp change and draw the bacteria in, warmer water than the egg and they may expand outward, if an egg has been washed it needs to be refrigerated, if it hasn't been washed it can sit out (provided it's not like 100 degrees and sitting in the sun)

if the egg is cracked, if you won't eat it, try feeding it back to the chickens instead of just throwing it away, it's good for them, they can even it the shell, after someone suggested it here, I will smash the cracked egg completely in a bowl and microwave it about one minute and then give it to the chickens shell and all, just be sure it doesn't look like an egg when you give it to them (don't let it be whole) you don't want to encourage the idea of egg eating from the nest

 

[ChickenGirl555]

warm water is better to cold, the theory being when you wash with cold water the egg contents may shrink due to temp change and draw the bacteria in, warmer water than the egg and they may expand outward, if an egg has been washed it needs to be refrigerated, if it hasn't been washed it can sit out (provided it's not like 100 degrees and sitting in the sun)

Yes, this is what I heard and that's why I've been using hot/warm water. How long could it sit out?

if the egg is cracked, if you won't eat it, try feeding it back to the chickens instead of just throwing it away, it's good for them, they can even it the shell, after someone suggested it here, I will smash the cracked egg completely in a bowl and microwave it about one minute and then give it to the chickens shell and all, just be sure it doesn't look like an egg when you give it to them (don't let it be whole) you don't want to encourage the idea of egg eating from the nest

I think I'll do this if I have any future cracked eggs. My first egg was cracked, so we just opened it and threw it away. We saw some...not normal things in the yolk of the cracked egg since it sat on the counter for a while, so we didn't want to chance giving it to the chickens.

 

[ChickenGirl555]

Don't wash them if possible, you will remove the stuff that naturally keeps them from spoiling.

Keep them clean right out of the coop. Keep plenty of fresh straw in the nesting box, and you will rarely have poop on them. I don't know why, but it works.

We check our eggs at night when we put up the chickens. I know our straw is getting low, or dirty when the eggs start to have a little bit of poop on them. Otherwise they come out almost perfectly clean as long as I have plenty of pine straw.

Maintain the nesting box, and you probably wont have to wash them anyway.

I'm about to start a new thread about how my chickens are not using the boxes, just laying them on the floor. (I have a portable coop with wheels, and the nesting box is sticking out.)

 

[PirateGirl]

My first egg was cracked too! I think the first time a chicken lays an egg she is freaking out and surprised and just lets it drop wherever or doesn't squat low enough and it splats a bit hard. My family eats all the eggs we get in a week within the week, so we aren't worried about them spoiling on the counter. Anything that's cracked or soiled becomes the priority to eat within 24 hours or gets fed back to the chickens.

Hopefully someone else can give you a better idea of how long eggs will safely keep if not refrigerated, and how long they can keep if refrigerated.

 

[Sublight]

I'm about to start a new thread about how my chickens are not using the boxes, just laying them on the floor. (I have a portable coop with wheels, and the nesting box is sticking out.)

Do you have ceramic eggs in the nesting box?

 

[ChickenGirl555]

Do you have ceramic eggs in the nesting box?

Two, one in each nest (there's two nests) but they always end up thrown across the coop.