Is It Ok to Rinse A Poopie Egg?

[gritsar]

When you wash your face in cold water you cause the pores of your skin to open. Washing eggs in cold water is like that. Cold water causes the pores in the shell to open and any bacteria on the outside of the egg is drawn down into the inside. That's the reason for using warm water.
You shouldn't let the eggs sit in water and soap shouldn't be neceassary. If I get an egg so dirty that a little rinse under warm water won't clean it, I don't eat it the dog does.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
You're right about it being bad to put eggs in cold water, but mistaken about the reason. When an egg gets colder, the contents shrink, which creates a vacuum that can draw bacteria into the shell. As an egg gets warmer, it expands, so any pushing will be out. For example, sometimes when an egg is placed in warm water, you'll see tiny bubbles coming out through a pore in the shell. It's expanding, pushing air out. After the egg is washed, rinse in water slightly warmer than the wash water, to avoid cooling the egg while wet. I rinse twice, because we have really hard water, soap doesn't always come off easily. You can dry them with a clean towel or paper towels, or place on a rack, in a single layer so they dry quickly. As the eggs cool from washing they'll contract inside the shells again, but by then they should be dry.

Pores in your skin contract with cold water. You scrub with warm water, to open them up and get them clean, and rinse with cold, to close them back up. But with eggs, you want to avoid the egg contracting from the cold, and pulling contaminants into the shell.

I wouldn't use sandpaper. You'd remove part of the shell along with the dirt, much worse than washing off just the "bloom".

Washing eggs is fine. I've washed all my eggs for years. I wouldn't dream of selling an egg to a customer without washing it first, anymore than I'd shake hands with chicken poop on my hands.

If you're worried about losing the bloom, you can rub a very thin coating of vegetable oil over the eggs, and wipe off with a paper towel, so they aren't slippery.

I agree, don't let them sit in water. I do use soap on mine, though. They get clean easier.

 

[skeeter]

I prefer NOT to put chicken poo into my fridge so I wash them with HOT water and have been eating washed eggs for over 40 years

 

[pattycake]

I wash the the really disgusting ones with warm water, and just spot-wipe the less dirty ones. I keep the ones I washed for my own family, knowing we'll eat them soon or feed them back to the hens. I only sell the naturally clean ones or the ones I wiped, and tell my customers to wash right before using.

I'm a little paranoid about bacteria, too, but so far, knock on wood, my family has been sick much less since we got chickens than before.

I also think that feeding the hens yogurt keeps the bad bacteria load down.

 

[LeeLeesFarm]

Quote:
.

I had an auntie in Winnipeg, Canada whom I would visit every year as I was growing up. On her farm, they always left the fresh eggs in a large egg basket, on the sink counter. Her eggs never went into the fridge. And their egg basket was always full, about three or four egg levels deep. They were not getting eaten immediately.

We were never sick from eating her unrefrigerated eggs......
btw....my uncle had a four egg or so, breakfast every morning, before going out to work the fields !!!! Now that's a breakfast most city folk wouldn't want to be consistently eating!

Lee

___________

 

[phoenix rooster]

here is an informative link on washing. after rinsing the eggs in warm water i dip my eggs in hot water that has a tablespoon of bleach to gallon of water, remove egg and let it sit on towel for 30 secs to let the bleach do its magic and dry off. works well for me.

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=798

 

[Sissy]

Never used soap or bleach ,just wet warm paper towels.. and ACV is safer then bleach.

 

[Chicken Lil]

I guess I don't really do more than wipe of what little dirt that may be on the egg with a damp rag. I clean my nesting boxes twice a week, so I almost never have a dirty egg.
Prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[needmorechickens!]

One of my roosters and one of my ee's has recently taken a liking to my nest boxes so they just recently started getting dirty. I don't like it and I have to get them to stop!

But anyway, when I do get a dirty egg, I wipe them with a barely damp paper towel.
~Rebecca

 

[FluffyFarm]

I have someone how sleeps in one of the nest boxes and it drives me mad! Also muddy feet get my eggs dirty. Because although I have 12 nest boxes and 15 hens, they will only lay in two, sometimes a third nest box or the occasional egg under the perches. Same sized boxes, against the same wall, facing a wall, going back into the outside ( if you know what I mean) so dark, same amount of hay.... just has to be the same boxes so they tread on each other's eggs.