Keeping track of fresh eggs

[HEChicken]

How do you keep track of which of your collected eggs is the freshest? I've only had a few so far, so I've put them in an egg carton and its easy to tell the freshest eggs based on their position in the carton. But as I only have one laying hen so far, with five more to start in the next couple of months, I can picture a time where keeping track of the freshest eggs will be more difficult. In terms of wanting to use the oldest eggs first, or sell the freshest eggs if I ever get that many, I'm thinking a way to mark the eggs to keep track would be a good way to go. I thought about writing the date collected in pencil on the shell - does anyone do this? Or what other method do you use to keep track?

 

[weirdmuse]

I put a small date on the end in pencil.

 

[bubblebean11]

ditto on writing the date!! works like a charm

 

[txchickie]

Write the date on the end of the egg

 

[Joyryder]

I always seem to have 6 to 10 cartons of eggs. Whenever I put in a new carton it goes on the bottom. First in, first out - nothing gets to old.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Personally, I wouldn't mark individual shells. However, what I am doing is putting a sticky, with the date of the first egg, on the egg carton and filling it up, left to right, with eggs collected thereafter. I know their speed of laying, so I can guess the date of the last egg. And the sticky tells the date of the oldest egg in the carton.

 

[ranchhand]

I pencil the date on a sticker on the carton, that way I can reuse the cartons and the eggs are mark-free. I put them in the cartons a certain way, too. Oldest eggs always in the front if the lid is opening to the left.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
GMTA,

We posted at the same time.

 

[OutInTheStiks]

I use a sharpie to write the date on each egg. We currently only getting 4-6 eggs a day. We SHOULD be getting 15-20 eggs a day this spring and will likely be using a different scheme then.

 

[Andi]

I'm too lazy to write dates on all of mine.

I've got just 4 girls. I keep 2 cartons in the frig. The ones that are soiled go in one and are for our use. I rotate them clockwise. The unsoiled eggs go into another carton that I have for giving (or maybe selling some day). As soon as the unsoiled carton is full it gets presented to whoever is on the list next. I put the unsoiled eggs in the carton in the same way I do the soiled ones so if I need to dip into the unsoiled eggs that I'll be taking the oldest. The first egg to go in is in the back left corner.

Pretty soon here I'll need to start stocking up to get through the molting season. At that point I'll fill cartons in the same way and just mark the cartons.

With six girls I really don't think it will get too out of hand. Just figure out a system of organizing and stick with it. Enjoy!