A couple of weeks ago DH went to sell some eggs to a neighbor, and when he opened the carton two of the eggs had MOLD growing on them! He switched the carton for a non-moldy one, and when I got home from work, we went thru the whole stash to check everything. We found several eggs with mold in several different cartons. The strangest thing was that the eggs all came from the same chicken! Isabel has always laid Jumbo, thin shelled eggs, and she's had problems with the shells being so thin that they break easily. I cracked the moldiest egg open, and the yolk was stuck to the moldy part of the shell. It grossed me out so badly that I dug a hole and buried the eggs to keep the animals from eating them out of the compost pile.
This morning I found a couple more 'starting to mold' eggs, so I decided to remove all of Isabel's eggs from our 'for sale' cartons and scramble them up for the animals. When I broke the first one open, part of the white was really watery. Same story with all of her others - including the one she laid yesterday. I let the 'water' run out in to a glass, then put the yolks and whites into a separate bowl. I scrambled & cooked them. They look and smell normal now.
I assume that the mold is caused by the excess water in the eggs, but what could be causing that? All of our girls free range and have access to layer feed, water & oyster shell at all times. Isabel is our oldest chicken (although we don't know how old, since we got her after she was grown), so I wonder if her age could have something to do with it. Is it safe to feed these eggs back to the animals if they've been cooked? I have never heard of this, so I'm hoping that somebody will have some ideas.
This morning I found a couple more 'starting to mold' eggs, so I decided to remove all of Isabel's eggs from our 'for sale' cartons and scramble them up for the animals. When I broke the first one open, part of the white was really watery. Same story with all of her others - including the one she laid yesterday. I let the 'water' run out in to a glass, then put the yolks and whites into a separate bowl. I scrambled & cooked them. They look and smell normal now.
I assume that the mold is caused by the excess water in the eggs, but what could be causing that? All of our girls free range and have access to layer feed, water & oyster shell at all times. Isabel is our oldest chicken (although we don't know how old, since we got her after she was grown), so I wonder if her age could have something to do with it. Is it safe to feed these eggs back to the animals if they've been cooked? I have never heard of this, so I'm hoping that somebody will have some ideas.