Newbie Egg Questions

[FortCluck]

I pretty much collect eggs twice a day - I guess I'll check more often as the weather changes. Cold and snow is on it's way... Can't wait!

You can have all that cold snow...

When I was in high school, I had a friend who had ducks and they looked for eggs twice a day and that was when the temperatures were in the negatives. They never had frozen eggs. Their ducks laid their eggs inside the coop, it did have a heat lamp in the winter though.

 

[NHMountainMan]

You can have all that cold snow...

When I was in high school, I had a friend who had ducks and they looked for eggs twice a day and that was when the temperatures were in the negatives. They never had frozen eggs. Their ducks laid their eggs inside the coop, it did have a heat lamp in the winter though.

I went back and forth on heating the coop, and landed on trying without heat my first winter. If I have problems I'll add heat next year. I bought as heated waterer - but so far, the inside of the coop has stayed about 10 degrees higher than the ambient exterior air temp (yup... I'm monitoring both...) This is one big experiment to me - keeping my brain working in retirement.

 

[featherhead007]

Eggs? You mean to tell me they lay eggs? The pet shop told me I was buying two legged kittens.

 

[featherhead007]

I didn't have a drum for the "ba da bump"!

 

[NHMountainMan]

I didn't have a drum for the "ba da bump"!

you can always throw in a "waka waka waka" or "I gotta million of 'em"

 

[Shadrach]

I don't think I've ever washed an egg.
I keep two stocks. One for eating and another to encourage hens to use a particular nest box or to add to a clutch of a sitting hen. I do keep them in the fridge though. Now with autumn here it wouldn't be an issue but in the summer months here the heat will turn the eggs bad quite quickly.

 

[featherhead007]

I never get any respect! "Rodney Dangerfield"

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I went back and forth on heating the coop, and landed on trying without heat my first winter. If I have problems I'll add heat next year. I bought as heated waterer - but so far, the inside of the coop has stayed about 10 degrees higher than the ambient exterior air temp (yup... I'm monitoring both...) This is one big experiment to me - keeping my brain working in retirement.

Not heating the coop is the better way to go. If your flock gets accustomed to artificial heat, what happens during a power outage? I wrapped my run in heavy plastic leaving adequate ventilation and they did quite well in last year’s bitter cold winter. Your flock will be fine.

 

[Shadrach]

Agree- I started for the same reason. All my chickens are pullets. Are you saying that as they mature, the "excess" hardness will abate?

Not quite.
For the first three years ( depending on breed, provenance and doubtless nutrition) the egg shell strength should be reasonably consistent. With the hens are around five years old the shell strength decreases. My senior citizens (8 and 9 years old) lay quite fragile eggs.

 

[Shadrach]

Oh boy.... another question now popped into my thick skull....
Now that it's below freezing at night, isn't that the same as refrigeration - that the cold air will effectively shrink the interior of the egg, and draw in bloom / bacterial through the egg shell?

So -- different egg handling safety for winter climates???

Around 5 or 6 degrees centigrade is a good guideline temp for egg storage. When it gets to freezing and below, in a nest for example the egg itself may remain above freezing so where the egg is when it freezes has an impact.