Numbering/Dating Eggs, Bad Idea??

[maurerwerks]

Quote:
No, those are markers with indelible ink.

Do not use ink on eggs. I have always used a pencil, and it is never a problem. Way easier than hunting down a stamp to purchase IMO...and then having to change the little date every day.

Just grab a pencil and jot 1/20 (for example) on the top of each egg. The bloom protects the egg from the pencil, but wouldn't from chemically harsh ink.

Have fun!

I do the same thing - pencil. I know perhaps I don't need to, but I only have 8 girls laying right now and not necessarily every single day, so I like to keep track of each individual egg.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I just use a system for my eggs.

I put the eggs into the carton starting in the front and work towards the back. Grabbing a half filled carton is more stable in my hand, if I'm holding onto the heavy end.

I add the cartons to the bottom of the fridge building up in columns, bottom to top. This takes up the least amount of shelf space.

I work from left to right. That's the way we read, so it's easy to remember.

If I had to mark something, I'd mark the carton before I'd mark the eggs. You could write on a piece of tape, if you are reusing cartons.

 

[toto65]

What about using regular food coloring like you would use in cooking (or for coloring Easter Eggs) with a stamp? It is for food use in the first place so it should be safe for eggs too.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

I had a couple of broodies who just started laying again a couple of weeks ago, so I've been trying to keep track of the eggs -- I mark the date with pencil. If It's a non-work day and I can check for eggs more than once, I mark am or pm. Trying to figure out who's laying which ones.

 

[Judy]

I've always marked the eggs under my broodies with a Sharpie. I draw a line all the way around the egg so I can tell without moving them around which ones belong under her.

I guess it hasn't hurt them as most of them hatched.

 

[Ohhhdear]

I just use a pencil. I also weigh and label each egg with its size (L, XL, J).
USA sizes:
Large eggs; 2.0-2.29 ounces
XtraLarge: 2.3-2.49 ounces
Jumbo: 2.5+ ounces
Other countries give different designations or values for the size categories. I got my information from Wikipedia.

Customers really like knowing what size eggs they're buying, especially if you're reusing cartons, or the eggs aren't all the same weight in that carton. For some things it doesn't matter what size egg you use, but for lots of recipes it does matter if you substitute a Jumbo sized egg when the recipe was created for Large.

I use an old postal scale with a small dish on top to hold the egg, and zero out the weight of the dish.

I suppose if you had a really large flock of chickens dating and weighing each egg would get pretty old after a while. But I only have a dozen girls who give me 10-12 eggs every day and it takes only a few minutes each day to process them.

 

[alicefelldown]

We use a wax pencil. Works fine for us and our customers. We used to go by the 'sell oldest eggs, keep fresh ones' but have since changed to only selling eggs that are less than 3 days old and keeping the rest for ourselves.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
This is basically the system I use as well. I fill the cartons in the same order each time, and stack them in the fridge in such a way that the oldest eggs are on the bottom. This way I always know which are the oldest and which are the freshest eggs. I use the older eggs when hard boiling, and use the freshest for baking or eating. When a customer calls wanting eggs, they get the oldest full dozen (i.e., if I've used some from the bottom carton for hard boiling, they get the full dozen above that).

 

[PepsNick]

With my current small flock, my customers enjoy the chicken's name on the egg in pencil.

 

[AlabamaChickenLady]

Wow!! So many great ideas..... thank you everyone!!

I think the sharpie and ink will be out of the question all together. Don't want to take a chance of it bleeding thru to the egg.

However, I do like the idea of the food-safe stamper, the mashed up beets, food coloring, and even just a pencil. I have an unused date stamper that I could use with some of these food-safe ideas. I guess it will be a trial and error process. I do have a little time until spring to get it all together.

I could/would use some sort of a carton method and I will keep that idea for the future when I have more eggs to deal with. But for now I'd like to try some sort of dating system. The problem I'm seeing now is that my 3 teenagers are cooking the eggs in NO order at all. They come home from school and make scrambled eggs, or an egg sandwich, or make brownies, etc. with no regard to which eggs were laid first/last. They are just grabbing eggs all willy nilly, like the eating machines they are..... TEENAGERS!! And my DH is no better, because when he collects eggs, he just plops them into any unused space in the egg cartons.

Hence the need for some sort of dating system and order to the madness. When I settle on something, I will have to teach everyone the system. I can see their eyes rolling now.

Thank you all for your suggestions and ideas!!