Rinsing vs Washing

[Happy Chick Home]

Hi again folks. I love having my chickens and love ve that you are all here helping me. Now I hope to sell eggs and am working hard to get it right. I've learned that in my area eggs from small backyard flocks sold to friends / neighbors do not need to follow the same procedures as large volume sellers (ie, grocery stores.)
I notice that urine sitting on the shell will eat away some of the bloom. (My actual observation is that under the urine the bloom is lighter in color.) I hope to sell fresh, unwashed eggs, bloom intact, from very well fed hens.
I read that the major debris should be removed before selling eggs and I don't like giving poopy eggs to people anyway.
Question is what constitutes washing? Can I soak off dried poop in cool water? The color remains uniform on the shell when I do this.
If that is not washing what is washing?

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hi again folks. I love having my chickens and love ve that you are all here helping me. Now I hope to sell eggs and am working hard to get it right. I've learned that in my area eggs from small backyard flocks sold to friends / neighbors do not need to follow the same procedures as large volume sellers (ie, grocery stores.)
I notice that urine sitting on the shell will eat away some of the bloom. (My actual observation is that under the urine the bloom is lighter in color.) I hope to sell fresh, unwashed eggs, bloom intact, from very well fed hens.
I read that the major debris should be removed before selling eggs and I don't like giving poopy eggs to people anyway.
Question is what constitutes washing? Can I soak off dried poop in cool water? The color remains uniform on the shell when I do this.
If that is not washing what is washing?

I gently wash my eggs in either warm, or cold water. Most of my eggs just need a rinse, rather then an actual washing.
Afterwards they'll need to be refrigerated.
I gently wash, so the bloom remains intact. Also will still be hatchable, even when refrigerated if that's the intention.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you wash the eggs the water needs to be a little warmer than the eggs. If the wash water is cooler than the eggs that can cause the air in the air sac to shrink which caused a suction on the egg. Dirty wash water may be sucked into the egg, contaminating it. If the wash water is warmer than the egg, that air swells and keeps dirty water out.

If you wash the eggs or sandpaper them to remove dirt or debris you remove the bloom so the eggs have to be refrigerated. Commercial operations do that so the eggs are clean. Commercial eggs need to be refrigerated.

I don't. Any eggs I give away still have the bloom intact. So I only give away eggs that do not need to be washed. I store these on the kitchen counter. If I need to wash an egg I refrigerate it and eat it myself.

 

[Folly's place]

I wash all eggs not meant to be incubated, and then refrigerate them. Really filthy eggs I throw out, or any egg that's been missed out there. Secret nesting sites are a pain!
Keeping fresh bedding in the nest boxes makes a big difference, as does cleaner bedding. Also birds with feathered legs bring more 'stuff' to the nest boxes.
Mary

 

[UpstateChickenDaddy]

So I am going to wash the eggs. Does anyone have experience with a powdered egg wash (Murray McMurray has one for instance) versus an egg wash spray or other liquid? You pay a lot for liquid laundry soap versus powder. I am wondering if the difference in chemical makeup makes one better than the other?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You've gotten good info here. I just want to add, do not soak your eggs. Eggs are porous and they will absorb some of whatever liquid they are sitting in.

 

[SourRoses]

I hate washing eggs and I hate seeing dirty eggs that need washing... so we spend the effort on keeping the nests clean instead. Check them each time you collect eggs and ditch any dirty bedding for fresh new bedding. With that system we so rarely get a dirty egg that when we do, we just toss it into the woods rather than dirty the collection bucket / other eggs, lol.

 

[Altairsky]

I would never buy a washed egg and I would hate if someone sold me washed eggs without telling me. Because I would never buy them.
If your eggs are so filthy that they need washing, you need to improve the hygiene in your coop. Keep your nest boxes clean and harvest the eggs at least twice a day.
Filthy eggs that are so filthy they need washing should not be sold anyway.
In my country IIRC it is forbidden to wash eggs and sell them. Nobody is gonna come to check what a private citizen does with their eggs (unless someone gets sick) but selling washed eggs is considered quite dishonest here.

 

[Mrs. K]

If they are real dirty, mine will get that way in muddy conditions. Adding bedding to the run will also help. Sprinkle bedding inside the coup with scratch, and they will fluff up the bedding for you. This breaks up manure so it dries out. I do it about once a week. All of that makes for cleaner eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

So I am going to wash the eggs. Does anyone have experience with a powdered egg wash (Murray McMurray has one for instance) versus an egg wash spray or other liquid? You pay a lot for liquid laundry soap versus powder. I am wondering if the difference in chemical makeup makes one better than the other?

I'll try to respond to your question. From what I could tell at McMurray's site that product is not about getting dirt or grime off. It is about killing any bacteria that might be on the surface, otherwise clean or not. I could not find an ingredients list but it looks like they use a chlorine product. Chlorine kills bacteria. I sanitize my incubator, chicken watering bowls, and dog watering bowls with chlorine bleach. It works.

About the last thing a hen does when laying an egg is to put a liquid coating on it that we call bloom. That liquid quickly dries and forms a barrier that is excellent at keeping bacteria out of the porous egg. If you wash the egg, sandpaper it, or scrub it you can remove the bloom. It doesn't matter if you use soap, bleach, or anything else, just plain water will remove it. That makes it easier for bacteria to get inside.

If you remove the bloom you need to refrigerate the egg in temperatures low enough that bacteria don't grow. If you don't wash it you can store it on a counter at room temperature for a long time. The bloom is that good. It allows a hen to lay eggs for two weeks and then incubate them for three weeks without bacteria getting inside to kill the embryo.

If a clump of poop or mud gets on an egg then the bloom has been compromised. I wash those and put them in the refrigerator. As long as they only have a light dusting of dry dust I don't worry about them. I never wash an egg that I am going to try to hatch. I want the bloom intact so bacteria has a lot of trouble getting inside and killing the chick.

I wash the eggs with plain warm water. If the water is colder than the egg it can cause the material inside the egg to shrink, creating a vacuum and sucking some wash water inside the porous eggshell. As long as the wash water is a few degrees warmer than the inside of the egg you are fine.

Before I crack a "clean" egg to eat it or I boil it, I rinse it off in running water. That gets it clean enough for me. If you are worried to the point you want to disinfect it, you can use a weak bleach solution like that McMurray soap or dish soap. Just rinse it well.