A customer at the place where I work came in yesterday and we were chatting. She said she had around 200 hens and instead of washing the eggs, she soaks them for at least 24 hours so the dirt and manure falls right off them without any scrubbing or effort on her part. I don't wash my eggs unless I absolutely have to because of dried on dirties that won't come off with a swipe of a nylon scrubber. Now, mind you, I only have 10 laying hens so I'm only dealing with about 8 eggs per day, but soaking them for over 24 hours?? In dirt and manure water??? That totally grossed me out and I just imagined bacteria being able to permeate the soaked shells. That can't be good practice, can it?
24 hours soaking sounds really bad for sure...ewwww! Dry scrubbing/cleaning gives me the willies too tho....it can compromise the bloom and doesn't necessarily get all the 'dirt' off, could just grind it into the pores.
