Some of my eggs are cracking

[Lynette]

On really cold mornings when I am collecting my eggs, I have found some to be cracked or split. I am assuming it is because they are freezing. Are they still okay to eat? I would think they would be since they are cold, but I wanted to be sure.

 

[clairabean]

During our cold snap (-25*C) I had to collect my eggs a few times a day so they would not freeze. I had never tried to eat a frozen egg, though.

An egg that cracks in the nest is open to all sorts of bacterias and germs to enter. I would not eat a cracked egg. Unless I was the cracker.

 

[mistymeadowchicks]

I have had occasional eggs freeze & shells crack during cold snaps. (That would be a heat wave for you--only got to single digits! LOL) I would worry about contamination. They smell fine , but the yokes don't stay together when you crack them open. I scrambled (& cooked) them, fed to the dogs or chickens. 2 cents from a newbie, so take it for it's worth.

 

[Azriel]

When I've gotten frozen ones that are cracked, if they are very clean, I'll run hot water over then while still frozen to wash them off, then let them thaw and I use them as normal or eating or baking. If dirty, I'll still wash and use them for the dogs,cats,chickens. No one here has ever gotten sick from using them.

 

[Mak]

When I find a cracked egg, if the inner membrane has not leaked, I eat it. I just make sure it is thoroughly cooked. If it has leaked because the membrane broke, I hard boil it, chop it and feed it to the chickens as a treat. I figure you can freeze eggs so they aren't bad just because of the freezing. The texture suffers a bit tho.