WARSHING AIGS [Washing Eggs]

[Sanguine]

Hullo folks,
I had chickens before for ten years, and had seen the scare literature re: diseases, but ignored it. This time, however, a friend with the Public Health Dept told me we were having a Salmonella epidemic among baby chicks. I did not have them vaccinated, but I did feed them special treated grain that was sposed to knock out bugs. I do try to change my shoes when I come into my house.

So, during all this time, I did watch my hygiene and now am wiping eggs down with hydrogen peroxide and then washing them. Is all this nuts? How much should one warsh an aig?

The chickens seem just fine. Although, one is laying her eggs just outside of the coop on the ground. I've never seen that before. The others are still laying about an egg a day, some days off I guess when it is too cold. One day I found six frozen eggs which also has never happened before. I wonder about these chickens...When I got them as chicks, the girl at the store told me that I had to keep them at 95 degrees--and neglected to explain that one must lower that 5 degrees a week. It's only this newsletter that saved them about five weeks in. Poor things. Could they be brain-damaged?

I am running a water defroster 24/7 inside their coop and have the floor thickly spread with straw and a bale for them to stand on, too. Whaddaya think?

 

[KattyKillFish]

heh, i don't think they're brain damaged

as far as chickens carrying salmonella (and E.choli) it's all true. even for store bought eggs. they DO carry it but i never worry about such a thing. it's just not an issue if you eat your eggs cooked

i wash mine in cold water and scrub them with a piece of regular steel wool. also, since last night i started steaming eggs instead of boiling them. makes them a million times easier to peel. just steam them as you would steam veggies.



i think the hen that likes to lay her egg outside is trying to tell you something. maybe she's nervous and doesn't want to be seen when she's laying? or maybe she's trying to tell you she doesn't have enough room in there to lay her eggs with the other hens. how many nest boxes per chicken do you have? either way i think she will grow out of it. frozen eggs are normal in cold temperatures, that's why i check for eggs several times a day so that after they're laid they don't have much time to freeze. the straw is good and the water defroster is good. do you got a light bulb in the coop during the day? it will help them keep a little warmer given that it isn't one of those "energy saving" light bulbs. they should have a perch in there too, they like that.


oh and

 

[sloallie10]

sorry im no help, but do u spell egg, aig?

 

[GraceAK]

haha, you talked just like my Chem teacher!

As long as you cook the contents of the eggs thoroughly it should be fine... I think a good rule of thumb is don't wash an egg with anything you wouldnt put in your mouth!

But I think that you can wash it as much as you want to, but it won't keep as long if you wash it.... because the bloom comes off.

 

[pattypenny]

Salmonella doesn't harm the chickens but will make people sick. I wash my eggs because I sell them and people don't want dirty eggs. All eggs sold in the markets are washed. A egg farmers showed me once how they do this. The eggs are in a wire basket and the basket fits in a bucket. he used cold water and a cleaning compound like they use on dairy farms to clean the equipment. He raised the wire basket up and down a few times to wash the eggs.
I always wash my hands after I gather eggs because of Salmonella.
I would think washing the eggs with soap and water would be enough.
when the weather is in the teens if the eggs are not gathered they will freeze and a chicken will lay where they want too.
I do think that the hatchery chickens that we raise under a light are not as smart as the chickens that are hatched under a hen. The hen educates the chicks as to chick behavior.

 

[speckledhen]

You're title cracked me up since it sounds like my dear departed MIL, LOL. Unless an egg actually has poop on it, I don't wash it, even for customers. I try to keep my nests pretty clean so the eggs are clean from the get-go.

 

[Akane]

You should always use warm water to wash or rinse eggs. Preferably don't do it until you are ready to use the egg. Eggs have their own protection against bacteria getting in the shell and washing them not only washes away that protection but can push the bacteria in to the shell negating your attempts to have clean eggs. Unwashed eggs will last longer than washed eggs. Back to water temp. The pushing bacteria in the shell mostly happens when you use too cool of water. Water at or cooler than the temp of the egg causes the contents to shrink creating a vacuum. With the water there to liquify any dirt on the outside it can get sucked in (shells are porous and allow water and oxygen to pass). If you use water warmer than the egg the contents will expand creating pressure inside the egg and helping to keep the dirty liquid on the outside from passing through the shell. The proper regulations for the USDA require a certain temperature of hot water and dipping the eggs in the water like mentioned in another post or spraying them. It is not allowed to soak eggs or let them sit in water for any period of time. Personally I only rinse dirty eggs within a day of using them. Anything else that gets wet becomes dog food. Anything that seems too dirty for me to want to put it in my fridge is dog food.

Salmonella is everywhere. It's on every food product you have, in the dirt outside, in many animal's waste, in your fish tank, etc... There really is no reason to be alarmed so long as you practice basic hygiene like cooking your food thoroughly and washing your hands before handling food. Store meats properly and disinfect any surfaces they touch. You are more likely to get salmonella poisoning from a restaurant than your home flock. I've gotten 3 times. 1 from an all you can eat chicken place, 1 from arby's roast beef, and 1 from a local bar/restaurant where we ate cheese bread and popcorn chicken. I've never gotten sick from my own animals or food sources prepared at home.

 

[annie3001]

to be honest with you.....


i dont wash mine.. if they are a tad dirty i use a dry towel.
my nest box are kept pretty clean, and i am sure to collect the eggs several times a day.


good luck with your aigs?

 

[earthdance]

If I sell eggs, I due a precautionary soak in 50/50 vinegar and water and wipe then with a sponge before rinsing and drying. Otherwise I leave the eggs unwashed for weeks at a time unrefridgerated in a basket on the counter. Salmonella is a naturally occuring bacteria in bird intestines and like most things only becomes a problem when there is health issue that leads to an imbalance within the bird, so as long as your birds are well taken care of, mostly stress free, and healthy than I don't think its much of a concern (my humble opinion). With the eggs that I cook with I just rinse with water and wipe them only if they have muck on them, just before use.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I never wash my eggs and I leave them out on the counter until we get around to eating them, for as long as 2 weeks.

In all my years and my Mother's years and my Grandmother's years, we have been fine. No colds, flu or stomach aches. Clean nests help a lot but just general common sense goes a long way. We do wash our hands. People can get too crazy about being clean. A little dirt doesn't hurt. (Grandmother's philosophy still holds true in our family.) We might scratch the poo off with our fingernails before we crack it but we never wash them.