Water Glassing: Egg Preservation Experiment!

[MamaPoult]

Love this preservation method!!! We use it every year!

 

[fat brown hen]

Apologies if this has been addressed already, but what do you all do with spent lime water? It does not seem like it would be good to pour it down the sink.

 

[tripletfeb]

Apologies if this has been addressed already, but what do you all do with spent lime water? It does not seem like it would be good to pour it down the sink.

I just throw mine on my flower bed, where I have only rocks and no flowers growing

 

[WingItRanch]

Apologies if this has been addressed already, but what do you all do with spent lime water? It does not seem like it would be good to pour it down the sink.

Good question. I think this has been addressed but can't remember. I wish there was a way to search in a thread for keyword.

I was thinking about dumping mine in the compost pile. I know lime can be good for gardens. I'm not sure if that would be too concentrated, though.

 

[TooCheep]

I have been pouring mine down the drain, but I run plenty of water at the same time to help dilute it further. We use the high lime to water ratio to provide maximum saturation for preserving the eggs.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Not sure if this thread is really in use anymore, but I've got a question. So for the past couple years, we've water glassed a lot of eggs, probably 40 dozen or so over the two years combined. We've only had a couple eggs break, which is awesome. But this winter, we've had two jars break. These are sturdy Ball half gallon jars, I'm really not sure what's going on with them. It's our second year using them, so maybe the lime hurt the glass? In both cases the jars cracked at the bottom, draining all the lime water out, and the eggs were bone dry. So that was a waste of a few dozen eggs

Any ideas as to what could cause this?

 

[TooCheep]

Hmmmm... Not sure what went wrong. I've never heard of that and a quick search didn't turn up anything about glass reacting to hydrated lime. I don't think anyone else has reported that specific problem even though some use glass containers.

For what it is worth, I use 2 gallon plastic buckets and am still using my original one after about 6 years.

 

[WingItRanch]

Wow. I use large glass jars but I've only been doing it since Nov 2024. No issues but I'll keep an eye out. Normally when glass breaks like that it has to do with sudden temperature difference but that's obviously not your issue.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Hmmmm... Not sure what went wrong. I've never heard of that and a quick search didn't turn up anything about glass reacting to hydrated lime. I don't think anyone else has reported that specific problem even though some use glass containers.

For what it is worth, I use 2 gallon plastic buckets and am still using my original one after about 6 years.

I’ve thought about switching to plastic now that this has happened. Do you seal your buckets tight, or just set the lid on them? I know the lids can be finicky with some buckets.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Wow. I use large glass jars but I've only been doing it since Nov 2024. No issues but I'll keep an eye out. Normally when glass breaks like that it has to do with sudden temperature difference but that's obviously not your issue.

Yeah, they’ve been in a cupboard inside the house ever since we began this. One jar I could look at as an anomaly, but two is a bit less of a coincidence…