Cleaning Eggs?

I'm sure I'm doing it totally wrong. I buy the vegetable or produce wash at Walmart. I run warm water in the kitchen sink and run the egg through it after it's been sprayed with the produce wash. If there is anything on the egg, I scrape it off with my fingernail. I then put the washed eggs in a paper towel lined colander. After all the eggs are washed I then spray and wash the egg carton and dry it with paper towel. I then hand dry each egg and put it into the clean carton and put it in the refrigerator or our foyer which is as cold as a refrigerator this time of year. We eat our eggs daily or sell or give them away so nothing sits around too long.

I saw a show once on how much bacteria there is on household sponges and washrags, sinks, counters etc. I like to use paper towel because I can pitch it and not have to reuse something that was used to wash off chicken poop. No matter how much I cleaned that thing it would give me the heebie geebies to reuse it.

We also cook our eggs well and so far so good on nobody getting sick.

If I wanted to store eggs for a few weeks I might consider replacing that "bloom" I'm washing off with some kind of spray oil. Would cooking spray oil like PAM or something work?

They use food grade mineral oil commercially, Loon. Here is a site describing the process:

http://www.dld123.com/q&a/index.php?cid=12665

But I agree with your reservations about sponges...they creep me out. It seems like I can always smell bacteria on them no matter what I do....so I go through about a tree a week in paper towels......

Thanks Cat for the article. It was very interesting. I guess for my purposes I won't need to oil my eggs since we eat them up pretty quick. We only have a dozen hens so we're not mass producing eggs here.

Yes, I love my paper towels as well. Use them for everything. It just feels cleaner to do so.

I just finished cleaning my eggs and putting them away. I had one egg today that felt like it had sandpaper all over it. I don't think I've ever had an egg come out like that before. I wonder if it ate too much grit or something. :)

Loon, I was told that's calcium and nothing to be worried about. I recently posted in this forum about it, so take a look thru that thread. Interesting you use the produce wash on the eggs. I hadn't thought of that. The only thing I would suggest to you is to dry your eggs immediately. I read that moisture on the eggs can get back into the eggs now that the bloom is washed off. So I attend to each egg separately and dry it before going on to the next egg. Why don't you clean your carton first and then you can put the eggs into it as you go.

Good idea. I usually have less than a dozen eggs to clean at one time. It doesn't really take all that long to clean them and put them away. Thanks for the explanation of the gritty egg.

I reuse my egg shells from time to time when I need a calcium supplement for the dog food I make. When we break open an egg to cook I wash the shell really well and let it dry. When I have a number of them, I nuke them for about 30 seconds in the microwave. When cool I run them through a coffee grinder and it makes the shells into a powder which I store in a fruit jar. It makes a great soure of calcium for my dogs and it's a way to recycle the shells.

Loon intresting for calcuim mix for dog food...

I do much the same with our egg shells but I add them to the hens' feed.

I stick mine in my oven in an aluminum pie pan, and when I bake or roast something they get cooked. Then I crush them in a hand-cranked nut grinder and put them in a special feeder in the henhouse. They also get oyster shells. People comment on how hard the shells on my eggs are, so it must be working! For a while I wasn't supplementing and I was getting the occasional very thin-shelled egg that would crumple in my hands.

My dog, Chouette, gets broken eggs but not shell.

Speaking of dogs and eggs....
http://chooksiniowa.blogspot.com/2010/01/stickley-has-egg-on-his-face.html

Omigosh, Moxie, what a mess! Any bad aftereffects for Stickley? I won't even ask about your carpet. Nice blog, by the way. I haven't visited it for awhile.

Heh, heh, heh....Moxon's doggie was bad......:0)

{{{I am actually most distressed to see how clean her carpet is....if it had happened on my living room rug, I would have had to clean up, vacuum and then replace the eggs before daring to post a picture.}}}

{{{I would have had to do the same! Upon first entering the website I bethought myself, "Surely this cannot be the home of Moxie, looking as it does like some House Beautiful contender! How would she have time for such beautification and scrubbifying?'}}}

We feed our egg shells to the pigs. Last spring I dried them crushed them and added them to my veggie beds.

My chicken yard is very damp because of the duck living in it so my eggs have to be cleaned. I hold them under warm running water and wash them with my hands. Then I let them dry on a towel. They dry quickly. Then I put them in a carton on my microwave. I keep a carton in the fridge we use out of. I rotate the eggs into the "use" carton. That way we are always eating the older eggs. I always have about 3 dozen at a time in the house. We have never gotten sick from them. I have a stomach ulcer and if anything is a little iffy it hurts me. No problem from the eggs so I must be doing it alright. I know if I sell them I may have to do things a bit different. The duck will have her own pen in the spring so the problem make not exist then. the chicken yard will be moved before next winter also. No more climbing a frozen, snowy hill for me next winter. Whoo Hoo!!!

Oh, that would be wonderful to have a more convenient trek to the chicken yard! It's amazing how those little changes feel like huge luxuries, isn't it? This is my second winter taking care of the chickens, and the first year I incorporated a heated base for the poultry waterer. DH used to fill a 5-gallon bucket with warm water in the basement and then schlep it out to the chicken yard. When it froze that was it for the day. Our current setup is so much more convenient! We also installed an automatic door to the coop; it opens at 7 am and closes at 6 pm, and can be changed as the days lengthen. No more going out in the cold dark night to close up the henhouse!

We actually use our freshest eggs ourselves. DH figures why else have hens! Even our older eggs aren't more than a couple of days old because we either sell the extras or give them to family members.

When my eggs are really dirty I do the same thing you do; I put them under warm running water and clean them with my hands. I guess I just won't worry about the famous "bloom" anymore!

I had never even heard of bloom. When I was a little tyke my folks had a house of layers. The feed store bought the layers and the eggs. The eggs were picked up in wire baskets and soaked in water to clean the eggs. They weren't cage layers. The feed store would also come out and clean the house. Then they'd spread it on your pastures for you. It stunk for a few days but we had beautiful grazing.

I wish my feed store would do that! Wow!

WE HAVE EGGS!!!
Ok I am EGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGcitted

I went in the coop that housed Billy Replacement chickens to check the hay in the boxes. Billy got there first, and he got really happy. He said we had 4 and then he started pulling them out. In the end, we had seven pretty blueish green eggs. In that pen I have 3 hens and one rooster, and had not been in the coop in a week, so I dont know when they started laying... Since it has been chilly here I think they will be ok, I will float them to make sure... My girls are still not laying, but well they will someday...

Right then and there Billy and I did the Egg Dance... WOOO HOOOO we have eggs...

Wonderful! You must be exggzhilarated!

How EGGcellent! I'll bet Billy was over the moon with them! Do float them; if any of the hens were setting on them they won't be good. But how cool!

Speaking of cool, we got about four inches of snow today, and some of the chickens decided to hunker down under the coop instead of coming out and going up the snowy ramp or the snowy steps into the henhouse. We weren't about to go after them on our knees with hooks in the dark, in the snow and freezing temperatures, so they're going to have to take their chances. This is the first time they've stayed out since the young ones finally learned the ropes last fall, and even then we had to leave some out because we just couldn't get them.

I do know they were around 6 months old when I got them so these have to be the first eggs they are laying. When I go out there I see all the hens in the yard, so I am thinking they are not sitting on them. I am thinking about moving my girls in to the same pen with them, maybe that will make them lay..

It worked for my game hen, Ruby. I have had her for about 2 years and never gotten an egg from her. i put her in the pen with the layers a couple of days ago and got an itty bitty white egg from her! I picked up 8 eggs today. I had picked up 7 earlier and went up the hill an hour ago to untangle the guard dog. I checked out of habit and there was another egg. So blessed to have found it because it would have frozen and cracked before morning and been wasted. Don't like losing eggs to the dogs and pigs!

Big congrats for the eggs. It's like the hens are giving you gifts!!!

Then thats what I will do tomorrow, move them and then move the ducks in the back area where the chickens were that will leave the geese in the front section for protection. Or if I moved the Geese back there, that would give the chickens protection... OH trying to figure out where everyone should go is a hassle...

Adding my two cents and hoping no one throws rotten eggs.

My Mother sold eggs to a hatchery and we cleaned many an egg in my younger years. Because the egg shell is porous, we were forbidden to soak them!!! We used a damp cloth and rinsed it often in room temperature water. The room was cool to cold. We would lightly wipe each egg, preventing them from being wet. Always packing them point down. The hatchery could tell if the eggs had been packed wet as the cardboard flats would tell the tale.

If there should be a stain on the egg, we were to take the damp cloth with an ever so light dusting of Comet or Ajax cleanser which has bleach in it and gently rub that spot only. It would come clean and at the same time act as a disinfectant. The hatchery did not want the protective coating removed as the eggs were to be resold in store and needed a longer shelf life. Should the egg be soiled too badly, they were cleaned and set to one side and our large family would consume them. We never got food poisoning or had illness as a result of the cleanser either with many of us living to ripe old ages. The times they are achangin'...

I'm sure that would work with almost anything; just make sure it's wet before you nuke it.

Thanks for the description!

By the way, my hens were fine this morning, even the ones who camped out under the coop - and it went down to 13º!

we use these nifty knitted dish clothes as as long as you have enough to change them out every other day & use oxi clean or bleach on them they never have that smell. If anyone wants teh pattern I can send it to them.

podster - that is the way my mother grew up cleaning eggs. My grandmother had chickens she raised up for the hatchery that they then sold as meat birds. (small local hatchery of some type back in the 40's) I'm not sure if that's where they learned to clean eggs like that or not but i was a little leery of using comet on my eggs.

G_G and Catsy - my dog was (fortunately) fine and didn't do anything nasty that I thought he might do as a result of eating bad eggs. Their digestive system is made of steel, I swear! My carpet is only clean because the nice lady comes every 2 weeks and vacuums it, and we don't actually use the living room all that much, mostly using the office for our daily computer and study time. No carpet pictures in there!

I would not be afraid to... it was such a teeniny dab of it and only on an isolated spot, not the whole egg. I feel certain I have consumed much worse.

The dishcloths I use now and love are microfiber. I could relegate them to the ones I use for spills and housecleaning and get new ones I guess. I prefer them as they leave no streaks or water spots when the sink and appliances are wiped down.

Moxie, glad your pooch came through unscathed. I'm still impressed with your carpet; I've got someone who comes in every two weeks, too, but in between it doesn't look like that if I don't keep after it fairly religiously.

Podster, microfiber catches on my hands, which are a bit rough due to cold and chicken-chores! Otherwise I think it's neat stuff!

I have the same issue but it is only "catchy" when dry. When it is wet or damp ~ not a problem. There are paper towel brands that feel that way and drive me nuts. I won't buy them. Sorry to take the clean eggs astray.

I think this is cool. Sixty-eight replies and we didn't even get silly!

Nice to know I'm not the only one with sandpaper hands! And anyway, that's related, I would think.

Maybe we need a thread on what to do for sandpaper hands...

LOL Porkpal.... I am lucky to have found a lady that makes lotion and it works wonders, but you have to put it on at night and in the morning, I have soft hands. I have not had the cracking I normally have in the winter

I've bought all sorts of things for my DH, including cotton gloves for night-time use, but I've never tried the stuff myself. Maybe it's time. They're not that bad; I just notice with things like the microfiber!

I'd love to find a good recipe for homemade lotion. Right now I use Cornhusker's Lotion; it seems to work the best of any I've bought.

Someone gave me UDDERLY sMOOth udder cream. I like it a lot for a quick fix - like if I have to put on pantyhose (perish the thought!).

I tried that, it works good but I don't care for the way it smells.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4500416_make-homemade-lotion.html This sounds like what she has in it.

Thanks MissJ! I'll give it try one of these days.

[quote="greykyttyn"]we use these nifty knitted dish clothes as as long as you have enough to change them out every other day & use oxi clean or bleach on them they never have that smell. If anyone wants teh pattern I can send it to them.


Grey, I sent you a d-mail.

I love the knitted/crocheted dishclothes. It's all I ever use since I discovered them. They don't last forever but they aren't expensive either. Sometimes I find them at craft fairs. I only use the 100% cotton ones. I don't care for the synthetic ones.