Out of 13 pullets that are old enough to lay we are getting about 10 eggs a day. I just CAN'T eat the eggs! They aren't going to waste, my mom makes homemade noodles with them and says they have the best flavor in the world. My sister uses the eggs for egg bread and custard pies and says they are by far the best, rich and delicious. I just can't seem to eat them! I have more zucchini bread to make so I might use the eggs in the recipe, but scrambled or sunny side up in out of the question right now.
Egg Eating Problem
Do you not like eggs or just can't eat their eggs. Is it the taste because you are used to store bought?
There is no comparison to the taste of farm fresh eggs and they don`t run all over in the pan when you fry them up.My daughter is the same way about eating my eggs she will not so she buys from the store.
You can freeze eggs. Then you have some when the whole gang decides to molt or go broody at the same time.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/FreezingEgg.htm
My kids had that issue when we first got chickens. I'm not sure if they thought of them as baby birds or if it was because the eggs comes out of the 'back end' of the hen or what. We kept telling them they were not and never would be baby birds unless 1) they were fertilized and 2) they were incubated. Little by little they finally got past it.
Someday, crack a fresh egg in a bowl and crack a store bought egg next to it. Look at the difference and decide which one looks better. :) PLUS, you know what your birds have been eating and how they have been treated and raised. It makes the decision a LOT easier!
ha, no kidding Badseed, if you know what the store bought ones eat it's enough to turn your stomach. I'll take that farm fresh egg anytime.
My daughter said at summer camp the eggs tasted like tar, yes tar.
Comming to Ohio to spoon feed you is out of the question...LOL. Get with it girl...Hay.
I love eggs and have no idea why I can't eat these eggs. We got a total of 11 eggs today. I took them to my Mom, she was thrilled and told me to get over it LOL. More eggs for everyone else I guess.
I sure would eat them :-))
Me to Rita: Praise the Lord and pass the eggs...LOL.Haystack
I'll send you some, Rita, you too Howie! I talked to a friend of my DH, he says I'll get over it, his wife felt the same way - - it just feels wrong LOL
Why wrong? Your not hurting your darling hens. They were born to lay eggs. Its their destinty. And they are living the good life and repay you with fresh eggs.
I do sort of know what she means...At first I was a little...disturbed...by the thought of eating something that came out of my pet chickens, even though that was one of the reasons I had them. My husband was even more leery about it.
But we both got over it:0)
That is so true, they're my Pets! My sister keeps telling me how delish her custard pies are using the egg from my Girls.... I'm not ready to cave in, yet. My husband has no problem eating the eggs, but he has to scramble then himself, I can't even do that. Worthless chicken farmer LOL
NO, NO. Not worthless at all, You have given me a million laughs. Your priceless my dear...Haystack
Yes I have had no problems eating the chicken eggs but was hesitant about eating the duck eggs I just started getting. I could taste no difference. They cooked a little faster, had a very thick white, and very dark orangish yellow yolk. DH said he didn't want one. He got one anyway. When he finished eating I asked him how was his duck eggs lol. He said I figured you would slip one in on me.
It doesn't bother my little grandsons. In fact I had told the little one that the chicken pooped the eggs out its butt. They only way I knew how to explain it to one so young. He went to kindergarten and told his teacher. My DD just about had a fit ROFL!!!!!!!!!
Funny how we can be queasy over it
Now here is a REAL egg eating problem:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38741401/ns/health-food_safety
All the more reason to produce your own!
That made me go check the eggs in the refrigerator! The only eggs I have now are all from my Girls, except the carton of liquid "Egg Beaters" I bought yesterday. I will eventually eat them, I think. There aren't enough eggs to go around, my family is lined up and waiting. The Girls gift us with 10 to 12 eggs a day. That cute little Silkie has layed every day for the last 8 days! Such a tiny egg and she makes the most noise when laying. It takes her a long time to get the nesting box arranged just right before she will lay.
You should watch some videos that show the conditions of the chickens they raise for meat. The one I saw had a large building, sort of like a barn, just full of chickens, wall to wall. They had automatic water and feed, but were so crowded they could barely move around, and I can imagine the manure they were all standing in. That cannot be healthy. It was disturbing. Probably the ones that lay eggs are as bad or worse. I hate those pictures of the chickens crowded in small boxes.
Why can't they make them a nice place outside where they could run around a little? Why coop them up like that?
Sometimes I make mistakes with my chickens, but overall they seem pretty happy and healthy. My hens stay here and free range in the yard all day. They are so cute. Can't imagine life without them.
My roosters have been a different problem. They cannot stay here in town. Right now they are in extra large wire dog crates in my lot outside of town, where my donkey lives. I have hopes of building them a nicer place someday soon.
This may be where my chicken experience stops. I cannot continue to house endless numbers of roosters :) so I didn't hatch any babies this year.
I'm at my chicken limit with 20 Girls, no roos. If there weren't so many beautiful chickens and eggs it wouldn't be such a problem!
Today an EE'er layed an egg so big it looks like a duck egg! I used my Girls eggs in zucchini bread today, it was delish! I'm not ready for sunny side up yet, but this is a start.
Baby steps...:0)
LOL
I heard about the egg recall on the news. Doesn't cooking kill the salmonella? Do you think the eggs got contaminated after they were washed or before? I just wonder how the eggs were contaminated. They never said on the news.
It is usually on the shell, but studies have shown that sometimes it is actually in the egg itself. I am sure cooking helps...but I hate dry eggs.
I have neighbors lining up begging me to let them buy our eggs. And after the big recall of the Safeway and King Soopers eggs, they want them even more. I only have 2 chickens, so when we have more than we need, I just give them to friends and neighbors. I grew up with chickens and love the taste of fresh free range eggs. My son however had a problem with them at first. Now he eats more of them than anyone. Sometimes it's hard to see where food really comes from. Especially when you're used to buying prepackaged food at the grocery store. Yes it really does come out of an animal, not just a container, lol.
They showed where the eggs that had been recalled came from on the news. All these poor chickens, living in little cages, all crowded together. It's not how they get diseases, but how could they not. Not to mention the stress hormones that pass through to the eggs. Don't worry, if you like eggs, you will eventually Love these.
I figured this egg recall would make fresh farm eggs more attractive.
I answered my own question I asked above. Here is a snip from an article I read this morning for anyone wondering about how chickens and their eggs become infected with salmonella.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100818/sc_livescience/howdoessalmonellagetinsideeggs
SNIP
Only a small number of hens in the United States seem to be infected with Salmonella at any given time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also assures that an infected hen can lay many normal eggs while only occasionally laying an egg that's contaminated.
So how can consumers tell if an egg contains salmonella? There is no way for grocery shoppers to tell if an egg has been contaminated, according to Rob Gravani, a professor of food science at the Cornell University. In fact, Salmonella affect chicken of every quality, and there is no valid scientific evidence that shows that poultry products labeled "Kosher," "free-range," "organic," or "natural" have more or less of the bacteria, according to FSIS.
"The best thing for consumers to do is to pay attention to the brand of eggs that are being recalled, and to return any eggs that they've purchased of that brand to the store," Gravani told Life's Little Mysteries.
Health officials also recommend not serving undercooked eggs, since thorough cooking kills the bacteria, according to the CDC. Because both the outside and inside of contaminated eggs appear to be normal, even if an egg seems "safe" to eat with a runny-style yoke, it is always best to err on the side of caution and eat only well-cooked eggs. The FSIS recommends that egg dishes be heated up to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius).
/SNIP
My next question would be..............if only a SMALL number of hens in the United States seem to be infected with Salmonella............then how the heck do millions of eggs become infected at the same time? Doesn't that seem strange to anyone but me?
Annie, have you tried them scrambled yet? To me that seems much less "small creature"/egg than mixing it all up. LOL We started the kids eating them scrambled when they were having slight issues eating the "baby chickens"....
And another thing...if you are collecting the eggs daily and more than once a day, there is no chance you are getting anything but an egg (at least in theory). haha
Should I be washing the eggs? There has never been a "dirty egg" yet as the nesting boxes have lots and lots of shavings in them. I clean them out every few days and there has neve been poo in the boxes. I was thought there was a protective coating on the eggs when laid and it was best not washed off?
Badseed - your pushing your luck LOL. The zucchini bread was delish and like Catscan said.. babysteps! My DH and DN love the eggs, scrambled, fried, or just to look at. Everyone in my family is lined up waiting for eggs. I gave 4 of my neighbors each a dozen and now they want them too! My DN charges 25 cents a dozen, except Great Grandma gets hers free, she is saving $ for a pony.
You don't want to wash clean eggs before you use them, because, yes, they do have a protective coating (called "the bloom") that keeps out bacteria etc and they will stay fresh longer.
Some people do wash them (always with warm water to keep the contaminants from entering the egg pores) right before using. Which makes sense, though I don't.
If you feel an overwhelming need to wash your eggs earlier, you can coat them with a little oil, mineral, I think, to keep them from drying out too fast. That is what the commercial egg producers do.
Thanks, that's good to know, if they aren't dirty I won't wash them.
I seem to remember reading something about eggs sitting our for a few hours before putting them in the refrigerator? Is that right? We're still in the "check every 30 minutes" for new eggs stage LOL. Today we got 12 eggs, 10 from the EE'ers and 2 from the Buff Orps. They're gone! My mom picked them up. Tomorrow's eggs get split between my sisters, no one wants eggs from the store, especially now.
I've never heard of needing to leave them out for a few hours before refrigerating. I actually leave them out anyway if they are uncracked, at least for a week. Much longer than that, I refrigerate them.
If you notice, a lot of traditional recipes call for room temp eggs. That is because they behave quite differently if they are cold. Even today, in many civilized countries (e.g. France), fresh eggs are not routinely refrigerated.
The US "egg safety board" makes it sounds like you are in big trouble if the eggs are out even an hour...which may make some sense with commercial eggs of uncertain age. But really clean fresh eggs will keep quite well, at room temp, for at least two weeks...chickens do not refrigerate their eggs before they brood them and they hatch just fine. But commercial eggs are kept, sometimes for months, before they are sold.
I remember a few years ago when there was a big outcry because it was discovered that unsold supermarket eggs were being sent back to the producers when they reached their expiration date. The producer were then just checking them, re-oiling them and sending them back with an new expiration date.
With you own eggs you know exactly how old they are. I think you are required to refrigerate them if you plan to sell them, however.
NPR had an expose a few years ago about how old supermarket eggs really could be...and yes, it was months. But I don't think they are suppose to be, legally. The trouble is they really can be stored under proper conditions for months without going bad...so there is always the temptation to do so.
I appreciate my Girls more and more every day! They even helped me weed around the coop today.
When you buy eggs, there is a number stamped on the end of the carton. It will be 001 up to 365 which is how many days are in the year. The number is which day the eggs were laid. I believe they are available for purchase for 30 days after that, yet good for 2 weeks once you take them home. I can't remember where I read that so I'll have to look it up again.
According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), "Many eggs reach stores only a few days after the hen lays them. Egg cartons with the USDA grade shield on them must display the "pack date" (the day that the eggs were washed, graded, and placed in the carton). The number is a three-digit code that represents the consecutive day of the year (the "Julian Date") starting with January 1 as 001 and ending with December 31 as 365. When a "sell-by" date appears on a carton bearing the USDA grade shield, the code date may not exceed 45 days from the date of pack."
Copied from: http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ciq-egg-dates.shtml
Annie, when our birds are running free, and I'm trying to do ANYTHING with a shovel, we have one Barred Rock that has to be right in the middle of it. She's so bad that I've hit her a few times when I'm flinging dirt! She sits and waits to pick worms out of the shovel or mound of dirt or off my foot or wherever! She's been named Inspector Rock.
Thanks for the info Badseed!
When I was being supervised by the Girls while weeding I was thinking that using a Weed Eater would probably not be a good idea LOL The Buff Orp's, Connie & Lois, are obnoxiously tame. They want to be sitting on me or being held. The EE's are almost as bad. The 2 Welsummers have finally decided that I won't eat them and will take a treat from me but quickly run away. The new Hatchery girls, well, I hope someday they'll feel comfortable with life.
From NPR this morning....it explains why fresh eggs do not go bad at room temp and why hard boiled eggs do.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129472951
Really good article! Eggs are a fascinating subject, they are perfectly designed. Almost wish I had 30 more chickens, I have a line of people waiting for eggs. We're not getting many eggs so all go to my family members right now. My neighbors have all been gifted a dozen and they want more too. I can't add more than 2 chickens to the existing flock and still have them all be comfortable in the space they have so for now, what I have works. I'm still not eating the eggs but do use them when baking. My DH and DN refuse store eggs, especially now! I cleaned out the fridge this morning, broiled chicken, cooked green beans and watermelon. I divided it between the dogs and chickens. Sometimes I toss things that are still very fresh, as in left over from the night before, because it's so fun to watch them eat!