Hi all,
I'm not sure if this is the proper forum for this post, but I'm hoping you might be able to help me. I'm afraid this is going to sound pretty silly, but here goes...
There's a family in my neighborhood selling fresh eggs. We don't know this family, but I was thinking of introducing myself and asking them about their egg sales. The thing is, I don't know nuffin' about eggs that don't come in a styrofoam carton from the refrigerator case. Are there things I should be aware of? Questions I should ask? Things that would make this a bad idea? And is there any way I can look at an egg to know if it's okay/not okay for eating?
Can any of you tell me what I should know about this before I go up and ring the doorbell?
Thanks tons for any help!
How to buy chicken eggs for eating?
Hi Jill, I would think that anyone advertising eggs from their own home would be pretty reliable. Just go down there and strike up a conversation about their chickens and eggs. All chicken owners love to talk chickens. The only other thing you should know about fresh eggs is that you should leave them out of the fridge for 3 or 4 days before boiling for hard boiled eggs. That is because fresh eggs like to hold on to their shells and are hard to peel. Setting them out lets air between the shell and egg a little and helps let the shell go. Eggs can be left out on the counter from just laid to 6 to 7 days if below 70 degrees and no harm to them. In fact people who are collecting eggs for a clutch to put under a hen to hatch do just that and then put them all under the hen at once and she brings them up to temperature and hatches them all out in exactly 21 days. You see, they are alive still at 70 degrees, but are kinda in waiting mode, like in the wild, a bird will lay an egg a day but won't brood it until it has enough for that species. (about 5 for robins, about 5 to 7 for chickens) Then when it has the right number the mother sets on them, brings them up to temperature and the incubation begins. For chickens it is exactly 21 days. Usually the egg sellers sell only the best, largest, freshest eggs and keep for themselves the cracked, small or uneven ones for themselves, so you get the best.
Any more questions?
Carol
I think if I were in your position here is what I would try: Do like Carol suggests and talk to the neighbors about their chickens. While doing that, look around and observe- are the hens free-ranging (walking wherever they want to) or is there not a hen in sight? If you don't even see any, perhaps you can ask to visit them- if they are just locked up in cages in a barn somewhere, I would run, not walk as fast as possible. In that case, you may as well just buy standard grocery store eggs. You want to see: happy, clucking, singing hens in a fairly clean environment. Especially the nests where they are laying those eggs- clean surroundings make clean eggs!
I think you might be asking about health concerns about the eggs. As far as I know, there is no way to just look at an egg and know it is not carrying something like salmonella (eek!) but with clean surroundings and well-kept hens who have enough space to be hens I do think that likelihood is lessened. You are for sure buying a fresher, healthier egg (the free ranging hen eats what God intended her to eat-bugs, little gravels, grass and whatever else she can find) that makes the egg more nutritious than one bought in the grocery store. If I were you I would not hesitate to try them- maybe you will want to grow your own!
I would also inquire about the egg picking-up practices. One of our neighbors used to sell farm fresh eggs and we bought a dozen one day and some of the eggs were rotten. This was during the hottest part of the summer and apparently it was up to their 12 year old son to pick up the eggs everyday. They also kept their hens in an enclosed chicken house with no access to the outside. I hope this doesn't deter you from buying from them but I would be a inquistive buyer! When done right nothing beats a farm fresh egg!
Hey Carol,
I've been raising chickens for a long time now and this is the first time I've heard of setting them out before hard boiling. I will try this trick next time. When I peel mine I end up tearing half the egg apart. Not very appetizing.
I had the opportunity to do something many only dream of. I took a year off and went sailing. Refridgeration on a small sailboat is limited so I couldn't store eggs there. It is common practice among sailors to store the eggs low in the hull of the boat. Just turn the cartons over every day and it's said the eggs will keep for 6 months this way. Well I don't know about 6 months but I did it for 2 and never had a bad egg.
I like the way you say the incubation period is exactly 21 days. You're right, you could almost set your watch by it. LOL
Tucsonjill, by all means try those fresh eggs out. Wait till you see the color of the yolks compared to storebought. I've been selling eggs for about 4 years now and my customers get very angry when I have to cut back during the molting period. I let mine molt for about 3 weeks in the fall before turning on the lights to resume full production. Also, if you're into baking use the fresh eggs. One of my disabled customers gets 2 dozen eggs per week to bake cakes with. She sells the cakes to suppliment her income. They're such big hit the owner of the store she sells them to actually comes to her home to pick them up. (Now that's something you don't see everyday).
JB
JBG, before refrigeration, eggs were always just kept cool, which meant low in a warm climate. They knew which were the first to use because of age and also which to boil, also because of age. And which were the freshest for baking. Thanks for the additional info and the turning on trips.
Carol
when i was a kid my mom used to buy eggs by the case from the local egg farm. they told her that eggs can sit out a long time if they are not washed. and sit in the utlity room they did until we used them all. i don't know exactly how long they sat probably a month or so. i think the eggs have a membrane that protects them until you wash it off.
Len, that's right, but when you do wash them, (some eggs do get dirty from the chickens) wash them in warm water because heat expands and the warm water makes everything that may have entered through the porous shell be expelled by that warmth, rather than sucked back into the shell with cold water, which would make the egg contract with the cold. You wouldn't want to crack an egg covered with chicken manure on the side of the bowl you were mixing in.
Carol
Amen!
Yup, fresh eggs are almost certain to be more delicious than the store bought ones. Who knows how long those have been there? I give away my eggs, and don't sell them, but it is fun to give people eggs that were made that very day! it's a little miracle that they can make a new egg each day.
Wow! I know know about 4000% about chickens and eggs than I did at this time yesterday--thank you all so much! I'm feeling much more confident about the whole thing, and the next time I see my neighbors' sign out, I'm going in for fresh eggs!
I think the most surprising thing is how little refrigeration they need. I always had this idea that they had to be kept cold cold cold or they'd go bad. Huh. And, ceeadsalaskazone3, thanks so much for your tip about letting the eggs sit out for a couple of days before hard-boiling them. I've had that trouble even with store-bought eggs more times than I care to think about! I probably wouldn't leave them out for a number of days (as someone above mentioned, who knows how long those eggs have been around!) but it sounds like even a day at room temp should help. Also, thanks for the tip on washing them warm--makes perfect sense, but I never would've thought of it!
Again, thank you all so much for your help--I'll let you know how it turns out! :)
TucsonJill,
I wouldn't wait for the sign to go back out. Just go talk with them and get your name on the waiting list. (This is what I would do). Call all your friends and ask them to save their empty egg cartons for you. Just say it's a project (nudge-nudge...wink-wink). Collect as many as you can and go to the neighbor's house and offer them to them. Say, "I saw your sign and I thought you could use these. By the way, what's the difference between store-bought and fresh eggs?"
Get ready for the show. It should be better than Disney World...OK almost...LOL. You'll be getting eggs in no time. I always deliver my eggs and all my customers like that. They also save the cartons so I can fill them again. But cartons don't last forever. Especially with my eggs. They are so large even the jumbo containers require a rubber band to keep them closed. I raise Rhodies (Rhode Island Reds) and their eggs tend to be much larger than the jumbo's you buy in the store.
After you start getting fresh eggs you could do what Mabecca suggested. Get your own. In Tucson it's real easy to raise your own hens. It only takes about 10min per day to tend to them. Perhaps a half hour on the weekend to clean the hen house and get feed. (Ok, half an hour is all it takes but I spend more time with them because they are so neat to be with, alright I spoil them and vise versa). Five hens will lay four eggs per day. A fifty pound bag of feed should last you a month or more.
BackyardHens, Antrim NH, Wow what a small world. I spent 30 years in the Nashua area of NH. Please D-Mail me, I may know you....lol
JB
I clean my henhouse every morning. The floor is concrete and is very easy to "scoop the poop"! It doesn't smell that way either since it has to be closed up this time of year. It takes me about 2 minutes to scoop and toss into the corral on the beef manure pile. I think the girls and boy like it better when it's clean, I know I do.
Let me say something about store-bought eggs. This is a very big business and they stock up for holidays every year (Of course Easter, but all the holidays, think of deviled eggs and baking around those times), the egg farms (And I don't want any discussion of the conditions of those factories!) are big business, and have their quotas down to a science. So, you will at times get eggs from the store fresh enough that they are hard to peel from the sheer abundance of the product at those times. For a few cents more you can buy Organic eggs with dates on them. Even store-bought eggs, when I'm out of my own eggs, myself, I leave a carton out on the top of the fridge for 3 days before hard boiling. I write "hard boiled" on the carton. If it's 'up on' the fridge it needs boiling. If it's 'in' the fridge, they are already boiled.
Carol
Sounds like a great system, Carol! Just make sure you've got 'em far enough back on the top of the fridge... an egg shower would be a very bad way to start your day... :)
Can't push them too far back, "out of sight, out of mind", and I'm only 5'3" so...
The title of this thread caught my eye, and I'm glad I read this.
This is amazing...I never knew any of this about eggs...(city dweller here...) Very informative stuff here!
Thanks !
i delivered a truckload of large pallet size egg flats to an "egg factory" years ago. In the middle of the 2-3 story blgs. was where all these conveyer belts full of eggs all came to the middle, were machine sorted and put on these egg carton flats and stacked on pallets about 6' high. when the pallets were full, they would pallet jack them to another area. i was probably there about 20 min or so and it was just amazing the endless supply of eggs that kept coming. For no bigger than the bldgs were, i thought the chickens were just continually laying eggs. I asked one of the workers how many they laid a day, and he told me one, maybe two if they were lucky. I never saw the chickens, I'm still just gobsmacked when i think how many chickens there had to be for the amount of eggs, just doesn't seem possible.
We used to have a chicken plant in our area(been closed for several years now). They sold meat and eggs. My dh worked there when he was 16-he never saw a chicken either! The eggs would come down a conveyor belt while he and other workers would have to candle the eggs. He didn't stay there for long!
In case you're concerned about the freshness of eggs you get (whatever the source), you can always "float" them. Get a bowl deepenough to cover the eggs by 2-3 inches, and add the eggs. If the egg sits flat on the bottom, it's fresh. If it has one end higher than the other (or stands on end) it's older (larger air sack)and better to cook it. If it floats, throw it away...CAREFULLY *G*.
you beat me to it catmad! we collect our eggs several times a day, but still float test them. the very best sunny side up eggs are from those that stay flat on the bottom, even better if the eggs are only hours old. last year we had three pullets who started laying by our back door. fresh and delivered! eventually they moved their business to the hen house, but those fun days are forever ingrained in my mind!
and yes, it seems that the larger air sack makes it easier to peel the hard boiled eggs. also make sure you get the albumen [thin membrane, there are actually three of them i think] when you peel, then it all comes off easier.
the quality of the egg [i.e. the hen's diet] has a lot to do with how well it peels. the thicker shell and albumen make it much easier. had a friend who said she never could peel a farm fresh egg. i would hard boil mine the same day i collected them and they peeled fine without the air sack. the shells were so thick from free ranging that it took 15 minutes of a high rolling boil to actually get the yolk done!
tf
When we were kids, I made a mistake and grabbed a carton of un-cooked eggs and put one in everyones lunch box, thinking they were hard boiled. We each found out the hard way that they weren't.
My mom showed me later, that a hard boiled egg will spin fast when you twirl it on the counter, and a fresh egg won't.
rofl. sounds like a prankster to me!
Len, your comment made me rofl!
What does that mean, "to candle the eggs"?
probably meant handle. I thought it was some sort of special process myself at first.lol
unless they use candles and drip hot wax on the shells to help preserve them. that's the only thing i could think it could be.lol!
oops, i just googled it and it is candleing. i think you use a light behind it to see if there are any embryos inside.
Right you are Len, candling is using a light behind the egg to see the stage of development of the chick. (They have the neatest board with an egg shape cut into it so not much light comes at you around the edge of the egg.) They have exact days from start of incubation to candling to throw out any that aren't growing and may decompose and contaminate other eggs. I'm not sure if they candle twice or three times in the 21 days of incubation.
Carol
isn't that funny how much everyone has learned on this thread?
Now if we can all just figure out the question of the egg or chicken first, if there is an answer i'm sure it will be answered here, right on this forum. a history making forumlol!
The egg
There is another way to hard boil fresh eggs without letting them sit out. Bring your water to a rolling boil, then WET the raw eggs and drop them (carefully) into the boiling water. Allow them to boil 12-15 minutes then cool with cold water or an ice bath. They will peel without a problem. Also, if you don't like the "green" yolk after you put the eggs in the boiling water make sure they come back up to a boil remove from heat and cover. allow them to stay in the water at least 15-18 minutes then cool as stated above. The "green" yolk is a chemical reaction that increases the amount of sulfur in the yolk causing the discoloration, however it doesn't affect the flavor.
He would have to check for blood spots or cracking in the shell. Very monotonous work when doing it for 8 hours straight!
catmad, How could it be the egg? What incubated it for it to hatch?!
Catmad, let me answer, dinosaurs laid eggs.
Carol
Fresh eggs from someone with a backyard flock is more likely be have better nutrition especially if allowed to free range. Also, if they have a rooster there is an extra beneficial enzyme in the eggs. I guarantee the store bought eggs that come from hens that never leave a 2x2ft (if they are lucky) cage are never fertilized by a rooster nor do they get to eat grass or chase down any bugs. I sell my eggs and have several customers that come back every week. Many of them bring me egg cartons.
Like JB my Golden Comets give huge eggs (sometimes double yolkers) that don't fit in jumbo cartons. I was told that the happier a chicken is, the larger the eggs they lay. Sometimes, I think I should let them be somewhat unhappy, I've seen them lay those huge eggs and everyday!!! OUCH.
Carol, can you imagine a dinosaur sitting on a chicken egg? LOL
chickenrancher, can you hear your poor hens straining when they lay those large eggs? LOL I've heard a couple of mine and I had to leave the henhouse as I didn't want to get covered in poo while rofl!
Have any of you read anything about chickens being very much like dinosaurs? I think it was something about the sizes of their brains and how they think as well as behaviors both share.
I have learned so much more than I ever expected! Thank you all for sharing your expertise!
Now that I'm primed and ready to go ask the family about their eggs, their sign hasn't been up for days, and I'm not 100% sure which house it is. So, back to waiting ;)
My chickens cackle like crazy but what I have found is it is the hens waiting to get into the nest box not the chicken laying the egg. I have 7 boxes for 14 hens and they seem to only use 1-3 of them on a given day. I don't know why they have to use the same box.
Maybe it's like teenagers all needing to go to the little girls' room all at the same time?