Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
me, you work a regular job. I've never had a problem with
freshness simply collecting the eggs when I get home from
work and putting them in the refrigerator immediately.
There are a couple of phenomena pertaining to eggs that may
become an inconvenience: dirty and broken eggs. Every once
in a while, chickens will lay an egg that has a thin shell and
breaks while in the nest. Sometimes, they may lay an egg
with no shell at all. When these break, they coat any other
eggs in the nest with a slime that makes them unmarketable.
Obviously, the proverbial ounce of prevention applies in that
having enough nesting boxes will reduce the number of eggs
coated with slime in any given box. However, chickens tend
to “follow the leader” to an extent and have a decided
tendency to lay eggs in a nesting box where another egg is
already present. So even if you put up one nesting box for
each bird, this problem wouldn't be solved completely.
Then, of course, there is the problem presented by the fact
that eggs leave the body of a hen through the exact same
orifice used for excrement. Meaning that sometimes eggs will
have a bit of chicken manure on them. Not usually, but
sometimes. In addition, chickens who have been running
around outside in the mud on a rainy day will track mud back
into the nest and make the eggs dirty.
For minor dirt and manure, just scraping it off with a
thumbnail or using a sanding sponge is fine. But for slime and
major dirt that won't come off easily, water washing is
required.
Water washing can be extremely problematic and yield unsafe
eggs if done improperly. When the egg comes out of the hen,
