Keeping Eggs Fresh

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs                                                Shobe Biz Communications

Remember that vintage Volkswagen ad where too many people are stuffed into a Volkswagen Bug?

Sometimes when I open the door to my spare refrigerator in the garage I think of that ad.  Dozens of vintage eggs cartons filled with organic, multi-colored eggs are stacked to the top of every shelf. It looks as if the refrigerator was laying the eggs itself.

I usually try to sell the eggs a day or so after they are laid. I even make presents of the eggs by bringing them as hostess gifts. But, sometimes I'm so busy with  life that the eggs simply stack up. Wasting the precious output of my happy hens simply isn't an option.

Here is a decent article (get past the opening, get to the facts, and ignore some of the grammatical errors) about the many ways that you can preserve your eggs: Twelve Ways to Store Chicken Eggs to Keep Their Freshness by Fahran Sheikh.

Some of the options that Skeikh  includes are:

1.  A blooming good idea: Don't wash unwashed eggs. The eggs have a bloom on them that keeps them fresher longer.

2.  The ostrich technique: Bury unwashed eggs in dry sand.

3.  The beach-goers technique: Coat them with mineral oil.

4.  The "I'm all mixed-up" technique: Beat them like scrambled eggs, put them into airtight containers and freeze them.

The only one I've tried so far is not washing the egg until I am ready to use it. I've noticed that the bloom does help the egg stay fresh much longer.

With 12 new hens just two months away from laying,  it's time to start exploring my options, again, for keeping the girls' eggs fresh. I think I'll start first with my own technique: cleaning out the spare refrigerator.

Cracking Some Fun Facts About Eggs

Cracking the Eggs Facts Wide Open

There are a whole lot of facts about eggs that we don't know but are fun to learn.
For instance, did you know that the egg white contains 57% of the total egg's protein content and contains Vitamin B3, Vitamin B2, chlorine, magnesium, potassium, sodium and sulfur?

Elizabeth Woods, a doctor, has a few more fun facts about eggs in her article, Amazing Facts About Eggs.

Day #1 of the Hatch

The Incubator                    copyright Shobe Biz Communications

I've never hatched an egg before. (Why does Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss keep popping up in my mind?) After having raised three rounds of day-old chicks over the past year-and-a-half,  I decided to venture out and try something different--incubating fertilized eggs.

First things first, I hatched a plan. I desired a flock that would lay a variety of multicolored eggs--eggs that were olive, and blue, and chocolate--eggs that would make great photos. I, then, began to research purveyors of fertilized eggs.

When I typed in olive eggers--a cross between the Black Copper Maran and Ameracauna, and fertilized eggs on my Google search, I was directed to Chicken Scratch Poultry, a online site that sells fertilized eggs or day-old chicks.

I emailed Angie, the very friendly owner at Chicken Scratch Poultry, and placed an order for twelve varied chicks: 4 Olive Eggers, 2 Welsummers, 2 blue egg Ameracaunas, 2 French Black Copper Marans, and 2 French Blue Copper Marans. Angie was very helpful and communicative and told me specifically when the package of fertilized eggs would arrive. And, that date was today, March 7.

To see a box with the words "fragile" inscribed on it at my front doorstep excited me to no end. Carefully packed inside the box was a split egg carton, with six wrapped and marked eggs on each side. 

I unwrapped the eggs from the carton and gently placed them into my Farm Innovators Pro 4200 Incubator that was on the island in my kitchen. The night before, after a delicious dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant, I had come home and set up the incubator. In about three hours, the temperature was within the suggested 99 to 100 degrees F and the humidity was within the suggested 55-60% (after adding a little bit of water into the bottom of the tray).

The soft hum of the incubator suggested that my baby chicks were beginning to "bake". I noticed that as my house cooled in the evening, the incubator needed a slight adjustment to maintain its temperature. What I didn't expect was an incubator sensitivity to any slight turn of its top dial. With a slight twist, the temperature quickly rose to 101 degrees. I took the top off for a few minutes to let the  temperature drop. By turning dial to the left just a bit, the temperature fell back into range.

I now have 12 potential fertilized eggs going through the process of being potential chicks. Research shows there is a 50-80% hatch rate and then, there is a 50% chance that the chick can be a rooster. So, if you're searching for hens who are good layers, you may have better luck purchasing day old chicks. Unfortunately, I am the adventurous kind and believe in testing my scientific luck.

I'll keep you posted as the days progress!

What to Do After the Chickens Hatch

The Broody Lady Rah Rah                         Credit: Shobe Biz Communications

My Farm Innovators Model 4200 Incubator just arrived! This is my first foray into hatching chicks in an incubator. The eggs will be shipped next week from Chicken Scratch Poultry and will be a mix of Olive Egger, Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, French Black Copper Marans, and Welsummer fertilized eggs. I'm going for the different colored eggs this year for photographic and innovation reasons.

Since this is my first time incubating eggs, I thought I should bone up on some research. Travis Kellar of The Sentinel (Pennyslvania) wrote an informative article How to Raise Baby Chickens After Hatching. The Chickens should not be removed from the incubator until 48 hours after hatch. The brooder needs to be kept at 95 degrees and the temperature should be reduced five degrees for every successive week.

For the last several years, I have used a 250-watt heat lamp in the chicks brooder. For the brooder, I found a large wooden box and created a lid for it out of a wooden frame and avian wire.  In the chicks water, I put a few drops of apple cider vinegar and feed them yogurt to help them avoid pasty butt.

Who doesn't enjoy raising baby chicks? Now, it's time to try something new. I can't wait to see how the incubator works and how many chicks successfully peck their way into their new home!

Minaret's First Egg

Minaret's First Egg                          Photo Courtesy of Eve

Minaret, a lovely local Ameracauna who is relatively "new" onto the scene, just laid her first egg--an egg with a lovely bluish tint--for her "mother", Eve. (To everyone's surprise, Minaret didn't end up being a rooster!)

As we Chicken Women all know, there's nothing quite like a hen's first egg. When I came home last spring from a vacation to a local rural valley, I discovered my hen's first egg on the floor of the coop. I was so thrilled that I immediately began taking pictures. And, then, my girl Coachie, as if obeying some celestial clock, decided to lay her second egg for me while I was standing there...ah, there's nothing like "birth"!

A hen's first egg (oeuf) is definitely a cause for celebration. Eve seems to know how to celebrate in style--with a "pop" of the cork from a yummy bottle of champagne and a toast in honor of the young "gal.". Congratulations, Eve and Minaret!

Eve is the newbie owner of four lovely hens and a talented writer, photographer and foodie. She spends a good deal of her time whipping up delicious yummies both locally and in France and writes a wonderful foodie blog called Blue Moon. (Check it out. I just may have to whip up her delicious recipe on homemade Potstickers as an appetizer for Valentine's Day!) And, her mother, Tana, is proud to say that she is the great-grandmother of this new egg--although, as she said in her email, "it will get eaten!"


Here's a link to the story I wrote last spring about my Coachie's first egg: The First Egg.

Which Came First--The Chicken or The Egg?

Are you a member of Team Chicken or Team Egg?

Egg-traordinary Facts

Eggs from Chicken Women's Girls          Photo credit: Shobe Biz Communications

Crack open a fresh-from-the-farm egg and what's the first reaction? The yolk is orange. Orange yolks mean that the eggs are higher in carotenoids, which usually means the egg has higher amounts of Vitamin A and Omega-3. 

The Stir  at CafeMom.com has twelve surprise facts about eggs. Some of their other fun facts include:

1.  Vitamin D is all in the yolk of an egg.

2.  Those yucky little blood spots in the eggs (that we all try to avoid because it grosses us out) are when a blood vessel ruptures when the egg forms. They are not from fertilization.

3.  The freshest eggs sometimes have cloudy whites.

4.  A bad egg floats. My neighbor told me this one. Just think if all the human "bad eggs" floated??

5.  An egg takes 24-26 hours to form and the large end comes out first (I guess we can liken it to the head of baby). The average hen lays 250-270 eggs a year (ouch!). 

6.  To clean up egg off of the floor? Sprinkle salt on it.

Read the article for more amazing facts.

Here are some past Chicken Women posts that relate to eggs:

Cracking the Shell & Exposing the Heart - what makes hard-boiled eggs easy to peel & much more

Eggs are Excellent for Runners - it's true. They are.

All the Eggs in One Basket - A story about NOT putting all of your eggs in one basket...or maybe it is putting them in one basket, a basket at a time.

The Eggshell Sculptor - extraordinary eggshell art for the nimble of hand.