Egg Cleaning Duty

Many people are surprised to find out that when we collect the eggs from the chicken coop, they do not look exactly like they do in the grocery store.  Aside from being fancier colours (a topic we will discuss in a future post), the eggs are dirty!

The eggs can be covered in mud from the chickens' feet, bits of feather, pieces of straw and sometimes even chicken poop.  This last one is most common if an egg is laid on the floor of the coop instead of in a nest or if a chicken accidentally poops in a nest instead of on the floor!  Consequently, before the eggs can be packed away in cartons and stored in the fridge, they need to be washed.

Unfortunately washing an egg removes the thin outer coating on them that makes the shell impermeable to bacteria.  We've read that this coating should allow a fresh, unwashed egg to remain good for up to six months without refrigeration!  We've never tested this but apparently some farmers use sandpaper to remove any dirt or debris from the eggs instead of washing them so the eggs don't have to be stored in the fridge.  This is more commonly done in Europe.  Our eggs; however, are often quite dirty, we don't have the patience to sand them and barely anyone in Canada wishes to store their eggs for long periods of time at room temperature - so we give them a gentle scrub and into the fridge they go!