Question for hippywife and other chicken raisers:

[beac]

A neighbor gave me some fresh eggs from her chickens. They are clearly straight from the coop, based on some of the...um... debris... on the shells.

So, how does one clean an egg shell in order to avoid transmitting any unpleasantness and/or cleaning agent on the outside to the eggy inside?


(I did ask 'The Google' about this and got all KINDS of conflicting info, so I thought I'd turn to this well-trusted forum. :hi: )




FYI, this woman is a bit of a flake, so I am also wondering if her chicken husbandry has somehow contributed to the ookiness of her eggshells.

[Warpy]

1. Don't wash the egg until you're ready to crack it open

There is a coating on the outside of the shell that keeps bacteria from the chicken, um, detritus from getting inside the egg and infecting the growing embryo. You can brush the loose stuff off with a paper towel, just don't use water.

Fresh farm eggs are always covered with straw and chicken doodle. Commercial eggs are dropped through the bottom of the tiny cage the chicken lives in and never get a chance to be dirtied but they all come from the same place and you really didn't want to think about that, did you?

So tolerate the dirty shells until you're ready to use the egg, safe in the knowledge that the dirt means the interior has been kept safe for you.

[Tesha]

2. you made me laugh...

"but they all come from the same place and you really didn't want to think about that, did you?"


:rofl: :loveya: :rofl:

thank you...

[beac]

3. Thanks, Warpy.

Makes sense that Mother Nature would have a system to protect the growing chickie inside.

It's not so much that "didn't want to think about that"-- as I only buy eggs at the local farmer's market, never factory-farmed eggs-- but I'd never seen eggs with quite so much... um... doodle... on them before.

[hippywife]

4. Warpy is correct.

If you wash the eggs it washes off what's called the bloom which is a protective coating on the outer shell. I don't wash mine until I use them. And I'm careful when cracking them to make sure no shell gets into whatever I'm using them in. It's easier to do with frash aigs because the shells tend to be denser and harder to crack.

I also don't care if it has a little blood spot in it. Unless it's a good sized one and is kinda thick, I mix it right in. If it is, I fish it out. It helps to crack them into a smaller bowl rather than right into whatever you're making.

Enjoy them frash aigs. :hi:

[grasswire]

5. is there a name for that little clot...

....of stuff attached to the yolk?

[hippywife]

6. Yeah,

it's called chalaza. I just mix that in there, too. Doesn't hurt anything. It's meant to hold the yolk in place within the egg.

[Warpy]

7. When it's big enough, you can call it a balut.

I watched Zimmerman choke one of those down last night. He pronounced it a combination of hard boiled egg and boiled chicken until he got to the liquid. Apparently that was pretty nasty.

[hippywife]

8. A balut is a fertilized egg with an embryo.

The chalaza doesn't become the embryo.

[Warpy]

9. The chalazae are the white stringy things in the white

The blood spot is exactly that, a blood spot caused by the chicken having a small blood vessel rupture during egg formation. This isn't uncommon and most eggs with large blood spots are eliminated during processing.

Small blood spots can be picked out with a piece of shell or, as noted above, simply mixed in if the eggs are scrambled or used in baked goods.

Less commonly, those bloody spots indicate a developing embryo in a fertilized egg that wasn't snatched out of the nest soon enough. That's what I was referring to when I joked about having it turn into a balut.

[hippywife]

10. From what I've read

the blood spots indicating fertilization are of a different consistency altogether than the usual small blood spots normally found in fresh eggs, and are easily discernable.

And, of course, if there are no roosters in the flock, then there is no concern.

The one thing that has truly amazed me since we started keeping chickens is how many people actually believe that chickens can't lay eggs without a rooster. I found this fallacy so widespread, I was astounded. I always thought that was basic biology.

Edited for spelling.

[Warpy]

11. You'd think the premium charged for fertilized eggs

in whole food stores would give them a clue, wouldn't you?

[hippywife]

12. The people that think this

span all groups and not many of them are ever in a position to see fertilized eggs being sold. I know I've never seen them in any store.

I can even remember being aware of this as a child, and I wasn't raised on a farm. I've always had a keener interest in science than most other subjects, so that might be the difference. :shrug: