# Washing eggs? Uh oh



## jennifer (May 14, 2013)

I read an older thread about egg washing? I've been washing mine with soap and water! I can't believe that I've been doing this. When I first got chickens a friend of mine showed me what he did and I didn't think anything of it... Bad bad!


----------



## DanielleBoland (Nov 25, 2012)

What r u suppose to do


----------



## jennifer (May 14, 2013)

I guess nothing really...


----------



## DanielleBoland (Nov 25, 2012)

Wb b4 u eat them or are we just talking washing b4 hatching


----------



## kjohnstone (Mar 30, 2013)

Don't wash them until you are ready to crack them.


----------



## DanielleBoland (Nov 25, 2012)

We usually wash them a week or so b4 (tht just how long they sit in the fridge) i sell and giv eggs to my family i wash them b4 i giv them away?!?!? Wat can it cause???


----------



## hennypenny68 (Apr 30, 2013)

I purchased an egg washing soap from the feed store that works great it doesn't destroy the pertective layer on the egg just takes the poop off if there is any on my eggs.


----------



## kessy09 (Jun 16, 2013)

Washing eggs removes the bloom (protective layer surrounding the egg). This allows bacteria to enter the pores faster and so the longevity of the egg is reduced by washing. After you do a light wash, you can rub mineral oil lightly onto the egg with a cloth. That coats it with a bit of protection but its not the same as the original. However, most people I think, would prefer that over buying poopy eggs.


----------



## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

I don't wash eggs because it's incredibly unnecessary and I don't put unnecessary steps into my daily routine or life if I can help it. The occasional smudge is wiped off with a damp rag, overly poopy eggs are given to the dog and life rolls on.

If one is consistently getting poopy eggs, some adjustment to the coop environment and nesting situation needs to happen. For the most part, I rarely ever get a poopy egg..and just minimal smudges here and there. Usually, eggs are very clean and don't need a thing but to be admired and placed in a basket on the counter and there to wait until consumption.


----------



## kjohnstone (Mar 30, 2013)

Bee said:


> I don't wash eggs because it's incredibly unnecessary and I don't put unnecessary steps into my daily routine or life if I can help it. The occasional smudge is wiped off with a damp rag, overly poopy eggs are given to the dog and life rolls on.
> 
> If one is consistently getting poopy eggs, some adjustment to the coop environment and nesting situation needs to happen. For the most part, I rarely ever get a poopy egg..and just minimal smudges here and there. Usually, eggs are very clean and don't need a thing but to be admired and placed in a basket on the counter and there to wait until consumption.


I hear that! I haven't washed my eggs, not poopy. I haven't been washing my eggs at all, they have been so clean. Nobody is pooping in the nesting boxes (buckets). I still don't have a coop, and I am using 5 gal buckets laying on their side. I have 2X4's running under, used some 2ft rebar hammered partly into the ground on either side of the nesting buckets to keep them from rolling around, straw bales across the side that they are placed in front of and at either end of that side, and a wide, solid (heavy) plank of plywood across over the buckets to shelter and shade the area (in addition to the tarp over the top of the pen). That side is 8' long total, and I've only put in 2 buckets, they mostly use just one, so the rest of the space under the plank has a cave-ey atmosphere, and they like it there. I also have a 2x4 roost runing across those same bales, a foot or so in front of the bucket area. They use the dickens out of it. When I stoop over it to reach down to get eggs out of the buckets, at least a couple of the girls will run up on either side of me, apparently just to peer at my face close up. Have never tried to peck at me, but I make sure I've got my glasses on. Oh yeah, I cut a big "D" shape out of the bucket lids, position the buckets with the "D" like an upside down smile (so there is a nice lip to keep the bedding in) and am using wood shavings. I don't do anything to close them up, and the girls have been behaving themselves beautifully. I put them out there, oh, probably 2 weeks before the first egg, so they were acustomed to having them there. I have only twice found an egg on the ground, and those were peewee eggs, so probably the mother's first.


----------



## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Sounds like a great setup! I love repurposing and recycling and farming on the cheap....I almost make a game out of making something from nothing because it's such a neat challenge to not spend money on things that can be made easily out of scraps of this or that and still look great. 

My nest boxes are plastic totes with snap on lids that lock on with the use of the handles. If I ever add more nests, I'll probably go with the 5 gal. buckets just for added interest and shapes in the coop~plus, they are amazingly cheap and versatile and we have plenty on the place!


----------



## jennifer (May 14, 2013)

Cool! If you don't have a coop where do they sleep? Odd q but I am really interested


----------



## kjohnstone (Mar 30, 2013)

On a 2x4 roost, on the straw bales, and in bad weather, in the cavey area under the plank. I'll try to take a picture tonight after it gets good and dark. If you look for a thread from me "Nesting Buckets" you can see part of my pen that includes a hen laying in a bucket.


----------



## kjohnstone (Mar 30, 2013)

..........


----------



## zardoz (Aug 2, 2013)

kjohnstone said:


> ..........


Do you have any problems with the chickens picking apart the straw bales? Mine will pick apart a bale in about 5 minutes.

Jim


----------



## kjohnstone (Mar 30, 2013)

Those are the same bales I started with 2 months ago. They had been weathering for a couple of months in the open before that. The girls tasted them abit when I first put the girls in the pen. Mostly they poop on them...talk about deep litter! Maybe it helped that since the straw bales were there already when I put the girls in, they accepted them as part of the environment. I notice that, even when it is an improvement, the girls get very upset about every change I come in and make.


----------

