Egg Survey
A quick question here...
If you sell eggs, or even if you just were going to sell eggs, do you feel like they should be cleaned? Or do you feel cleaning is up to the person who buys the eggs?
I'm curious... so tell me EGG-xactly what you think!
Labels: chickens, country life
posted by Rural Writer @ 7:51 AM
21 Comments
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21 Comments:
Just me, but I would rinse all the stuff off. It's probably city folks buying your eggs or they'd have chickens of their own?? Having to scrub rock hard chicken poo off their eggs might put them off coming back for more eggs. Just my 2 cents worth.
We sold eggs for years--beautiful ones like the ones you pictured. BUT,they were always nice and clean for our customers.
Hmmmm....well, I know you're not *supposed* to clean eggs because it supposedly lets the bacteria in, but I, personally, would wipe the crap (literally) off. :-) I've heard that you can use some fine sandpaper to brush it off and that this won't wash the protective film off.
I plan to clean any poo off with a damp rag. Washing the entire egg will remove the "bloom" from the shell. That's a nice variety of egg colors, by the way.
Well if i buy free range eggs from a farmer/ small holding kinda place i really dont care what they have on them ..they look more free range if they are messy !! my mum used to say you gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die!! ha ha
I think from are local farmers store you can buy a block kinda thing ,softish to just wizz over the egg and it shines the egg to, i
am more than happy to wash em myself if they were real messy and didnt plan to use them for a few days ,,and most folk i know that choose farmers eggs instead of supermarket battery eggs just love that messy look of ...REAL.. chickens who rome about and lay where ever !! ... Kieren x
Hi RW,
For sale, probably clean them, for home use....hahaha...I guess it's if you have a minute or two!!!
;-) (I read your earlier post!!!)
Nothing says fresh like a little poo...
If you're going to leave the decoration on the eggs, make sure they're all decorated or the city-folks will get suspicious.
Looks like you're at 6 of one and a half-dozen of the other!
Actually, they're not my eggs. I got them with one of my weekly CSA baskets of food. I don't have any chickens that lay the pretty green eggs, or really dark brown.
I was just curious if it was usual to leave eggs dirty that you were selling to people.
In all seriousness, some people would need to have them cleaned.
I am allergic to raw chicken and eggs (and birds). I can't be within a few feet of a bird or where a bird has been and my eyes start itching and swelling and I get to sneeze until my brain doesn't function.
I have to wear gloves when preparing eggs or chicken, so it would probably send me (and others with an allergy) into a frenzy if the poo remained.
Good thing I'm not allergic to Snickers!
A damp paper towel would have cleaned these off quickly. I don't think they're terrible, they're a good representative of what cage free eggs really are, but I wouldn't put them in my fridge this way. I'm a little fussy about putting manure in the fridge.
That's what I figured, it wouldn't have taken much to clean them a little, and keep from contaminating the egg carton. Once I clean them, I put them in a new egg carton. I'm not fond of poop in the fridge either.
We get a farm fresh egg share and they are always clean. You may see a little dirt here and there, but for the most part, clean. We are not allowed to reuse the cartons tho. Is that the same for you, do you know? Like we cant return them to the farmer and have them recycle them for the next batch.
With those particular group they don't ask for them back. I don't see why it would make any difference though, since the eggs are dirty anyway. I'm not sure what other groups do around here.
I'm shocked that your CSA gives you eggs in that condition.
I never wash or soak my eggs from any of my chickens, but I do spot clean if they have poo on them.
My customers always appreciate that and I would, too. A piece of hay or a feather ot two (which my customers get a kick out of actually) are fine, but not caked on poo....in my opinion.
Something funny I wanted to add is that sometimes my customers have asked me why I slip in the store bought eggs in my cartons.
They seem surprised when I tell them that even farm grown, cage free chickens can lay white eggs.
They often act confused when I tell them that not all farm chickens only lay brown or green eggs. haha!
We have two brown leghorns that lay white eggs. I try to make sure and include at least two green eggs, two white eggs, two pink eggs, and the rest off the eggs are different shades of brown.
I think customers like the variety, but since they always see white eggs from those mass produced egg factories, they mostly prefer anything but white eggs. haha
Okay, what kind of chickens lay pink eggs?
It makes sense people would think white eggs are from "the factory farms." And I agree that a few feathers or sprigs of hay make them seem more country... but manure is a little different and a damp cloth would get rid of that pretty quickly. Seems like that's not so much to ask.
It's not that I'm so prissy about handling poop - you can't live on a farm and not deal with it! But I don't like to leave it on the eggs for a long time as germs might get through the permeable shell.
I agree. And it's even worse if someone tries to crack the poop covered egg without washing it first themselves.....all those germs right into the mix. ewww!
So, like you I believe firmly in spot wiping eggs to remove any poop or stains. I never have to soak any of our eggs, though because our coop and nest boxes are very clean, so the eggs stay mostly clean, too.
Thanks for the response.
Oh! And the pink eggs are laid by one of my Ameracauna chickens. We have 3. One lays green eggs, one lays blue/green eggs and one lays pink. Pretty cool, eh?
I need some of those Ameracauna chickens. Blue/green and pink and green eggs! That's just tooooo cool!!!
People come and get eggs from my friends house (for free) and we do not clean them for them. It doesn't bother me. If I was paying for them I would think they would be cleaned.
I sell my eggs and I always wash them. I wish I didn't have to, but this time of year it's snowing one day and muddy the next, so the chickens naturally have dirty feet from the mud which is laced with poo! No matter how clean I keep the nest boxes or how often I put in clean shavings, they just seem to get poo-mud on the eggs! Some of my customers would understand, but the city slicker types think farm eggs are "quaint" because they are different colors and sizes. I don't believe they would think poo-mud was so quaint though. I try to remember that just because I'm surrounded by poo from all the critters I raise and it doesn't freak me out, that others may not feel the same. And I know it's a long shot, but I would hate for anyone to get sick because they didn't take the time to wash the egg before cracking it open. Even a little bit of poo I can't see could be lurking on an egg, so I use Shaklee's Basic-H dissolved in water to wash them. I have lots of happy customers, so I want to keep it that way. :)
If I were to sell them, I'd wash them. But I have bought many that were not clean and they tasted fine. I want to comment that I love your blog. I'm just starting my 4 acre farm with two goats. Then I plan to add chickens and a green house. I've lived in the country for quite some time but never started a farm. Mostly we had dogs and they just don't seem to go well with farm animals. But now we are down to one old, fat, lab and she's more curious than aggressive to the goats. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for the kind words about my blog. Don't miss the newer posts at http://www.RuralRamblings.com
Enjoy your farm!
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