If you are new to keeping chickens for eggs, you are probably still trying to figure out the best way to clean your eggs. The first thing to do is make sure they have a clean laying area. What we have found works best for laying material is pine shavings, it seems to almost work like cat litter, it attracts the moisture and keeps the chicken poo covered up, its cozy for the hens too:) If you notice any chicky poo being tracked in try to clean it as soon as you can, this helps keep your eggs clean..
Eggs come out perfectly clean, its amazing how the Lord made everything PERFECT! Its important to know a few things about cleaning your eggs to keep them fresher, longer. First of all eggs have a natural antibacterial coating on them called the Bloom. This amazing coating protects the egg from any bacteria getting to the inside. If the eggs are washed the bloom can be washed off, then your eggs are at risk!
Hopefully if you are able to keep your laying area clean you wont even need to clean your eggs, but if there is a little bit of poo on them all you do is use something abrasive, I use a little sanding block that looks like this
I think a little sanding block like the one pictured above is about $3 at walmart, or any hardware store. Make sure you sanitize the sanding block occasionally.
Also make sure its the most fine sanding block, cause you don't want to sand away the bloom.
If your egg looks really messy you can rinse it in warmer water then the temperature of the egg. Don't use cold water. I never wash my eggs, if they are too dirty. I just boil the eggs that are really dirty.
I have read that in other countries eggs can't be sold in stores that have been washed, they believe that the hygiene of the farm should be so clean that the eggs shouldn't need to be washed, unlike the USA standards the FDA mandates that all the eggs must be washed since most of the egg farms are soo filthy, and most of the time they use chemicals to wash the eggs. Just another reason to have your own laying hens.
Our eggs get nasty if we use anything other than the pine shavings too and since I hate washing eggs, I try to keep the boxes clean. That is if our gals bother to lay in the boxes, they seem to like laying everywhere but there!
ReplyDeleteWe use the hay that falls on the ground while carrying it to the goat pen as nesting material. For us it's easier than buying another product.
ReplyDeleteI love your egg sign-followed it from the Homestead Barn Hop.
Quinn ~ We don't have a problem with our chickens laying any where else besides the laying boxes, I wonder what you can do to make them lay in their laying boxes?
ReplyDeleteKelly ~ Thanks for stopping by:) We used to use hay, but then we needed some thing to put on the dirt in the chicken pen it was getting really muddy and stinky, so we bought some pine shavings, so now we just use the pine shavings for the laying boxes.
Great tip that I can pass along to my son who is building a chicken tractor.
ReplyDeleteChicken Tractors are great:) Good for him.
ReplyDeleteWe live in the city. But one day we'd like to get a small plot of land. We've talked about chickens but the thought of them waking me up too early usually enters my mind. How far is your hen house from your house? Do the chickens wake you up?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to answer April's question too. Our chickens don't usually wake us, but the rooster does! We live near a busy street, so sleep with a fan on to block traffic noise as much as anything, but it keeps us from hearing the rooster as much as an hour before sunrise.
ReplyDeleteApril ~ Our Hen house is probably 3 feet from our bedroom wall and about 5 feet from my girls room. We don't have a rooster right now but we had 2 for a while and they didn't bother us at all unless we slept with our windows open! We only got rid of them so that we didn't have to worry about our neighbors getting mad at us.
ReplyDeleteKelly ~ I turn on our bathroom fans to block outside noise when my girls are napping:)
Thanks for the great tip with the sanding block. I found your post on the Barn Hop. I try to check on the hens (I have 70) Yes, good point about the chemicals. Another reason to have your own chickens. Blessings from Wisconsin
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