Storage Of Fresh Eggs
Guest post: by Christine Coburn
We are a farm so of course we have chickens… And ducks…. And guineas… And hopefully soon turkeys also…
Currently I am using fresh eggs from April (4 months !). I bring in my fresh eggs and wash them carefully with antibacterial soap then I dry them and then coat them well with mineral oil. (You can buy it in the pharmacy section of any store, it is sold as a laxative) See how shiny they are…
I write the date on the carton.
Then I store them in the fridge in my travel trailer which I have set to the warmest temp to save electricity. I take my fresh eggs out to storage and use the oldest eggs to cook. First in first out…
I always break my eggs in a cup or a bowl first before I put them in anything because of course there can be a micro fracture in the shell which you can not see but is big enough for bacteria to get in the egg and spoil it. This egg is from April. As you can see it is perfectly fine.
I usually have 1 egg out of 12 that is bad. Except for duck eggs!!!! I oiled and stored a couple dozen duck eggs as an experiment. My family loves the big rich yolks of the duck eggs and they make wonderful mayonnaise. That was a bad idea!! Instead of 1 being bad I had 11 bad eggs and only 1 good one. I am unsure of the reason, maybe the shells are thinner or more porous, but I can tell you for sure that duck eggs do NOT store well!!!!
Christine’s website:
http://flamingphoenixfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/
(submit your own guest article here)
Appreciate topics of survival, emergency preparedness – or planning for disaster?
Read our current articles on Modern Survival Blog
twitter: MSurvivalBlog
Facebook
We just spent the last 4 yrs in Costa Rica and no one puts their eggs in the frig. We always had 30-40 eggs set out in cartons on top counter and no problems…who started the cold egg is a good egg ?
Unless you coat the eggs with some sort of oil (or other?) to keep the air from seeping in, refrigeration helps maintain a longer shelf life. Bacteria will grow much, much slower in a cold environment. This is true of all perishable foods.
If you don’t wash the bloom off the eggs they will keep for months without refrigeration. That bloom is there to prevent bacteria from entering the egg. There is also a membrane inside the shell that is a second layer of defense against bacteria. If the chickens have clean nest boxes, the eggs don’t need washed.
Those ‘fresh’ eggs you buy at the grocery store can be up to SIX months old and still be labeled as fresh, legally.
In very hot climates (like here) we have egg cellars to keep them from getting too hot and spoiling.
By the way, mineral oil is a petroleum based product, I would never deliberately put it on or in food, let alone use it for a laxative.
You can also wax them for even longer shelf life. Since we have the chickens i am only shooting for six months or so.
Great article.
Greetings, 1st thought… But, eggs have a natural anti-bacterial coating and washing removes it… Also while I get that it is not in direct contact with the eggs, and applaud your shelf life ingenuity, “mineral oil” is a petroleum by-product… Between the shell and inner membrane, which, also prevents “Micro fractures” from being an issue, I keep my birds on all the oyster shell they can eat. That on top of the calcium in the organic feed. Definitely harder shells than commercial store eggs. They also get all of the organic matter that would usually be composted. At least 3 times a year I pay for it as I have to dig out about a foot of nutrient rich soil/humous and it then gets refilled with the yellowish under sand that this area has from moraine deposits. Great little workers, and lord you have to love a good duck egg. Filing you article in the old gray matter. It was great that you put it out, Thank you. I’m seeing the potential for survival purposes. No electricity, oil them up, and bury them deep in a cool spot. Just a flash thought. Survive-All… o…
@otter;
You are right that calcium is very important to strong healthy egg shells. Commercial egg-layers are only given enough calcium to form a very thin shell.
If you give your chickens all the calcium they can eat, you’ll have almost impervious shells that will keep the eggs fresh a lot longer.
Calcium doesn’t only come from oyster shell and supplements either. Chickens need a lot of greens, which are high in calcium.
Every year I grow something for my chickens. This year it was Lamb’s Quarter, Swiss Chard and Pink Banana Squash, all being high in calcium and a lot of other nutrients.
Hello Tammy, Back at you. That’s why I mentioned all of our organic food stuffs. They get about a milk cartoon a day in volume, and they run free in the day. Really helps keep the tick count down. The funniest is when they get leftover rice spaghetti, it would seem to be hard wired into them. Used to have fields of lamb’s quarter out west, in with the stinging nettles. Loved to eat them both and good survival wilds to know about. Your posts information grows. Please send in another of your personal tricks via post. Your eggs are beautiful by the way. Survive-All… Be well, o…