Water Glassing - is this the stuff?

[Titantherooster]

I know the egg season won’t calm down for a few months but I’m curious what lime exactly you went with and if you have started storing them have you tried any from that water glassed bucket? I’m hoping to do this myself as we get about 6-7 eggs a day and would like to start saving up a few each day now in advance. Thanks for any direction!

 

[AllenK RGV]

This guy's channel does deep dives into early food preservation/preparation techniques.

He doesn't discuss egg quality degradation. Hope this better late than never can be of use to you it just reminded me of this thread.

 

[mariopepper]

As I know ph level is supposed to keep bacteria away so the eggs don't spoil , so yo're absolutely right

 

[KarynVA]

I have not tried this yet, but I plan to, and I will use the lime found here, which is Food Grade Calcium Hydroxide (lime).

 

[drstratton]

So I want to start trying this method of preserving eggs. I looked at both the big orange home improvement big box store and the big blue one. What I found in the slot for “hydrated lime” is something called “type-s lime” at both stores. It seems as if it’s a combination of calcium hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide. Is this what I’m supposed to be using or is pure calcium hydroxide getting harder to find in my area?

I just started my experiment with this...here is the thread link if you are interested!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/water-glassing-egg-preservation-experiment.1428588/

 

[Smagg1971]

Wood ashe from your wood stove, clean wood though not painted or treated wood, natural hardwood, the ashes help preserve eggs, but can lead to your eggs having a bit of ashy flavor

 

[father0fnine]

Spring time has come upon us and the chickens have started to lay again. I thought it would be a good time to revisit my preserving from the summer before.

I picked up a 3 gal food grade bucket, the lime we were talking about early in the thread, and got to work. We'd keep two dozen in cartons on the counter which we'd rotate and refill with each day's haul and the rest of the eggs were put into the bucket. In a short time, we had the bucket filled with eggs.

First off, the quality of the eggs did decline. The yokes would loose cohesion and become runny. In the end, the family didn't want to eat fried eggs that didn't have a defined yoke so we used the eggs for baking, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs that were later cut up for egg salads or such. Anything where the yoke as a whole wasn't important.

Second, the eggs are still eggs and the water doesn't really protect anything. We lost a few eggs to breakage. It seems the advise to put the bucket in the place you want it to rest the whole winter. The eggs aren't safe from being moved from place to place.

Finally, I consider the project a success. We filled a 3 gal bucket with eggs and used almost all of them over winter. As the chickens have started laying, I will be cleaning out the bucket. I will just toss the eggs that are left but they were eggs that would have gone bad months ago if just left out so I don't consider it a loss. In the end, we'll be throwing away less than a dozen from... how many will fit in a 3 gal bucket.

D

 

[cavemanrich]

Did you give the thought of using smaller containers like one gallon size, and first filled, first used idea. You would need multiple, but easier to move around and store.
Breakage would be less due to less weight on shells.

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

If anyone like me is coming late to this thread, I thought this one might be useful. It talks about the silicate vs lime methods and the success of them. Thank you for this great thread to the OP and other commenters and the final result report. https://practicalselfreliance.com/ways-to-preserve-eggs/

 

[KMedley]

I believe the pH levels are supposed to keep bacteria away so the eggs don't spoil, too.

I chose to use the lime-method because it *seemed* easier to get pure slaked lime. Nobody (that I read yet) provided any guidance at all for finding appropriate sodium silicate for preserving eggs in. The "water glass" also seemed to be more expensive than the lime.

I'm interested in the outcome, too, and I'll be sure to share the results!

D

I know this post isn’t recent... but I went to the store today and got hydrated lime. The back of the back says “derived from calcium hydroxide.” Did I get the wrong kind??