What do you do with extra eggs?

[Hidrainja4]

All winter not enough production. I shamefully buy store eggs because my 25 chickens don't lay enough eggs in the winter. Then comes spring and I sell a few dozen eggs per week roadside and several dozen eggs goes to the food bank. I have read that you can preserve eggs but I have never done that. What do you do?

 

[NatJ]

All winter not enough production. I shamefully buy store eggs because my 25 chickens don't lay enough eggs in the winter. Then comes spring and I sell a few dozen eggs per week roadside and several dozen eggs goes to the food bank. I have read that you can preserve eggs but I have never done that. What do you do?

The main method I have used to "preserve" eggs is to put them in cartons in the fridge. They can keep for a long time that way (definitely weeks, I think up to several months.)

If you date each egg or each carton, you can eat the oldest ones first. If you find that the quality goes down, or if your fridge is overflowing, you can use the oldest eggs to feed back to the chickens, which leaves the newer ones in your fridge to eat.

It can be good to have a nice stockpile before they stop laying for the winter.

If they lay eggs twice as fast as you eat them, and you keep eating the oldest eggs, you might find a pattern somewhat like this: eggs laid in April get eaten in April and May. Eggs laid in May get eaten in June and July. Eggs laid in June get eaten in August and September. Eggs laid in July get eaten in October and November.The egg production keeps getting further ahead of the eating, until it reaches the point where the production slows down again, and you start catching up, maybe with eggs laid in September being only enough for one month, and eggs laid later than October being far lower than you actually eat.

Other than putting eggs in the fridge, I have made a point of cooking all the egg-heavy dishes that got skipped when there were no eggs. So it's time for cakes, cookies, pancakes, quiches, rice pudding, yorkshire pudding, pumpkin pie, etc. This means I will use less eggs later, because I have eaten those foods "recently" and do not feel a great need for them.

I have sometimes cooked things that include eggs, where I can freeze them to use later (cookie dough to bake later, cookies that are already baked and can be eaten later, waffles to reheat in the toaster later, banana bread to eat later, etc.) This can fill a lot of freezer space very quickly, so I have never done this in large amounts. But things like frozen waffles would take up just as much space if I bought them from the store, so cooking them myself is a way to use extra eggs and not change the amount of freezer space being used.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

At one point I saw a BYC Cookbook, I'm going to look for it after this post. I don't think that I submitted my "Taco egg bake," but it uses 33 eggs! It's a breakfast (or lunch or dinner,) crowd pleaser and so easy. Taco meat, Eggs, Crushed corn chips, Salsa, Cheese, Cream Cheese. mix and bake. I also have a French version Egg Bake and Italian. I never have problems with egg surplus considering egg heavy recipes and neighbors. I also give my dogs 1 egg/day.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Eggs freeze really well and are useful for baking or scrambling. I usually separate them and have jars of just whites for scrambling (my husband prefers them). The yolks I use to make egg noodles which I freeze and use in all my pasta dishes. This is especially nice because my husband has to have gluten free noodles and GF egg noodles can be expensive or hard to find.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you take 12 eggs, scramble them, pour them evenly in 12 muffin pan holes, freeze them. Pop them out, and keep in a freezer bag, it is easy to pick out 'two eggs' for baking.

I have also scramble eggs and pour into a gallon bag to use when the family comes home.

But this year, I am putting them in lime water in glass gallon jars. I mix the lime water up in an empty gallon milk jug. Put in eggs into the glass jar, add water to cover, over a couple of days until the jar is full. Write the date on the jar.

Last winter, I had no egg production from late October to end of January. I kept track and bought 14 dozen eggs. This year I plan to have that put away. I have 4 dozen now.

Even later on this summer in the heat, egg production will drop. So put the eggs away now.

Mrs K

 

[rosemarythyme]

I refrigerate as many as I can for winter, starting in late summer. They'll keep for months without problem as long as you use up the oldest eggs first. I shamefully had to buy a dozen eggs from my neighbor this year before laying resumed.

I used to give extra eggs to my in-laws and neighbors but in-laws and the adjoining neighbor have left and many of the other nearby lots now have their own flocks.

One option not listed was "Feed them to other animals" as I do feed some surplus to our dogs.