Egg grading

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I don't know if this is in the right area, but I'm wondering how eggs are graded, A, AA, etc...and how to grade my chickens eggs when I start selling them??

 

[IggiMom]

I sell eggs. I have a label of my own that I made up, and one of the things it says is "ungraded eggs".

Catherine

 

[standardbanty]

There are a couple ways to grade eggs but the way you are interested in is the interior quaility of the eggs. It s complicated and i will try to find you a link.

 

[Gardeninggranny]

When people sell their own eggs on a small scale they generally just make sure the eggs are clean, have normal shells and are about the same size in the carton and they don't worry about grading them.

However you can grade your eggs if you want to. Eggs are weighed to establish size from small to jumbo. Put eggs that look the same size in a carton and weigh- min 30 oz for jumbo, xlarge-27 oz., large - 24 oz., - med 21 oz, - small 18 oz and pee wee - 15 oz
these are per dozen and minus weight of carton.

Grading them AA etc is much harder for the home producer. AA eggs have well centered yolks, thick whites, small air cells. The shells are clean, egg shaped uncracked An A graded egg has a clean shell, good shape, the yolk may be slightly less well defined, off center

B grade eggs have unbroken shells that may be slightly stained or odd shaped The yolks are smaller, whites thinner.

grade c eggs are uncracked but may be quite odd shaped or stained

A lot of this is hard for the novice to judge and I would suggest just grading your eggs by size. Make sure you only sell fresh eggs that have uncracked shells, that are clean and not stained and don't have shell defects like rough spots or pimples and are shaped well.

 

[IggiMom]

Quote:
Gosh, I didn't know all that. The man I talked to from the County Extension office just said something like "Well, your eggs are packed the same day they are gathered (true) so they are probably AA. But you should mark your carton 'ungraded'."

So I do.

I go to great extents to make my selling eggs perfect, and so far, I can sell all my industrious little hens produce. I do not put in any that are unusual, round, or oval, or some other odd shape, or bantie eggs, or of course chipped or cracked. WE get to eat all of the above.

I clean them all.

And I rub them with a very thin coating of food quality mineral oil.

I put them into clear plastic containers to make them look beautiful, which they are, and they are all different colors. I put my own labels on them, and two pretty little stickers, one that says 'Free range' and one that says, 'Hand gathered eggs'.

Eggcartons.com has some stickers that say 'Laid in America' with a little flag, and I was going to use those, too, but my husband thought people might think it was off color, which in NO WAY is what I meant--do you think so? I would like an opinion.

If I highjacked this thread I am sorry!

Catherine

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

No worries! If it gathers more information, all the better!!

Thanks to everyone for your responses!!