Eggs are too hard to crack open easily

[Barry]

2 of my pullets have been laying for a few weeks now, the only problem is the eggs have a hard shell and once you get it cracked the membrane is real hard to get through. DW would rather have store eggs than deal with these.
The girls free range and have grower finisher pellets in their feeder. Their favorite treat is cheese, they get a bit every few days.
Anyone know what makes the membrane real tough?
I would like to finish off the bag of grower before buying layer pellets.

 

[bryan8]

its called real and fresh eggs

enjoy, you will get the hang of cracking them

 

[silkiechicken]

Well, they are early on in their laying, and the chickens are healthy, so the membrane will either get to the "right" thickness as they mature and the eggs get bigger. Think of it this way, healthy birds give you healthy eggs with strong shells trying to keep the nutrition in the egg rather than broken.

Or, if thinner membranes is due to aging, you can try and leave the eggs in the fridge for a few weeks, then eating them. If I remember right, eggs can be "fresh" up to 45 days post packaging.

 

[Imp]

Yeah, hard shells are a fact of chicken life.

You could consider getting you DW a 16 lb kitchen sledge for Christmas.

Imp- well maybe not

 

[Barry]

Quote:
Yeah, DW was not impressed with that suggestion and I would not know how to gift wrap it.

 

[wombat]

They'll get easier to crack as the eggs get to full size.

Are you having trouble cracking them in general, or only hard-boiled? Extremely fresh eggs can be tricky to peel with hard boiling. The membrane often sticks. Either peel under cold water right after boiling, or let the eggs sit a few days before you make hard boiled with them.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
About boiled eggs ..... I learned how to peel FRESH boiled eggs easily!

First, bring the water to a boil. Then lower the eggs into the water.
Boil 10 - 15 mins (depending on size, and your preference)
Then, most important ..... put the freshly boiled fresh eggs into ICE water to cool. Yup, not just cold water ... ice water. It works! Last night I boiled up yesterdays collection of eggs. All peeled very easily.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

When its been a while that you have been without fresh eggs, you tend to forget how to crack them and it takes a while......for me anyway. But then once you have the hang of it, God forbid you, for some reason, have to crack a store bought egg......what a mess!!!

 

[greathorse]

All of that is a good thing by the way. I get disappointed when the shells break easily, it makes me feel like I have raised store bought eggs.

I break mine on a sharper edge and have no issues. For example I might hold the edge of the spatula in my off hand and break the egg on that instead of the edge of the skillet or against the other eggs. It works for me.

I do know what you mean I do have to be more cautious to not get shells in the scrambled eggs.

 

[Amyable]

Well, paper-thin eggshells = cheap quality. Horray, you've got some healthy girls giving you eggs of high quality!