Ill from Chicken's Eggs?

[Cc9356]

Hi all! This app helped me setup our coop & run for our first chickens just a couple years ago. I love this app, thank you all for sharing your knowledge, funny stories and tips!

We have 6 chickens we used to see every day & collect eggs from. We've since moved to a new home & my mom currently maintains the chickens (plan is to get coop built here & bring home with us soon). My question is this: with me not being there to collect the eggs every day, how often do eggs need to be collected to ensure they're safe?

My hubs is worried if the eggs are allowed to lay in coop or run for more than 1 day (they don't always use their boxes), they'll get pooped on, get exposed to sun, etc; he's worried he'll get sick if he eats them. Even though it's getting cooler now (we're in E TN), what constitutes a safe time frame to collect the eggs, despite possibly laying in yard, and not risk getting ill? I so badly want to go back to eating our healthy chicken eggs and not Walmart's hormone filled ones lol.

Any tips or tricks on what to look out for or avoid? Thank you!!

 

[Velociraptors]

I usually go by a rule of thumb to toss out eggs that are over 3 days old. It gets very warm here (FL) and it isn’t worth the risk. You won’t get sick from eggs left out for a day or two, but more than that would be questionable; any dirty eggs (poop, dirt, etc.) can just be washed off and won’t have any harmful effects from consuming!

 

[WingItRanch]

Just think about how long ago those commercial eggs were laid and how many storage facilities and trucks they were on before they made it to your kitchen!

If you're worried about the eggs not being fresh, you could always do a float test in water! My parents live in TN and the weather is definitely not hot this time of year so I doubt a few days would be an issue.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My hubs is worried if the eggs are allowed to lay in coop or run for more than 1 day

Welcome to BYC!

When eggs are laid they have a protective antimicrobial coating on them called bloom.

Unwashed eggs are good at room temperature for a few weeks. Their quality.. the height of the yolk, how easy it pops, and thickness of the white may reduce during that time. Sweating or being rained on may reduce the coating and shelf life.

If any are actually pooped on.. I generally wash them off and feed them back to the animals.. dogs, chickens, etc.

Back when I had too many chickens and also too many eggs.. Eggs had set at room temp of about 70 degrees for 2+ months.. due to evaporation the contents of the eggs were thickened but not rotten. Only eggs with cracks or microcracks actually grew mold. The older eggs were not desirable for human consumption.. but nobody (none of the animals) got ill from eating them.. they were scrambled or boiled.. so in other words fully cooked and not with runny yolks.. which is also an option for your current situation to ease any worries.

FWIW hormones are illegal to be used and only whatever is natural may be present, even in commercial eggs/milk/meat..

I would try to collect at least every few days.. eggs in the lay box will have been warmed each time a hen goes in there to lay.

If your mom is maintaining the chickens, could she not also collect eggs?

On a side note.. salmonella recall's from supermarket eggs is THE reason I started keeping my own chickens, 10+ years ago. And that is within the egg because the birds themselves were infected with it.. not something that was picked up after being laid.. One of the many reasons to buy birds from tested flocks.

One other note.. when a hen lays a clutch of eggs, it's often up to a dozen before she starts sitting on them full time. Which means the first one was there for at least 12 days.. and must still be able to fully support the life within to develop an embryo/chick.. meaning not rotten or otherwise infected with bacteria and still safe.

Hope this helps give you some food for thought. Congrats on your move and best wishes getting your new coop built!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

He is aware that store bought eggs have been sitting in those cartons for months? Yes months plural. I cannot eat store bought eggs (even if they are organic) without stomach pains. I can eat my chickens eggs that have been sitting at room temperature for weeks and have no issues. In Europe many people do not wash or refrigerate eggs. Mine are always stored on the countertop unwashed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

An egg goes bad when bacteria gets inside and multiplies. When the egg is laid the hen puts a layer of "bloom" on it that helps keep bacteria out. Bloom is so effective a hen can lay eggs for over two weeks and incubate them for another three without bacteria getting inside. Ducks, turkeys, and geese can incubate even longer; the bloom is that effective.

But if the bloom is compromised bacteria can get inside and rot the egg. If the egg is washed, rubbed, gets water on it, or has a clump of mud or poop the bloom is compromised. If an egg is bad you should be able to tell it by sniffing. If it smells like a rotten egg, toss it. Otherwise it should be OK.

I think it is always a good idea to open our eggs in a separate bowl before using them or mixing them with anything. That is not because of them possibly being bad or anything to do with a rooster as is sometimes claimed. Eggs sometimes have internal defects like blood spots or meat spots that the commercial operations find by candling their eggs. Those defects will not hurt you but they can be unappetizing.

The commercial eggs do not have hormones in them. The egg industry lobbied to have them declared illegal, they do not want people spreading false rumors about hormones in their product. Besides, there is a practical reason. Hormones have to be injected. If they are fed they are destroyed by the digestive process.

As long as the bloom is intact eggs can be stored for months at room temperature. If the eggs are fertile and are kept at temperatures in the mid 80's F (29 C) or higher they can start to develop. They may develop enough before they die that you can see something when you open them, mainly blood vessels. That doesn't happen often but it's possible. Sometimes new eggs wind up under a broody hen. As long as you collect those eggs daily they will not develop enough that you can see anything. I use those.

The longer the egg is stored the more moisture it loses through the porous shell. That loss of moisture does have an effect on the egg inside. Whites may be more runny and yolks may be less firm. This is a gradual chance, it does not happen overnight. If you want to boil the eggs and peel them it is generally suggested to store them at least 2 weeks as that makes them easier to peel without pulling out chunks of the whites.

If my eggs are clean I may store them for more than a month on the kitchen counter before I eat them. If they are dirty I wash them and store them in the fridge and probably eat them fairly soon.

My question is this: with me not being there to collect the eggs every day, how often do eggs need to be collected to ensure they're safe?

That depends on temperatures if they are fertile and how clean they are. Reasonable temperatures and clean you should be able to go weeks if not months. Too warm for fertile eggs or compromised bloom I'd be a lot more cautious.