Topic: to clean or not to clean

[chicken girl]

should you clean mucky eggs with a damp cloth, does anyone clean theirs ????

[grannyjanny]

How mucky are they?

[saddad]

When we kept chickens in the 70's and had an egg round we always washed them... it was a check for any strays not left in the nest boxes (the off ones float!) and they looked better for the customers...

[pumkinlover]

We always wash ours, when OH comes back from the plot in the morning he warms his hands in whats left of the washing up water and the eggs as well.

[birdsrfun]

When you wash the eggs make sure the water is warmer than the egg so any nasty micro's don't get drawn in to the shell which is porus, then dry. They say to use a special sanitiser but I never have. If they are for your own use you can take the chance, you know how 'clean' your hen houses are..

[pumkinlover]

Thanks for that info. will make sure.

[cocopops]

I never normally clean my hen's eggs, in the winter it is normally their muddy feet that makes them dirty.  I just give them a quick rinse under the tap before I use them and crack them in to a cup so if any muck falls in I can throw it away.

[chicken girl]

grannyjanny there are not that mucky just from mud

[teresa]

I dont wash eggs either, you wash them then the natural ageing proscess starts.
 With this weather I have woodshavings  in the nest boxes so when my girls scrat around to make a nest to lay they clean their feet the same time.
 There are woodshavings on the floor of hen house but its worth putting them in the nest boxes.

[Morris]

I only wipe mine (with kitchen towel and warm water) if they have definite chicken poo on them, otherwise so far as I gather from my research it is better to leave them.  The shells are naturally protective and anti-bacterial until they are washed when their coating is then removed.  Also there is a risk, as birdsrfun has said, of actually transferring disease into the shell because the shell is porous.

One of my hens has a tendency to lay in the roost in the midst of the night's droppings... I know who the bad girl is as they all lay different coloured eggs... >:(  ... those eggs are really filthy mucky so do I wash them, keep in the fridge, and use quickly for fully cooked dishes.

My sister, however, who has been keeping hens for 30 years, always washes hers because they look nicer.  Her chickens are properly free-range and have very muddy feet and odd laying habits  ;D  She has never, so far as we know, had any egg related problems.

So perhaps it is a matter of preference...

[Le-y]

we dont wash ours