Hey there! I'm just wrapping up my day of work and I'm down here checking the nesting boxes and the
girls, and I thought it would be a great time to talk with you about backyard chicken eggs.
Oh, that moment when you check the nesting box and it's finally there, your first egg! Soon two,
three, maybe four, and before you know it, you're a farmer! So, we have five chickens,
all layers. We have two barred rocks, a speckled sussex, malted java, and an easter egger.
All of them will be one year this month. Our barred rocks were our first to start laying,
followed by our speckled sussex, then our java, and last but not least our easter egger. Our coop
has three nesting boxes in it for the five girls to share. But, they prefer to all pile in to one.
We have a couple girls that are laying in the morning and a couple that are laying in
the afternoon. We know that because they're pretty quiet all day long just making their little peeps,
but they get pretty squawky when they are laying an egg, and I can't say I blame them. So,
we've noticed we have a couple doing that in the morning hours and we have a couple
doing that in the afternoon hours. So, because of that we are checking our nesting boxes for eggs
a couple of times during the day. You really don't want to have eggs sitting there too long,
if you can avoid it. So, we check in the morning when we check their food and their water,
and we'll check the boxes then, and then we check again after work in the evening.
And then of course, throughout the day we're also bringing down snacks and just coming to visit
and so we'll check those times as well. You want to get them as soon as possible because
it can eliminate or reduce any additional risk of bacteria getting into the eggs.
You also run the risk of them freezing if it's very cold in the winter, or in the summertime,
them spoiling if it's super hot. So it's good to get them as soon as possible. Also,
if you have curious or hungry chickens, they've also been known to mess with them or eat them. So
getting them as often as possible is definitely a plus. So, we get a couple of different colored
eggs with our chickens. Our barred rocks are laying brown eggs. One lays one that's slightly
darker than the other, so we know Judy lays the dark eggs. We have our speckled sussex,
she lays an egg that actually has speckles in it, so we always know when it's her. Our java lays
a pink egg. It's really pink but sometimes on camera it can even look white, but it's pink.
It's really cool. And then, our easter egger of course she gives us that bluish greenish
egg. Once, especially with the easter egger, you know once your chicken lays an egg
that's the color egg that she will always lay. So, we started to figure out the patterns and
routines of the chickens and could figure out who was laying what. So, it's real fun to come
down to the nesting boxes and gather up and know exactly who's given us eggs that day.
So, I'm checking the nesting boxes and we've got eggs! So exciting! One,
two, three,
four. Just missing one of you today. How fun is that? Four beautiful eggs. So,
this brings me to storage. How do we store our eggs? Well, most of us think that eggs need to
be refrigerated, right? But, did you know that actually, farmers and in the old days,
they would store their eggs at room temperature in just an egg basket, in a cupboard,
or even on the counter, as long as it is out of direct sunlight and away from a heat source.
They can last stored on the counter, just at room temperature, for up to six
weeks. Whereas in the fridge, they can be stored there safely for up to three months.
The key to egg storage, and I did not know this so this is big, is washing them. You do not want
to wash your eggs until you are ready to use them. Did you know that? I did not know that.
Apparently these eggs have a very thin membrane on them, and that membrane protects the egg
from bacteria getting inside, salmonella for example, and so once that gets washed off,
the egg is more susceptible to bacteria. So, they say that you don't want to wash them
until you're actually ready to use them. If you insist on washing your eggs, and some people do,
then it's important to note that they need to be used within one week. A really fun way to tell,
that's my chicken's moving my camera, a really fun way to tell if your egg is consumable or not,
is to fill up a glass of water and stick the egg in it. If your egg sinks it is consumable,
if your egg floats, it's spoiled and it should not be eaten. Cool, right? Needless to say every time
we make eggs or use eggs in our house, there is a kid doing that experiment before we eat it. So,
yeah! So much to learn! Who knew? Do you have any tricks, or tips, or secrets about your backyard
egg collection and storing that you'd like to share with us? Drop it in the comments below so
that we can all learn and farm together. Next time I'll be talking to you about that coop life, and
I'll show you where our chickens are living and the run that we've made for them to hang out in.
If you like this video, please be sure to like it and share, and don't forget to hit subscribe and
the notification bell, so that you don't miss our upcoming chicken videos! Happy backyard farming!