Grade your eggs

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Patchouli

Patchouli

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We get eggs from a friend occasionally, different colors of shells, she raises quite a few different kinds of poultry.
When making scrambled, fried or omelets, the friend's eggs cook up differently in all 3 types of preparation than regular store bought eggs.
Have you noticed a difference?
Do you think your hens' eggs are tastier than store bought?
Do you think your hens' diets makes a difference in the taste of the eggs?
And if this were a poll, the next question or comment would be: do you even care, just lay eggs, chickens!
 
Grade your eggs.......

My first thought was, at my age, they would be lucky to get a C-.:p

But seriously.....I do buy store eggs when my friends' hens aren't cooperating. There is a big difference in taste! The fresh farm eggs are thicker, richer, and heavier than the store bought. I use the store bought in my cooking. But if I'm having a fried egg or scrambled eggs, I'm definitely using the farm fresh eggs!
 
She gives me quite a few at a time and they are covered in poo. I was a bit grossed out by that but then she told me that you wipe them off, or rinse if you must, before using them, not as soon as you collect them. The water is absorbed through the shell and that makes a difference in egg behavior as well.
We had to empty our fridge once and put a bunch of stuff in a different friend's fridge. I admit, I bought organic eggs from the store a few times. I told this person she could use the eggs if she wanted. She did use them and said there was no difference whatsoever; while I noticed a big difference in flavor and how they cooked up in the pan.
I can't eat eggs these days, they make me really sick.
 
I notice a big difference in the shell quality and the color of the yolks. We use our own chicken eggs at home, and are hoping for turkey eggs this spring, and baby ducks arrive two weeks from today...
We have to use store bought at the school, because we are a commercial kitchen there. I buy the two 18 pack white eggs from Sams. The shell is super thin and I have to be careful not to put my thumbnail through it when cracking it. The yolk is pale yellow. We don't use scrambled eggs there, but use the eggs for lots of baking. They look terrible. I sell two dz of our own eggs every Monday from work. I wash them for the customer. Don't want them to get grossed out. At home I don't wash them unless they are really bad, but our son washes their chicken eggs. He says bacteria gets into them too easily if he doesn't. So, I've heard both ways. But yes! The taste is better for homegrown if you feed your chickens well.
 
I bought some eggs from the store in January, first time in years. The girls are getting old, and they don't lay like they did when younger. Thin shells, pale yolks. Maybe it's confirmation bias, but they were less tasty.

Thankfully, they saw I bought eggs and started laying again :)
 
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I only wash my eggs if they're dirty (poo). The bloom is mainly an anti bacterial barrier for eggs that are for hatching. I haven't found that they spoil faster. The taste of farm eggs is far superior to store eggs. They have darker yolks esp when they can have green grass.
 
Yep, that's what my chicken egg friend said. They'll spoil faster if rinsed at gathering time.
She and most other collectors I know don't even refrigerate the eggs, just keep them in a cooler area, eventually put them in fridge.
On home grown eggs, darker yolks are what I noticed too, larger yolks.
 
NannyPatty said:
I leave them out or put them in the fridge. From what I've read we're the only country that does refrigerate them.
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Right, because after rinsing them they can go bad faster.
One of the evening "interesting" news programs did a story years ago on the atrocity of eggs not refrigerated. :rolleyes:
Look at this! Eggs sitting out!
 
Patchouli said:
We get eggs from a friend occasionally, different colors of shells, she raises quite a few different kinds of poultry.
When making scrambled, fried or omelets, the friend's eggs cook up differently in all 3 types of preparation than regular store bought eggs.
Have you noticed a difference?
Do you think your hens' eggs are tastier than store bought?
Do you think your hens' diets makes a difference in the taste of the eggs?
And if this were a poll, the next question or comment would be: do you even care, just lay eggs, chickens!
Click to expand...

Do you think your hens' eggs are tastier than store bought?.............Absolutely.

Do you think your hens' diets makes a difference in the taste of the eggs?....................Yes! I don't feed commercial feed; just non gmo wheat, peas, corn, kitchen and garden scraps and some hens find their way to the dog food. I free range during summer and give alfalfa during winter. I also feed some home grown meat for extra protein in the winter. I can, but don't eat eggs from commercial sources. They taste gross. I didn't mind them before I got back into raising my own hens. Since I am not yet starving, I eat only my own eggs. I get $9.00 doz. in the big city 3 hours away. Some customers tried other cheaper organic eggs but came back to mine.

And if this were a poll, the next question or comment would be: do you even care, just lay eggs, chickens!................If I didn't have the luxury of feeding a cadillac diet, I would feed what was available and affordable but still do my best to avoid soy. There is simply too much soy in everything and since DH isn't transgender, he doesn't need man boobs.

We get eggs from a friend occasionally, different colors of shells, she raises quite a few different kinds of poultry.
When making scrambled, fried or omelets, the friend's eggs cook up differently in all 3 types of preparation than regular store bought eggs.
Have you noticed a difference?

- The reason they cook up differently, is most likely because they are fresher and possibly have a different diet than commercial hens making for a firmer better quality egg.

-Egg colours don't make any difference to flavour or quality. They just make it easier to sell eggs to those who have an image to upkeep. I do confess though, that I like a really colourful carton of eggs; they can be really pretty.

-The rest if the world does not refrigerate or wash eggs before sale. You will find them in large bins, poop, feathers, fertilized and whatever. I was more concerned that when temperatures were hitting the 90's-100's that I would end up with balut. Never found a bad egg.
 
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Amish Heart said:
$9 a dozen!! Wow!! I get $4 a dozen around here. At our farm area in Kansas you see them for $3 a dozen
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Around here, more rural, the price is 2-3 per doz. I cannot feed my chickens for that. The problem is that people insist on selling or giving away their extra eggs for these prices making it impossible to cover costs. To sell for more, the eggs have to be taken to the city and gas has to be factored into it. People in the city also tend to have higher incomes and are deeply into "keeping up with the Jones". Also, most people are getting their feed from the local feed store at much lower prices than what I pay for my chicken feed. I also have a customer who is a double edged sword. I deliver 20-25 doz. eggs every two weeks. She hounds all of her friends, the mailman, the gardener, the school bus drivers picking up kids across the street and any one else wandering by her door. No one gets by her. She pays me straight up for the eggs, I leave and she distributes and collects money from all these people. Some people get their eggs for free and some are paying more than $9.00. The double edge comes in because she is 75 years old and when something happens to her, its all down the proverbial toilet. She does this to have a social life and brag up to her artist/political friends; the ones who are really paying through the nose. This is a prime example of having all your eggs in one basket. Its ok, because I am aware and prepared to can a lot of chicken soup when the wheel turns.
 
Colored eggs don't sell well here. The older Mexican ladies think they are rotten. They will only take brown or white. They prefer brown because they think they are healthier.
 
We never wash eggs until use, and they sit on the counter till we need them.
I give them away to neighbors, and once in a while I'll sell some if someone asks. $1.5 -$2 dozen...maybe I should ask more!
I love pickled eggs and do up a few dozen at a time...mmm mmm mmm
 
Terri9630 said:
Colored eggs don't sell well here. The older Mexican ladies think they are rotten. They will only take brown or white. They prefer brown because they think they are healthier.
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I once gave a rural neighbor (with an "urban" way about her) a dozen fresh brown eggs from my hens. Later on she said she gave them away and explained she didn't want to eat brown eggs since they "must be brown because my chickens scratched around in the dirt". :confused:

Sheesh, she worked in healthcare too so I was shocked at her ignorance.
 
I sell a few eggs sometimes, I get $3 a dozen. I buy commercial feed but add crushed volcanic rock. It’s certified for the organic production of plants and animals. It contains over 80 minerals and elements.

It’s the single best thing I have purchased for the farm. I’ve applied 5 tons or so to my fields, gardens and pastures over the last 10 years. All my plants and critters are far healthier.

There are several such products on the market. One that I’ve never tried but heard good things about is produced by Sea Crop. They extract a wide range of minerals from sea water. It’s shipped in a concentrated liquid form so the shipping costs are a lot lower than the crushed rock I’ve been buying. http://www.sea-crop.com/

I have about 1000lbs of crushed rock in the barn. I think I’ll give sea crop a try when it gone.
 
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