Frozen Eggs

[Lobo]

We are in the sub zero mornings now in New England and when we gather eggs in the morning we find them frozen and cracked. We gather twice a day; early morn and just before dusk.

2 questions.....

1-Are the eggs any good? I have read if you are going to freeze eggs for storage that you must separate yolks from whites.

2-Since the ladies are not staying on the eggs and keeping them warm, what can we do to prevent frozen eggs from happening? Their body heat is keeping themselves warm enough but not enough to keep water and eggs thawed. They are too far from an electric source for that kind of heat and we do not get enough sun for solar around the pen.

Thank you for your help and experiences.

Lobo

[cinok]

From what I can find eggs freeze at -10C or 14deg f. You Say you are to far from a electric source so i assuming that you do not use artificial light. My first thought was to play with the light to change their schedule. can you insulate the nest boxes with straw or chips to help retain the eggs heat. We do not seem to get that cold here :) Do you have a clue what time they are laying I can hear mine making a ruckus at laying time I collect ours about 10am and then the kids get them after school about 4pm. If you us separate nest boxes try making the opening smaller and insulating them. Besides using a propane heater of some sort like a brooder or heat buddy That's all I can think of.

[NCLee]

With sub-zero temps, the only thing I can think of is to try to gather the eggs shortly after they have laid. As mentioned, hens will proudly announce their accomplishment. Ours have generally laid their eggs around mid morning.

If you can't collect the eggs and can't get electricity to the hen house, I'd suggest trying to find a small propane heater and keep it on low. Check at Lowes or Home Depot for their ventless heaters.

Personally, I wouldn't use eggs that have frozen in the nest, if the shell is cracked. If not cracked, thaw and cook supper with them. Nothing wrong with eating breakfast at supper, especially this time of year. Sausage or ham and eggs makes mighty fine eating when it's cold outside.

Lee

[momma_to_seven_chi]

If we find frozen ones, we just drop them in the dog's food bowls. The big dogs eat them shells and all as they thaw. My giant male pyr especially loves them.

[Builder Ken]

I'm north of cinok and we have had a few nights in single digits and yup the eggs were frozen and cracked so I tossed them to the hogs, they made short work of them. Be careful of the heaters make sure the are sturdy and can't be knocked over and keep them clear of straw or any bedding that might catch on fire. Ken

[DM]

I guess we should all be dead here? We have ate a LOT of those frozen eggs, just peeled them and let them thaw in a bowl in the fridge. Then use them up.

DM

[homemade_mamma]

Ok, so I have another question about frozen eggs then. We also get the occasional frozen one. I have just been dropping them in the chickens scrap pan and they are always gone the next time I come out. Is it bad to feed the chickens the eggs? I see you all are giving them to dogs and hogs but not letting the chickens at them.

[pubwvj]

We give the frozen eggs to piglets or dogs. They are high in protein. If you boil the egg it makes twice as much protein available. I do when I can. In the winter this is more common as the wood stove is going.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mtn Farm
in Vermont

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Ok, so I have another question about frozen eggs then. We also get the occasional frozen one. I have just been dropping them in the chickens scrap pan and they are always gone the next time I come out. Is it bad to feed the chickens the eggs? I see you all are giving them to dogs and hogs but not letting the chickens at them.

The only reason you don't feed them to chickens is because it encourages egg eating. You don't want them to eat the freshly laid ones before you can get to them. It won't hurt them to eat eggs. But it will teach them to cannibalize their own eggs before you can collect them.

[Anon001]

Since I've was gone, I didn't see this posting sooner.

It is okay to feed egg shells back to the chickens if they are either washed or allowed to dry out first. That won't encourage them to eat fresh eggs.

As far as raw eggs, I don't really know but, I've been told that if they are cooked, it won't encourage them to eat their eggs.

Paul

[pubwvj]

I don't find that cleaning or washing the shells is necessary. We toss the egg shells into the chicken compost bucket and feed that to the hens and have no egg eating behavior from almost all the hens. On rare occasions over the years we've had a hen that was an egg eater. Culling her to the soup pot was a simple solution. I learned long ago that those hens weren't going to change.

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
in Vermont
where it is not so windy today...

[pcrowder]

We had a blizzard here on Christmas with MINUS 45 degrees windchill, and i ended up with a BUNCH of frozen eggs. I set them in a deep dish till they defrosted, slid them out of the shells, and scrambled them (some had dirt and a little poo stuck to the the shells near the cracks, that's why we didn't eat them), and split them between the dogs and the chickens. The chickens LOVE scrambled eggs! I mixed in several leftover dried out pancakes and they went WILD!!!! I've used the frozen eggs for ourselves (in cakes and stuff) when they weren't dirty or didn't have a little poo on them. Worked just fine.

[DM]

When i did a lot of "winter camping/hunting" in Alaska, i'd always take eggs with me. I'd be in a 3 man unheated tent, sometimes for weeks, so the eggs would always be frozen, even before the plane landed to drop me off. No matter, when i wanted one i'd take one out of the carton, peel the shell off the frozen egg, and throw it in a frypan. Once it melted, it cooked like normal... lol

DM