Eggs have been around since the beginning of time. Whether they were here before the chicken I can’t say, but either way, they’re nothing new.
You’ve probably eaten eggs dozens of times in your life (see what I did there?), but do you even know where your eggs come from? Besides aisle 12 at the grocery store, I mean. Eggs from most grocery stores are laid by White Leghorn hens. The hens are kept in what are called battery cages, barely have enough room to move, and certainly don’t have the freedom to do what their chicken instincts tell them to do: scratch the dirt, sunbathe, find a dark place to lay their egg, peck the ground, etc. Cage-free has been a big movement lately, but even that only means the cages are taken away. Then hens are still all stuffed into one warehouse, never living to see the sunshine or scratch in the dirt the way their instincts tell them to.
I’m certainly not going to go all PETA here, but I do find it more than disturbing that in 2019 most companies still believe this is okay.
Even if you take away the treatment of the hens themselves, you still have eggs that are being washed and chemically sanitized. Yep, even those organic, cage-free eggs you buy in the fancy carton. It’s USDA rules. The same rules that would make this process illegal in many other countries.
To understand all of this, and why farm-fresh eggs really are the best, let me give you some basic info about eggs.
Eggshells are porous. They have thousands of tiny pores on the surface, which means the shells absorb moisture. By washing them in specific temperatures, sanitizing with tasteless chemicals, and drying the shells, egg producers in the US attempt to prevent salmonella from being absorbed into the eggs you eat for breakfast. But it really isn’t the best way. Why? Because water is a very quick way to flush any bacteria into the eggshells. This is why in Europe it is illegal for any producer to wash or treat eggs headed to the grocery store. They must remain untouched and “dirty” to be sold to the public.
That sounds gross, right? It’s really not if you understand how amazing nature is.
Since chickens aren’t the smartest animals on earth, God threw in a little extra help so these creatures could successfully continue existing. When a hen lays an egg, she doesn’t then sit on it until it hatches. A hen lays a full clutch of eggs before deciding to sit the 21 days for her chicks to start hatching.
In the week or two of laying one egg per day, the first eggs she laid are exposed to nature, meaning rain, dew, humidity, etc. To protect the little chick inside the egg from bacteria on the porous shell, there is a thin, invisible coating on the eggshell called bloom. The hen applies the liquid bloom just before she lays the egg. The bloom dries within a minute and protects the egg from moisture on the outside and carbon dioxide loss (which would break the quality of the egg down).
Bloom is fascinating and will remain on the egg until it is washed off. This means that an egg that isn’t washed or chemically treated can roll in the dirt (or let’s face it – poop) and bacteria won’t penetrate the shell.
Genius.
In Europe, the EU egg marketing regulations state that the bloom is “an effective barrier to bacterial ingress with an array of antimicrobial properties” and that washing the eggs before sending them to be sold is prohibited, since the washing could make the eggs more vulnerable to contamination from pathogens and other microorganisms. Take that, egg washers.
So bloom is your friend and safety net until you wash it off with chemicals. At that point, you have to keep the eggs clean and refrigerated. That’s right, if you have fresh eggs that haven’t been washed yet, you can keep them at room temperature. Eggs do not need to be refrigerated unless the bloom has been washed away.
We keep our fresh eggs out on the counter for months! What?! Yep, for months. And haven’t had any issues in the years we’ve been doing it. In fact, I’ve found that the older an egg is, the easier it is to peel after you hard-boil it. I save a basket of eggs for about 2 months, throw them in the Instant Pot for 8 minutes, dunk them in some ice-cold water for about 5 minutes and the shells almost fall off on their own. And they taste great.
Fun Egg Facts
Here are some eggs facts that a lot of people don’t know:
1. Hens lay eggs almost every day, with or without a rooster. You could take a flock of hens who have never even seen a rooster, and once they reach the right age, they will start laying eggs every day. That’s just what hens do. These eggs will never hatch and are only good for eating. If you want to hatch some chicks, you’ll need a rooster with the hens to fertilize the eggs. Either way, the eggs taste the same.
2. The yellow yolk inside an egg is not the potential chick. Shocking, I know. The yolk is actually what the chick uses to get nutrients from while growing in the egg. In fact, just as the chick is ready to hatch from the shell, the last step before climbing out is to absorb the last of the yolk right into its abdomen. Weird, but it allows the chick to go up to 48 hours without needing food or water, which gives it time to adjust to life and get the kinks out.
3. Double yolk eggs don’t hatch, even if they are fertilized. I’m sure there’s that one-off phenomenon out there who hatched twin chicks, but for the most part, an egg with a double yolk just means more protein in your bowl.
4. Salmonella contamination usually happens BEFORE the egg is even formed. To prevent this, the hen must be vaccinated for salmonella. Guess what? There are no requirements for US commercial hens to be vaccinated for salmonella. That’s probably why there are at least 142,000 cases each year caused by salmonella-contaminated eggs bought right off of the grocery store shelf.
5. White eggs, brown eggs, pink eggs, blue eggs, and green eggs look different, but they all taste exactly the same.
6. The size of an egg can indicate the age of the hen – young hens lay small eggs and older hens lay larger eggs.
7. Curly, white, string-like things in the egg whites are a good sign. It means the egg is fresh and very edible. It’s called chalazae and it connects the yolk to the shell.
6. When you pay more in the store for Omega 3 eggs, you don’t know what you’re getting. This means the hens were fed a supplement with flax seed or fish oil. Hens who are allowed to roam around in a pasture lay eggs enriched with Omega 3, plus lots more nutrients because they pick it up naturally from bugs and grass. Farm fresh is the way to go!
Egg Carton Label Truths
Cage-free – This label means the laying hens are allowed at least 120 square inches of space. That’s barely any space at all. The hens will live inside their entire lives as well.
Free-range – This label means the hens are treated a tiny bit better than cage-free hens but are only allowed a short time outside since outside space is very limited. These hens are only required to have 2 square feet each.
Pasture-raised – The best option when buying from a grocery store, these hens get a minimum of 108 square feet per hen. They are able to go outside most of the time to do real chicken things.
Farm eggs – This varies, since every farmer is different. Some keep their hens in pens, while others never confine their chickens at all. At our farm, the chickens are all pasture-raised with more than enough room to do whatever they want. In fact, they do whatever they want, no matter how hard I try to convince them to do otherwise. We keep some specific breeds in large pens (NEVER on wire surfaces, the pens allow access to dust bathing, grass, sunshine, and shelter), but they are allowed out into a large yard.
So now you know more about eggs than you ever wanted to. You’re welcome.
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