Feathered Friend Friday

Welcome to our series "Feathered Friend Friday." Every Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here.   

We've been getting lots of eggs around here since our new pullets started laying last month. Usually now we're collecting between six and eight eggs per day! We really don't eat eggs all that often, so it's hard for us to keep up with egg inventory.

When we were only getting three or four eggs a day, we'd put them in our egg crates in the fridge until we had enough to fill a carton for a friend or family member. Now we fill up cartons so fast, the eggs just go straight to the cartons and we keep some eggs for us to eat in the crates.

Sometimes our fridge is full of egg cartons, so recently I've been intrigued by the notion of keeping eggs out on the counter at room temperature. Important side note - this would only be for eggs that have never been refrigerated! When eggs are taken from the fridge to room temperature, they sweat and the protective coating on the egg (called the "bloom") dissolves, making it very easy for bacteria to enter eggs through the shells.

Of course the FDA advises against this, but I've heard chicken keepers say they keep eggs out at room temperature for up to three weeks! They definitely last longer in the fridge (I have eaten a four month old egg before and it still tasted great), but sometimes I do leave a few out on the counter. Especially if I know I'm going to be baking in the next few days, because it's always better to bake with room temperature ingredients.

Apparently around the world, especially in Europe, it's the norm to keep eggs at room temperature, and people rarely refrigerate their eggs. If we ate eggs that fast, I'd have no issues with keeping a big basket of eggs on the counter!

~Tammy