Raising laying hens inevitably leads to an appreciation for eggs . . . or is it the other way around? Once you’ve tried farm-fresh eggs it’s not easy to go back to store bought. More than one small farmer has started raising hens in order to secure a constant supply of fresh eggs, straight from the hen’s bottom.
If you will be incubating your eggs, don’t wash them first! Also, don’t store your fertilized eggs you will be incubating in the fridge until you are ready to incubate. Leave them at room temperature on the counter.
The magic of a fresh egg lies partly in the mystery of what makes them so special, what gives their yolks that extra dark colour, and why can’t you peel a hard-boiled freshly laid egg, anyway? And come to that, how exactly is an egg laid? Where does it come from? What’s that brown spot? How can you tell if an egg has been fertilized?
When it comes to eggs, the questions are seemingly endless, and finding the answers isn’t always all that easy. So, for all the egg lovers out there, this one’s for you.
The perfect food. Really.
Nutritionally, eggs are a superfood. They are naturally low in fat and sodium, and are also significant sources of Vitamin E, Folate and Vitamin D. A single egg contains half the recommended daily dose of Vitamin B12. Eggs are an excellent non-meat protein alternative, and according to Canada’s Food Guide, two eggs amount to one protein serving.Keep in mind that nearly half the protein in an egg is found in the yolk, and although yolks have gotten a bad rap in the past for cholesterol, new research has indicated that the dietary cholesterol found in eggs doesn’t necessarily increase your risk of heart disease. So don’t opt for an egg-white only serving of eggs, eat the yolk, too!
How is an egg made?
A female chick is born with thousands of ova (that will eventually become yolks). Ova are released one at a time once a pullet (a hen less than one year old) reaches sexual maturity. A hen ovulates by releasing a mature ovum into the oviduct, where it may or may not be fertilized by a rooster.
Once the ovum has been released from the ovary, it travels into the magnum, where the egg white, or albumen, is created. As the albumen is formed, the yolk rotates, twisting the fibres to form the chalazae. The shell-less egg then continues into the isthmus, where the shell membranes are formed, before moving on to the uterus where the shell is formed around the albumen and ovum. The egg then proceeds to the hen’s vent for laying. The whole process takes between 24 and 26 hours.
Why is it so hard to peel fresh eggs?
Anyone who has made the attempt will tell you that peeling a hard-
boiled fresh egg is a frustrating experience. Here’s why: In fresh eggs, the membrane that separates the shell from the egg white is thicker, and (according to Harold McGee from On Food and Cooking,) the egg white’s low pH makes it stick to the membrane. As a result, peeling a freshly laid egg usually results in a pock-marked, homely and unappetizing egg.
To avoid this, leave fresh eggs on the counter for a week or more at room temperature before boiling; this will give the egg’s white time to shrink, and the pH balance to level out. After boiling, immediately soak the eggs in cold water and peel as soon as they can be handled.
Can you preserve eggs?
The size of an egg is mostly dependent on the age of a hen; here, the egg on the far left is from a hen more than two years old; the egg in the middle is from a hen who has been laying for roughly a year; the egg on the right is from a pullet who has just started laying.
Yes, you can! To freeze eggs, crack a couple into a plastic container or baggie (I do two at a time), lightly whip them, then throw them in the freezer. Freeze them in quantities that make sense for you to easily use in recipes when thawed. Use previously frozen eggs in recipes that will ensure the egg is completely cooked, such as cakes or breads, to be certain no bacteria is left active. You can freeze eggs for up to six months.
You can pickle eggs by first hard-boiling them and then covering them in a brine made of water, vinegar, sugar, salt and spice. Pickled eggs will last between three and four months, if kept refrigerated.
Can you eat a fertilized egg?
To check if an egg is fresh, fill a glass or bowl with water and carefully drop the egg in question inside. If the egg floats it’s very old and shouldn’t be eaten, if it settles on its side on the bottom of the glass it’s fresh. If it’s somewhere in between it may be a few weeks old but still edible.
Fertilized doesn’t mean there’s a chick inside; a chick will only grow in a fertilized egg if the egg is kept warm enough to support incubation. Every egg has a white dot found somewhere near the centre of the yolk (sometimes it is very faint and hard to see) that represents the embryonic portion of the egg. In an unfertilized egg this is called a blastodisc, while a fertilized ovum is called a blastoderm. A blastoderm is not solid white as a blastodisc appears, and instead is ringed and looks more like a bull’s eye.
Within the first 24 to 48 hours, an incubated fertilized egg will develop a white film over the yolk, and will eventually develop red veins over the surface of the yolk as incubation continues. Believe it or not, fertilized and partially incubated eggs are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world.
Here, you can see the blastodisc of an unfertilized egg (left), and the blastoderm of a fertilized egg (right).
Do you need to wash fresh eggs?
Always store your eggs with the large end up. There is an air pocket located between the shell and the inner membrane in the large end of an egg; this air pocket grows as the egg ages. If you store your eggs large end down the air pocket will slowly rise towards the yolk, where it could introduce bacteria.
You don’t need to wash clean eggs, they are naturally covered in a protective coating (bloom) that keeps bacteria from entering the egg, and it’s best left intact. That said, an eggshell is porous which can allow bacteria to enter, and sometimes eggs aren’t as pristine as we might like. If your eggs have manure or mud on them you should definitely clean it off.
Use warm water (not hot, and not cold) with no soap and lightly rub the shell to clean it. Leave eggs to air dry and then place them in cartons. Your best bet in avoiding the necessity of washing eggs is to keep your nest boxes clean.
Did You Know?
- Yolks vary in colour based on a hen’s diet; a diet high in corn will result in a darker yolk. Similarly, hens who free range and are able to forage for insects and grasses will have a darker yolk than those kept inside and fed only laying mash.
Did you know that when a rooster mates with a hen there is no penetration? Instead the male mounts the hen and lowers his own vent (cloaca) over hers, where they are pressed together to allow the transfer of the rooster’s sperm directly into the hen’s cloaca, where it travels through the oviduct to fertilize a waiting ovum.
- Eggs can last for weeks at room temperature, and even longer in the fridge.
- As an egg ages it dries out, making fresh eggs heavier than old eggs.
- If you mix up your hard-boiled and raw eggs, give the egg a spin — if it spins quickly, it’s hard-boiled, if it wobbles, this is because the yolk is moving back and forth as the egg turns, which means the egg is raw.
- A hen lays about 300 eggs per year; once a hen runs out of ova she will stop laying eggs.
- Meat, or blood spots, in an egg are harmless and safe to eat.
- There is a World Egg Day; in 2018 it falls on Oct. 12.
- According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the heaviest egg reported to have been laid by a hen is 454 grams, with a double yolk and double shell, laid by a White Leghorn at Vineland, New Jersey, on Feb. 25, 1956. That’s a big egg!
- Amy Hogue