Let's Talk Egg Storage Options

One of my learning experiences with backyard chickens has been the challenge of egg storage. When I had four layers, it was fairly easy, but now I have seven and three more are almost there as well. I have also noticed this seems to be a hot topic with my fellow chicken keepers.

Here were my questions:

1. Do you refrigerate or store on the counter?

2. How do you know which ones are the most or least fresh?

3. How many eggs will I have at once?

Fairly simple.

In my case, I store in the fridge. Storing on the counter is just fine for eggs. My choice is personal and based on these three reasons: I have very little space in my kitchen and counter space is precious, I have two evil cats who think knocking things to the floor is entertaining, I do like the eggs lasting a little longer, although they seem to be gone much more quickly now.

I also mark each egg with a pencil or sharpie with the lay date. This is super handy and I feel more confident on the freshness of the eggs as a result. The small amount of eggs I get, this is not difficult.

So, far, the largest amount of eggs I've had in the fridge at one time was a little over 30. Not bad. I have a neighbor that buys two dozen at a time, so I can be wiped out quickly. If they have purchased recently and it starts to add up, I either post on Facebook that I have extras or make a delicious quiche for dinner. Either way, I have had no problems with eggs sitting around. 

However, I do have issues with storing them and keeping the dated ones together. Here were the dilemmas: I hate the door thingy that is supposed to hold eggs (horrible design), egg cartons are a pain and have to be removed each time I need an egg, egg flats are too fragile and wear out quickly. I wanted something easy to lay the eggs in and easy to grab one quickly, while keeping them in the fridge and the oldest eggs roll to the front so they're are the first to go.

Skelters are pretty popular, like this one on the left. But they are round and kind of tall, leaving them either taking up quite a bit counter space or not fitting in the fridge well. I'm also a sucker for symmetry. It just doesn't seem like the optimal design.

I found some designs that really seemed to fit what I need, but they are challenging to find in the US. Since we, as a nation, tend to refrigerate our eggs, people don't think about egg storage much.

So, I made my own. Necessity really is the mother of invention.

I wanted something that fit easily on a shelf in the fridge and was sloped enough the eggs would roll towards the front. It also needed to be not incredibly deep so I could reach into the back of it and place the newest eggs as I collected them. I went to Home Depot and walked around, staring at various sizes of wood and screws and nails, to see what might work. 

This is what I came up with:

I like it. It's pretty and the dark stain looks nice. It's clearly too small for the amount of eggs I get and plan to keep. It would be excellent for the single person who grabs the half a dozen eggs a week. I have one person who buys that many eggs at a time from me.

Also, the sides are too wide. I'm going to need multiple rows in the same unit and a 1" block of wood between them is a bit much. However, the slope is perfect and I really do love that stain.

Then I made this one:

I like it as well. The thinner sides are clearly much better and the blue paint is so fun. I can see people liking this one quite a bit. It's still too small for the amount of eggs I get and plan to keep. I went ahead and posted this on a Facebook group to get folks opinions and the chorus agreed; it's too small. I did realize that you can stack the eggs on top of other eggs here and it works nicely. The only issue is the eggs don't roll easily. 

So, then, I went all out and made this one:

This is the one. I really love it and I love this new choice of stain as well. I immediately put this one in my fridge and started using it. I grabbed a couple of pencils and put them in the left row (I constantly lose them)  and used it for the next week, with tremendous success. 

Here it is in my fridge:

Since i took this picture, I also slide empty egg cartons behind this so I can grab them  quickly when someone drops by to buy some eggs. There's the perfect amount of room.

I have tried a few variations, wider rows for larger eggs, but then the regular and smaller size eggs don't roll well. I also tried just having a larger bottom without the row dividers as a whole and nope, just didn't work as well as a whole. I think the wider rows is still a win, particularly if you're like me and you have a chicken that tends to only lay the big eggs, it would be handy. 

Here's a teal version of the wider rows. The large egg is 3 1/2" long and turned out to be a triple yolker (the only one I've ever seen). However, it's really for the larger eggs only. The smaller eggs didn't really work with the slope. 

So there we have it. I have made a few different models and added them to the shop to see which ones people prefer. I have sold one, the blue oneabove with the regular size rows. I haven't gotten feedback yet, but I'm crossing my fingers it was a win. No news is good news, right?

Meanwhile, the large one works for me so well. I'm still looking for ways to tweak it; I had one person suggest chalk paint on the front so you can write dates on for tracking egg freshness. I like that idea very much and think it's going to be my next experiment.

I'll let you know how it goes.

DIY Chicken Waterer - Super Easy

I've struggled a bit to find a chicken waterer that works well for my particular setup. The struggle became more real with freezing temperatures. I have no power to my coop or run and wasn't interested in starting now. What I needed was something that (1) I could easily add warm water to if it was frozen, (2) hung from a chain to from kicking yuck into it.

In my many google searches, I ran across this blog from three years ago onNatural Chicken Keeping: Comparison of Poultry Cup Drinkers. The information was so helpful and I liked how she put the cups on a five gallon bucket, even though she kept the lid and put the bucket on blocks. So I decided to follow her lead and make my own. 

Step One - Supplies: I started with ordering eight 300 Poultry Cup Drinkers from Cornerstone ($22.14 with shipping), enough for two buckets.

Then I grabbed two 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot. I got one that was white ($4.97) and an orange one (2.89) as well. The orange is cheaper than the white, but the white looks a little nicer.

Next, I needed the right tools. I have an electric drill, but not a drill bit the right size. I had waited until the cups arrived in the mail to size them to a bit. It turns out the 11/32" bit is the perfect size. Then I grabbed a tape measurer and a pen to mark the spot for the holes to be drilled.

Now we're ready for action.

Step Two - Measure and mark: The bucket is 33" around. With 4 cups I measured about every 8 inches around where I wanting the cups to be located. As far as the vertical placement, the water is pulled through the holes using gravity. So you will want them low enough to get as much water out of the bucket as possible, while still being high enough to let the bottom of the water hold any sediment that would float to the bottom. You don't want anything that falls into the bucket to clog the cups. Also, I learned that you want to place the cups high enough that when you set the bucket on a flat surface, the cups hover above the ground. If they extend below and the bucket has water in it, they'll snap right off (see my placement in the image below). So, the short story is - 1 1/2" inches from the bottom and every 8" around the bucket.

Step Three - Drill the holes.

Step Four - Holding the Poultry Cup at an angle I press it firmly enough into the drilled hole that it stays held itself. I then turn the cup, screwing into place, twisting it a little past when it is flush against the bucket to ensure it doesn't leak.

And that's it! After inserting all 4 cups, I take mine into the bathroom and do a water test run with the tub. You never know. Everything was in order and I took them to the coop to hang them up.

The orange one is hanging for the large hens to drink from in the main area of the run and the white one is balanced on boards for the 10 week old chicks to have in their area. Mike has been the only one I've seen drink from one of the cups so far, but I'm watching and hoping they all figure it out.

I did throw a water bottle full of salt water into the orange bucket to help with the freezing. I've found that it keeps the water from freezing for about another 5-10 degrees lower and the water around the bottle does not freeze, so it's not ever a solid block of ice.

Final Note - Total cost was about $17 for the white and $13 for the orange waterer. Worth every penny. See the final results in my coop below!