Eggs are porous. Birds leave a coating on them that blocks the pores and prevents bacteria getting in but washing the eggs removes that protective coating.
Pretty sure you do this in the US but not every country does.
I wonder how they get them to look nice then. Do they take the egg instantly? Do they refresh the chickens’ nesting material all the time? Does the egg fall down a hole the moment it’s laid?
I’ve physically set up chicken “coops” and the steel cage they stand on all day is big enough for eggs to fall into then rolls down to a conveyor and collected.
There is no bedding and up to 10 chickens in a 1’x3’x 1.5’ cage. I felt horrendous leaving that place by the time I was done
The other commenter is talking about cage farms, but even free range hens have a similar system.
Hens will always lay their eggs in the same place. So she will cluck around living her best life outside, then go back to the coop to lay an egg in her favourite nest. It’s easy enough to make a hole in the nest and a gravity based collection system underneath.
This is not only to keep the eggs clean but also to protect them from the hens, including the one that laid it.
Modern laying breeds are absolute nutters. Their sole purpose (target attribute) is to produce an egg a day. It’s not uncommon for these deranged weirdos to lay an egg, stand up, crack it open, and consume the contents.
An industrialized system to promote waste. None of the smaller farms in my area (Eastern Ont Canada) wash their eggs but the ones that get sold to stores must.
What on earth.
Is this a non-US thing? I’ve never heard of this practice and I worked for a farmer that raised chickens and sold eggs.
Not boiled but “washed” probably with bleach.
Eggs are porous. Birds leave a coating on them that blocks the pores and prevents bacteria getting in but washing the eggs removes that protective coating.
Pretty sure you do this in the US but not every country does.
I wonder how they get them to look nice then. Do they take the egg instantly? Do they refresh the chickens’ nesting material all the time? Does the egg fall down a hole the moment it’s laid?
I’ve physically set up chicken “coops” and the steel cage they stand on all day is big enough for eggs to fall into then rolls down to a conveyor and collected.
There is no bedding and up to 10 chickens in a 1’x3’x 1.5’ cage. I felt horrendous leaving that place by the time I was done
It’s literally the last one.
The other commenter is talking about cage farms, but even free range hens have a similar system.
Hens will always lay their eggs in the same place. So she will cluck around living her best life outside, then go back to the coop to lay an egg in her favourite nest. It’s easy enough to make a hole in the nest and a gravity based collection system underneath.
This is not only to keep the eggs clean but also to protect them from the hens, including the one that laid it.
Modern laying breeds are absolute nutters. Their sole purpose (target attribute) is to produce an egg a day. It’s not uncommon for these deranged weirdos to lay an egg, stand up, crack it open, and consume the contents.
An industrialized system to promote waste. None of the smaller farms in my area (Eastern Ont Canada) wash their eggs but the ones that get sold to stores must.