Glad To Have Our Own Eggs

[catskinner]

Around here, most chickens free range, wandering all over, best tasting egg I've eaten. The farmers market in town you can see the pride and effort of good farmers, and ones that don't. I try to buy most of my food from there, since I know how it was grown or raised. Small local farms are the backbone of the world, not the mega-farm IMO. :thumbsup:

 

[bp fick]

Keeping hens is a part of life in the country, if you choose to do so. Like gardening with its bounty eaten fresh, put in the freezer or canned such things bring us closer to the source of food. In our modern culture, people are farther and farther away from the very nature of their food.


I like my vegetables I grow. I like my hens and my eggs. I like the 2 gallons of wild black berries we picked and put in the freezer. If I wanted to, I'd raise a beef and/or a couple of pigs, as I have in the past. Sure, there is some savings, but mostly it is about being human, for this old country boy. In touch with nature and growing things and in touch with my food.

I wish I had an orchard again and a vineyard too!! I like it all.

This forum's title is "Rural Life". Much of what rural life is all about involves plants and animals and the stuff of real food. After sojourning in cities, because of my profession, for so many years, I am back in the country and living a life style purposefully chosen. A lifestyle that mimics the way I was raised and the way my parents and grandparents were close to a century ago.

Don't "have" to do any of this. I have chosen it. I count it as supreme blessing for which I am grateful. Amen.

 

[dmccarty]

The latest report I read this morning said the chicken feed had Salmonella.

What I have not read in any of the news reports is the rate of infection in the eggs? Are the eggs really contaminated with Salmonella at an abnormal rate. Surely someone is checking the rate of INTERNALLY infected eggs.

I read that eggs that are INTERNALLY infected with Salmonella should not be a problem since the infection usually does not grow to dangerous levels in the egg.

So if that is true are the eggs or egg products being left out too long in a warm environment? Not being cooked to 160ish degrees? Or the egg products are not being pasteurized correctly? See my previous comments about the BBQ place and banana pudding.

We get a magazine about raising chickens. I would guess they will have a report about the outbreak in the next issue or two. Hopefully they will have better and more in depth information on what is happening.

I read years ago that most chicken meat is contaminated with Salmonella during processing. Many plants dunk the slaughtered chicken in a chilled water bath to cool down the bird. It only takes one chicken with splashed gut goo containing Salmonella to infect the bath and most/many/all of the chickens that get dunked. Some chickens are air cooled and are much more likely to be Salmonella free.

Later,
Dan

 

[charlz]

What I have not read in any of the news reports is the rate of infection in the eggs? Are the eggs really contaminated with Salmonella at an abnormal rate. Surely someone is checking the rate of INTERNALLY infected eggs.

My understanding is that is exactly the problem, the eggs have salmonella inside them. If the chicken has salmonellosis every egg is lays contains salmonella inside.

I read that eggs that are INTERNALLY infected with Salmonella should not be a problem since the infection usually does not grow to dangerous levels in the egg.

I was wondering about that as well with homegrown vs. commercial eggs. Does it grow inside the shell? If so a homegrown egg might be 'safer' as it is likely consumed much much sooner than a commercial egg which I believe can actually be a few months old by the time you buy it. (Although I would think there is enough turn over to keep stocks relatively fresh)

There is this quote from the egg site I linked in an earlier post:

"The majority of reported salmonellosis outbreaks involving eggs or egg-containing foods have occurred in foodservice kitchens and were the result of inadequate refrigeration, improper handling and insufficient cooking. If not properly handled, Salmonella bacteria can double every 20 minutes and a single bacterium can multiply into more than a million in 6 hours. But, properly prepared egg recipes served in individual portions and promptly eaten are rarely a problem. You can ensure that your eggs will maintain their high quality and safety by using good hygiene, cooking, refrigeration and handling practices."

That would seem to indicate the eggs are only 'inoculated' when laid and the salmonella grows after the egg is opened.

 

[Chuck52]

How do folks who raise their own chickens treat the eggs they collect? I assume the big producers rinse the eggs before packaging. Do you rinse fresh eggs in anything, or maybe only clean up the obviously dirty ones? I am not personally concerned, and have eaten eggs from my daughter and SIL hens and from a friend's hens, I just wondered if folks who sell their eggs do anything like that because I would assume that you could almost always culture Salmonella from the outside of eggs since it is so common. I routinely graze in my garden and eat fruits and vegetables straight from the plants, so I don't mean to make it sound as if I'm worried about it...just wondered.

Chuck

 

[bp fick]

Chuck

I would assume most small poultry farms indeed wash/rinse their eggs. I know I do in a mild bleach solution. It is the reasonable thing to do. If you want them straight from the nest, you'd be welcome to them, although I don't know why you would.

For me the greater concern over "factory egg" operations is the incredible crowding of the birds and all that this entails. Medications are used, but hormones have been disallowed for awhile. The birds never touch the earth, see the sun, eat a blade of fresh grass, eat a bug, exercise, or do anything else they were created to do. To call it a factory is fairly accurate. The product, ie, the egg produced under these conditions are frankly just plain bland and unexceptional. FWIW

 

[Chuck52]

BP,

I agree about the taste, though for the most part that's what we use. Daughter and SIL's hens are so free range that their eggs can get hard to find, so we get them only on occasion. The friend I used to get eggs from is down to just a few hens that meet his own needs. We mainly use eggs as ingredients, and a dozen can last us a month, so it isn't one of those biggies for us. If I had my way, like someone else said, I'd have a big country breakfast two times a day, with home made sausage, eggs over easy, grits, biscuits, etc but I don't have my way! :thumbdown: No doubt I'll live longer, or maybe it will only seem that way.

Chuck

 

[tallyho8]

I have washed my yard eggs with soap and water after collecting them for a long time now. Before I started doing this I would occasionally get a little sick after eating my easy-over eggs.

It is easy to see how a microscopic speck of contamination could fall off the unwashed egg shell when you crack it on the side of the skillet.

Although I usually eat my berries right off the bush and eat plums, kumquats, and peaches right off the trees after gently wiping them off, I prefer to wash them first because of all the bird droppings in the trees.

It seems like my resistance to these kinds of infections should be a little higher than most since I have consumed so much unprepared food in my lifetime.

 

[dmccarty]

That would seem to indicate the eggs are only 'inoculated' when laid and the salmonella grows after the egg is opened.

That kinda sums up my question about what is happening. IF the chickens already have Salmonella from the feed which then gets into the egg the only way for ME to get Salmonella is from a mishandled egg.

Since the reports I have been reading SEEM to indicated that the Salmonella outbreak is above average that SEEMS to indicate a failure to handle eggs correctly which has only been noticed because the eggs are infected. Whew that was a long winded sentence.

I would really like to see the rate of infection at the chicken farms in questions compared to "normal."

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

It is easy to see how a microscopic speck of contamination could fall off the unwashed egg shell when you crack it on the side of the skillet.

Meant to say this earlier. Most of the newer cooking shows are repeating the mantra of cracking the egg on a flat surface and not on an edge. Cracking the egg on an edge is more likely to drive a part of the egg shell INTO the egg. And if the shell has bad stuff on it.....

I really have noticed how the cooking shows have been repeating this mantra. They have been doing this well before the outbreak.

Course keeping the shell out of the egg is easier said than done. I missed the flatter side of the bowl this morning and hit the bowl edge. But I was scrambling eggs and they get cook fully so it did not matter.

Later,
Dan