How to Store Fresh Eggs (so they last!)

When I first got chickens in 2014, I had no idea that there were so many things to consider for storing fresh eggs. Should they be washed or remain unwashed? In the fridge or on the counter? How long do they last? What is a bloom coating?

I know it can feel overwhelming at first, but you’re in good hands! I’ll help you figure out exactly which egg storage method is best for you based on what kind of eggs you have, how you plan to use them, and how long you need them to last.

Did you know that you should store your eggs differently if gathered during the winter months? Yup! It took me a bit to figure that one out, too, so you’ll be ahead of the game by the time you finish reading this. 

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products (including Amazon). I’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you! Regardless, I only link to products that I personally use on our homestead or believe in.

How to Store Fresh Eggs

There are two options for storing fresh eggs: on the counter or in the fridge. Which one is right for you depends on whether the eggs have been washed, how long you want to store them, and your personal preferences. Let’s break them down!

Eggs on the counter

If your farm fresh eggs are unwashed and still have the protective bloom coating intact, you can store them on the counter at room temperature for up to 3 weeks. If you aren’t sure what a bloom coating is, keep reading to learn all about it. It’s essential!

Storing fresh eggs on the counter is my favorite method and what we do most of the time on our homestead. It saves room in the fridge for other things, plus, cooking with room-temperature eggs is so nice! I LOVE our spiral egg dispenser, but you plan to store them in egg cartons, store them pointy end down so that the yolk remains centered in the egg.

The only exception here is wintertime. Living in Minnesota, our eggs can get quite cold before I collect them and that can cause problems. Once the cold eggs are brought inside a warm house, condensation can form on the shell and disrupt the bloom coating. So, if eggs get cooled, they should remain cooled (AKA stored in the fridge).

*If you are buying eggs from a local farm or neighbor, make sure to ask if their eggs have been washed or not before attempting this!  DO NOT leave washed eggs on the counter, or else they will spoil. If you aren’t sure, play it safe and throw them in the fridge.

Eggs in the fridge

Washed eggs

If the eggs have already been washed, then they absolutely have to be refrigerated since the protective bloom coating has been removed. While this may seem limiting, there are still benefits to storing eggs in the fridge! A refrigerated fresh egg lasts quite a bit longer – a full 3 months compared to 3 weeks on the counter.

One thing to note with washed eggs is that they will lose moisture rapidly when the protective bloom coating is gone. You’ll notice the eggshell color fade over time due to this. Most washed eggs at the grocery store are coated with mineral oil and stored in high-humidity conditions (70%) to prevent this from occurring.

High humidity levels are nearly impossible to maintain with household refrigerators due to their defrosting cycle, but coating the eggs with a thin layer of oil can help extend their storage life. I’ve personally never coated my eggs in oil because if I need them to last for more than 1-2 months, I just water-glass or freeze dry them.

I recommend storing them in clean egg cartons with the pointy end down. As tempting as the plastic, reusable egg cartons are, I don’t recommend them. I used them for a while, but found that condensation forms inside and this can lead to the eggs spoiling. 

Unwashed eggs

Lastly, you don’t have to wash your eggs before refrigerating them. In fact, I recommend that you don’t because refrigerating unwashed eggs gives you the longest storing option. The bloom coating paired with refrigeration extends their shelf life to 4-6 months.

If you still prefer to consume washed eggs in the end, that’s fine! You can wash them when you pull them out of the fridge to eat them.

One situation where you should refrigerate unwashed eggs is in the winter. A cold egg should stay cold. This is because the eggshell starts to sweat as it warms up, and this can compromise the integrity of the bloom. So, if the eggs come inside a little chilly from the coop, I recommend moving them directly into the fridge if you don’t plan to use them immediately.

What is a Bloom Coating?

We’ve been talking quite a bit about how important that bloom coating is, but what is it exactly and how does it protect the egg? Let’s dig in!

When an egg travels down the hen’s oviduct, the bloom coating is the very last step in egg production before it’s laid. Think of it as the final coat of paint that gets sprayed on a car as it nears the exit of the production line.

The bloom is composed of two layers that coat the shell and quickly dry after the egg is laid. It almost has a powdery, soft texture to it once it dries and can even mute or alter the true eggshell color if the coat is thick enough.

• Brown eggs can appear pink
• Dark brown eggs can appear purple
• Tinted eggs can appear pastel rather than vibrant

The purpose of the bloom is to seal the contents of the egg to prevent spoilage and subsequently, to allow it to be stored at room temperature. Eggs have 7,000-17,000 pores, and without the bloom coating, pathogens would rapidly enter the inside of the egg. 

An original study investigated this and found that water mixed with carbon black rapidly flooded the inside of eggs that had the bloom removed. Now, imagine the same thing happening with common things in the coop like chicken poop and mud… Ick! So, the bloom really is a key part of an egg’s design.

History of egg washing

So, why do we wash eggs? I find it interesting that egg washing is mandatory in the USA (unlike most of the rest of the world), and thus requires the eggs to be refrigerated. This came about in the 1970s due to “concerns about spoilage and foodborne illnesses.” 

Sounds a lot like the outlawing of raw milk in the 1980s and requiring pasteurization, doesn’t it? Most of the world doesn’t wash and refrigerate their eggs, so why do we do it?

When egg production (or anything else for that matter) moves from the small farmer to large commercial operations, things get sloppy. The eggs are dirty. The environment is dirty. The hens are sick. The list goes on.

Why should a commercial farmer put care into good animal husbandry if they can just wash the eggs, spray them down with a chemical sanitizer, and coat them with mineral oil instead? Integrity is LOST in this model.

In the past, a local farmer knew that they couldn’t sell eggs that were dirty and spoiled to their neighbors, so they took care in maintaining the quality and well-being of their flock.

Should I wash my eggs?

I personally never wash my eggs. Remember how porous those eggs are? If you wash an egg that has poop dried on it, the poop could potentially get pushed through into the egg.

Washing an egg with water that is slightly warmer than the egg will help reduce this risk, but why risk it in the first place? While a little chicken poo or mud is unsightly, light soiling isn’t problematic. That intact bloom protects the egg contents, remember?

However, a good rule of thumb I like to follow is to use any dirty eggs up first, and then I tuck away the clean ones for eating at a later time, or I water glass them. If I have any eggs that are absolutely filthy, our dogs LOVE those, but that rarely happens. Keep reading to uncover my tips for keeping eggs clean in the coop!

Tips for Gathering Farm Fresh Eggs

We’ve been raising chickens since 2014, and I’ve learned A LOT throughout the years! Here are my best tips for the best quality, clean eggs. 

Keep the eggs clean

This is the ultimate goal, right? If the eggs come into the house looking pristine and beautiful, there’s absolutely no reason to wash them. Here are my best tips for keeping those eggs clean:

• Collect eggs several times a day (if possible)
• Replace the bedding inside the nesting boxes often 
• Keep the coop clean with fresh bedding and add a covered run to keep the run dry
• Install a perch 8” in front of the nesting boxes so that the hens have a place to land before carefully walking in (prevents broken eggs)
• Provide supplemental calcium or refeed eggshells for strong shells that resist breaking
• Ensure adequate protein intake to limit egg eating
• Avoid overcrowding (How Much Space Do Chickens REALLY Need?)
• Discourage roosting in the nests (if you see droppings in the nests, it’s because they are sleeping in them)
• If all else fails, try a rollaway nest! 

Keep the eggs warm

When winter rolls around, this brings a whole new challenge = frozen eggs. When eggs freeze, the contents expand and can crack the shell. This exposes the contents to the outside environment and the eggs are no longer safe for human consumption.

Even if the eggs only partially freeze, the contents are altered. You’ll notice that the yolk looks like a firm ball, rather than being soft and succulent. While goofy looking, the egg is still safe to eat as long as the shell is intact.

Living in Minnesota, I’ve had to get creative when it comes to preventing frozen eggs. While you could run out there every hour or two on those -35F days, I’d rather not. I like to lay heated seedling mats inside the laying boxes – they work so well! Check out my YouTube video to see how I did it.

The best way to wash eggs (if needed)

If you decide to wash your eggs, make sure you’re doing it the right way. Wash the egg in water that is slightly warmer than the egg. If you wash in cooler water, this can cause bacteria to be drawn into the egg, which is the opposite of what you want! 

Do you need to use soap? No, I’ve never found soap to be necessary. Make sure to dry the eggs thoroughly after washing, then place them in egg cartons and promptly store them in the fridge. A small bit of dried poop can also be gently brushed off with a scouring pad or a fingernail.

How to Tell if an Egg Is Rotten

The bloom coating can vary widely from hen to hen, and even from day to day from the same hen. Because of this, the shelf life of each egg varies, so it’s important to be able to spot a bad egg in the batch.

The deterioration of the egg white and yolk is the first sign of an aging egg. The yolk will flatten instead of standing high, and the white will get thin and runny. At this stage, the egg is still completely safe to eat.

However, once it’s progressed to being rotten or bacteria-laden, then it’s time to toss it! The best way to determine this is to use your nose. The smell will be foul from hydrogen sulfide. Once you smell it, you’ll never forget it!

If you’re not sure how old an egg is, try the float test. Simply place the egg into a glass of water and observe what happens. A young egg will have a small air cell and will sink, but an old egg will have a large air cell and will float.

• Fresh egg: the egg rests on the bottom of the container, horizontally
• 1 week old: the egg rests on the bottom of the container, slightly tipped
• 2-3 weeks old: the egg stands vertically in the container with the tip touching the bottom
• 4+ weeks old: the egg floats

*Age is based on being stored at room temperature. 

How to Preserve Eggs Beyond Refrigeration

While you can extend the life of your farm fresh eggs by storing them in the refrigerator, there are a few other methods you can use as well. Some of them will extend their life by a few weeks, while others will keep eggs fresh for 25 years – WOW!

Water glassing

Water glassing is a traditional, safe way of preserving eggs for long-term storage without the need for refrigeration! This process has been used since the early 1800s and involves mixing pickling lime or sodium silicate in water and submerging eggs in the mixture. 

We’ve been water glassing for over 5 years now, and it is my favorite method. I love that the process is simple, the eggs can be stored at room temperature, and we can still cook them over easy for breakfasts. Check out my Water Glassing Eggs for Storage article for details on how to do it!

Pickling

Don’t let those dusty jars of pickled eggs at the grocery store deter you from trying these! Just like with all things, homemade is SO. MUCH. BETTER. Especially if you’re using fresh eggs from your own flock or a local farm. The other plus with this form of preservation is that they’ll store for 4 months in the fridge!

Definitely check out my Jalapeno Pickled Eggs recipe! They are ready to eat in just 7 days, and no canning is required. You’ll be enjoying this protein-packed snack in no time.

Fermenting

I know fermented eggs sound a bit weird, but hear me out! They are tasty! Fermentation is entirely different from pickling because no vinegar is added. Instead, it utilizes bacteria and yeast from the added starter to preserve the eggs. The use of salt also kills off bad bacteria while encouraging the growth of healthy bacteria.

If you’ve experimented with fermenting vegetables before and are ready to branch out, definitely give my Fermented Eggs Recipe a try! They don’t last as long as pickled eggs (2 weeks vs 4 months), but they are still worth the effort in my opinion.

Freezing

Freezing is a great, simple option! Gently whip up some raw eggs, pour them into a freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 6 months. You’ll just need to remember to thaw them out ahead of time. I always forget, so that’s why I like freeze drying or water glassing – they are ready to go, anytime!

Freeze drying

Freeze drying is another favorite of ours on our homestead! I love that they are shelf stable and have a 25-year shelf life if stored in mylar bags – WILD! Freeze drying also does a great job of preserving the nutritional value, which is a big win in my book!

Dehydrating

While dehydrating eggs is technically possible, the results aren’t that great. The texture is quite odd, and they take a long time to dehydrate. I’d stick with the options above.

Other Articles You’ll Love:

• Water Glassing Eggs for Storage
• Fermented Eggs Recipe (EASY!)
• Jalapeno Pickled Eggs (No Canning Necessary!)