What do you do when you get more eggs than you can use?

[MustangGal]

DH has been selling some at work, but right now I have over nine dozen eggs. I don't feel right about advertising. Our town has an ordinance about chickens - we can have them. We just can't make money off of them. I give my folks all they want. I'm getting an average of 18 eggs a day - way more than my little family can handle! I had also planned on supplying DH's mom w/ eggs, but she has since had to be in a nursing home.

When I bought 2 dozen chickens, I expected at least a quarter of them to be male - only two were. I didn't think they would all not only live, but thrive - I know, that is a good thing - lol.

[goatlady]

Around here folks donate the extras to the local food pantrys who are always in need. I trade mine usually to neighbors for future "come help me" times.

[1Admin]

If you have dogs, some of them will help cut the dog food bill.

[MustangGal]

I hadn't thought of feeding them to the dogs. It is a good idea, but DH would probably have a cow. He freaks when I give the pigs and chickens goat milk. :rolleyes: Since the Man Cub is the chief egg gather-er, we get a few that are cracked. I usually scramble them and give 'em to the pigs.

I just assumed food pantries wouldn't take them.

After doing some searching, I discovered they can be frozen. You whip the eggs like you would for scrambled and pour in a ice cube tray (two cubes = 1 lg egg) or put in ziplocks (3 tbs. = 1 lg egg).

[thedreamers]

We would give the extra eggs to family and friends that we know were having it rough. Its not alot but it always helped and they were always thankful someone was thinking of them. Also there is nothing wrong giving them to the animals to eat. And pigs love milk. We would save all egg shells in a butter bucket and let them dry out and crush and add to food and plants for calcium.

[Klayton]

He freaks when I give the pigs and chickens goat milk.

Well that breaks my suggestion. We always fed our extra to pigs, Grandma said it helped put lean on them faster...

[Klayton]

Oh, as for giving to neighbors, you gotta be careful, one idiot opens their mouth that you gave them farm fresh eggs and his little Timmy is in the ER with food poisoning, they're going to look at you before they look at that Jack-In-The-Box they ate at for lunch...

...just saying...

Undue attention is never a good thing...

[ridgerunner]

It is my understanding that the egg whites can be dehydrated. I have never done this, so please check it out before you try.

[Klayton]

It is my understanding that the egg whites can be dehydrated. I have never done this, so please check it out before you try.

Anybody know how to dehydrate eggs, and is it worth the effort?
Been told dehydrated eggs taste terrible, but hey so does my 4 year shelf life canned ham, but I'll eat it during SHTF. :cool:

[claymore]

MG, I'm sorry for poor info. but there is a old time method for egg storage. Something you put in water, then soak the eggs and this stuff closes the pores of the shell and the egg stays fresh for a couple of months. Checked my books but can't find it (don't remember the name of the stuff nor where I read about it). If you can't find out what it is, eat fast.

[MustangGal]

LOL, I think we may do a bit of *almost* everything. Give some away, freeze some, and eat lots of eggs - even feed some to the dogs and pigs if we have to. The Man Cub eats an omelette almost every school morning - he is a much better behaved student with a high protein breakfast. :) So that gets rid of quite a few.

claymore - Mother Earth News did an experiment with eggs, but I don't remember the results - I'll have to go look it up! Thanks for the reminder!

[MustangGal]

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1977-11-01/Fresh-Eggs.aspx

Really interesting article.

[Klayton]

Awesome, so Grandma was right again when she said it was a waste of time to set up the chicken coop with artificial lighting for the 3 months of the year they get less than optimal hours of sunlight...

GOD I wish I would have listened to her more closely when I still had her around...

Miss you so much Grandma!!

[Bearman202]

I saw a good article on making powdered eggs once, but I can't remember where it was. If you do a search on "Making powdered eggs" you could probably find something. Granted, not as good as fresh, but if you're hungry enough, they'll do. The process involved scrambling the eggs, then dehydrating them, then putting them into a blender to make them into a powder, if I remember right. Look it up. If I had an excess, I would probably do it. I think powdered eggs have a really long shelf life.

[SCinPNW]

Great article MG! We do not currently have chickens, but some day I hope to. The Mother Earth News article will be printed and added to the notebook.

Thanks,
SC