Hopefully store prices will come down as the year goes on and flocks bounce back.
You should try leaving washed eggs out on the counter for 20+ days (incubation for a chicken) and see.
A question if you have time to answer - How many birds per sq meter do you have? What's your total land area? And how do you deal with accumulation of chicken poop?
Thanks
what myth are you talking about?
The study found that washed eggs had higher bacterial counts in their contents after storage compared to unwashed eggs, particularly at higher temperatures. Key findings include:
Cold Storage (4°C for 8 weeks): There was no significant difference in bacterial counts between washed and unwashed eggs.
Warm Storage (30°C for 12 days): Washed eggs showed significantly higher bacterial contamination, suggesting that washing increased the likelihood of bacterial penetration.
Bacterial Types: The number of hemolytic bacteria and coli-aerogenes was also higher in washed eggs.
I have eaten genuinely year old (and older) eggs with no issues. That doesn't mean it is a myth that eggs only last 5 weeks in the fridge, it just means that I was putting myself in extra danger out of a weird sense of frugality and laziness.
I've also eaten pounds and pounds of raw cookie dough and not gotten sick, but that doesn't mean raw cookie dough doesn't have an inherent salmonella danger (ironically for this conversation it mostly comes from the flour!)
And then of course there's this line:
"These differences between unwashed and washed eggs are not significant."
* Maybe 0.25 birds/square meter? There's ~12 total (we raise some for slaughter now, so it fluctuates) and they have a large enclosed outdoor area attached to the much smaller (6m^2, perhaps a bit more) indoor coop.
* Several acres. We let them free roam during the day with someone to supervise, but otherwise they have to stay secured (coyotes.)
* Inside the coop, the standard way is the "deep litter" method. You cover the floor in several inches of pine shavings and turn it over with a rake daily. Add a new bag of shavings here and there, and cycle it out completely maybe twice a year. The old bedding makes for good compost. If it doesn't smell, then you're good. For the outdoor area, we just auger it over and add mulch/soil around the same time the bedding is replaced.
(Note - tending to the birds hasn't been in my wheelhouse for a while, so don't take this as gospel!)