We only keep a few laying hens, but still sometimes accumulate a lot of eggs in the fridge. To make sure we always use the oldest first my wife uses a felt tip marker to write the day of the month on each egg. You do get strange looks the first time people see it. When I gave some eggs to the preacher's wife I told her we used them in our illegal numbers gambling ring. I told another lady in church we used them for our illegal bingo games on Sat night and the preacher had got all the letters, she got all numbers in case they wanted to hook up & start their own game.
Since people would give me their clean egg cartons I would just hold onto different colored ones and I knew that white was the oldest, then pink, then blue then cardboard. Before I had colors I just wrote 1,2,3,4 on the cartons and rotated them accordingly. If the egg was too big to fit in the carton it went in my "big egg" bowl and I used it up before the others. Obviously I had room for 4 cartons in the fridge, my new fridge only fits two at a time. But I usually have at least two or three dozen setting out in a cool place to "age" on the counter. Those I use for hard boiled eggs after they hit the 14 day mark. I sometimes have an egg customer request the older ones if they are planning on doing any hard boiled ones.
Roslyn, I use Eggies for hard boiled eggs. Best $8 I have ever spent. I only have six hens laying at the moment which isn't enough to keep up with our daily consumption. I have 21 pullets that should start laying in the next month so hopefully I will actually have extra eggs. I have a spare fridge in our shed, which will hold any extra eggs.
With college letting out, we just picked up a dormitory sized fridge from craigslist. It has 3 shelves and 4 cartons will fit on each shelf. The oldest are top shelf, left side. When we take one out (off the top shelf) the other 3 move to the left and the one on the left, on the second shelf, moves up to the top shelf, right side. Works out pretty well.
We started with the rotating container thing in our kitchen fridge. I was just worried about someone moving things around & we lose track. I remember as a kid having to crack our eggs into a bowl for safety. I get new chicks every Easter & retire the older birds when they begin to moult. During the overlap period we get double egg production & we can accumulate quite a few before we use them or give them away. Found it easier to just write the date right on the eggs & dump them into the crisper drawer. We keep a small flock so it doesn't take long to date them. Obviously wouldn't work for a larger operation. Just thought it was an idea someone might use.
I don't do any rotaing ... I keep a few eggs in the frig but all extra eggs go to the dogs ... I have found a natural dog feed that takes my extra eggs.
This is off topic, but since you mentioned dog food.....Now if someone gets mad I can just blame the previous admin uh I mean post. Anyway I buy my poultry, horse & cattle feed from a local mill. They carry Black Gold dog food from Minnesota. My boys love it. As they got older they were gaining weight. On this food they lost weight & are more active. If I run out & pick up another brand at the store, even "designer foods" like ProPlan or the others, they won't eat until they get real hungry. If I mix Black Gold with anything else they throw it out & dig for the Gold. Another plus is the cost. Even though they love it, they eat less & it costs about $22 for 50lbs. Very cheap compared to other premium dog food. For what it's worth, I used to have a contract to deliver pet food & medical supplies to vets. I learned quite a bit about dog food & will never again give my guys the cheap stuff from a chain store. Anyway I just thought I would throw this out there. It may help someone else keep their pets around a little longer.
I mark the date with a pencil. I was using a felt tip marker, but thought about it soaking into the egg, so the pencil works better as it definitely just goes on the shell and doesn't soak in.
