Today, filming beside some very angry hens, let’s talk eggs. Ours come in all sizes and colors.
So many colors
Some are brown, like supermarket eggs, but brown can mean pinkish, beige, or speckled, depending on the breed. This one is probably Shiratama’s. The pinkish one is probably Oreo’s: she’s a Plymouth Rock, and the most similar breed in Japan is known for slightly pinkish eggs. Others are hard to place, since a hen’s condition can change the color. And look: Honey Lemon Tea just laid a brown egg! She’s a wild hen, probably a fighting-chicken and laying-breed mix, named for her delicious-looking color.
Our famous blue eggs come from our 10 or 15 Easter Eggers, and “blue” can be dark, pale or greenish. The blue shells seem harder than the brown. Hens lay bigger eggs as they age, and older hens’ eggs look a little paler, as if running out of ink. Small hens like Lavender lay small eggs.
How an egg is made
With Honey Lemon Tea’s help (no cutting, don’t worry!): a hen’s important organs are mostly on her left side, including the ovary, which is like a bunch of grapes full of tiny yolks. When a yolk is big enough, it’s released and travels down a tube where the white is added, then the tough white membrane, then a shell “factory.” In a last chamber near the exit, the egg turns 180 degrees so the round end comes out first. All this takes over 24 hours, and a healthy hen lays about one egg every 27 hours, so she takes a day off now and then.
Storing, washing, and the float test
I looked it up: eggs should be stored round end up, because that’s where the air sac is. Upside down, the air tries to rise, breaks something, and the egg can spoil. A fresh egg is coated in the bloom, a liquid that dries into a germ-fighting layer over the shell’s countless invisible breathing holes. Unwashed eggs keep well even at room temperature, but washed eggs must go in the fridge. If you wash, use water warmer than the egg, about bath temperature: cold water makes the contents shrink and pull bacteria in through the holes.
Supermarket eggs in the US aren’t meant to be eaten raw, so always cook them. Washed and refrigerated, our eggs easily keep a month or two if cooked. And the float test only shows how old an egg is (the air sac grows as moisture evaporates), not whether it’s spoiled. I eat our own eggs raw regularly with no problems so far.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next episode.