Eggs in slaked lime going bad - any ideas?

Hi all,

I'm in New Zealand and have been trailing preserving our egg bounty in hydrated lime/builder's lime. After a week or so I noticed a few of the eggs had cracked and the water was smelling pretty bad. This has happened in 3 out of the 4 jars I did. There's about 20 eggs per jar and it's not limited to the bottom eggs so I don't think it's from pressure. The eggs are fresh and not chipped or cracked when I put them in (unless maybe there are tiny cracks that I don't notice).

I also noticed that the bottom eggs that are sitting in the settled lime are not as robust somehow - as though the lime has begun to erode the shells.

I've taken the eggs out and represerved the good ones with fresh lime water.

I'm wondering if it might be from it being warmer here? I've popped them into a cooler room to see if that might help.

Any other ideas of what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks

Kia ora Josie, and haere mai ki permies. I had the exact same problem this past year, with probably 2/3 or more of the eggs developing hairline cracks and going bad. I keep the buckets in the garage or a shady spot next to the front porch, so I don't think they're getting too warm. It's weird, because I've preserved eggs this way for a few years now and this is the first time I've had this sort of failure rate.

Thanks Phil, it's good to hear I'm not the only one, and that you've had success with it in the past. Nga mihi

This is very interesting! I do keep mine in the darkest part of a cool, dark pantry, but it gets pretty hot here, too - with heat indexes over 105°F. The possibility of hairline cracks being missed, as they were being preserved is the one thing that stands out to me. Another possibility is that maybe they were somehow jostled a bit?

After some length of time, the shells and even inner membranes do become thinner and fragile, to the point that simply cracking the shell open will also break the yolk - but not in mere weeks.

What concentration of slaked lime are you using? Generally, it's supposed to be 1oz (by weight) of lime to 1qt water. Now, just exploring possibilities, I'm wondering if using hard water vs soft would make any difference...

Edited to add, yes! Yes, it can make a difference. Using soft water is preferable, because it creates a more lime-saturated water, allowing a better seal for the surface of the eggs. So, that's worth checking out, too.

Good investigative angles, Carla. I use rainwater and enough lime that it eventually settles out on the bottom in a layer about 2-3 cm thick. I always inspect the eggs before they go in, and I saw more cracked eggs at the top of the "stack." I also don't stack them as deep as I used to...maybe 6-8 layers, and then I start a new bucket.

Using rain water here, so I don't think it's that.
Maybe jostling could be a thing. I'll try a more gentle batch!
My ratio is 1/3 cup lime to 1 litre water.

Josie Gritten wrote:Using rain water here, so I don't think it's that.
Maybe jostling could be a thing. I'll try a more gentle batch!
My ratio is 1/3 cup lime to 1 litre water.

This afternoon, I'll weigh out 1/3 of a cup, and see if it's the same as 1oz. The usual issue with measuring by volume vs measuring by weight, is that by volume is less consistent, in that sometimes we (intentionally or accidentally) might pack the measuring cup more firmly, or more loosely, and end up not getting enough of whatever the ingredient is. So you have a scale?

Good thinking! I use an actual measure rather than a cup itself, but I guess it could still be off.

Ugh - I knew I forgot something... I'm struggling with something, at the moment. I'll try to remember, before I go to bed.

Are you sure it is pure hydrated lime instead of quick lime or a mixture of quicklime and hydrated lime?

Good thought - I'll check out the bag and see what it says.

I'd bet it's almost certainly not quicklime, since that's not generally available to the public in this country for health and safety reasons. Concrete and masonry contractors can get it. The process of slaking quicklime (which is how we get slaked lime) involves mixing it with water, and the reaction releases a fair bit of heat, so you'd definitely know if that was what you had ;-)

Sorry I took so long, but I finally got to it. 1/3Cup of lime, leveled, weighed 1.35oz. So, I'm not sure if using too much would have that effect, or not. But, it would be kinder to your wallet, to weigh it.

I have had the same problem, and eventually gave up. Not just because of the bad eggs, but also because of space. I preserve between 600 and 800 eggs every year, and using lime takes up a lot of space, plus when you need some, you have to dig into the buckets, which adds to the risk of cracking the eggs. Instead I froze them, until we got a freeze dryer. Now I only freeze dry eggs.
That said, due to temperatures, our chickens slow down twice a year, but doesn’t stop completely. Our ducks always take a break during the hot season where they chickens also slow down, how many they lay. The chickens then also take a break during the time we have short days, like all chickens do. Anyway, this means that we use freeze dried eggs for baking and scrambled eggs, and save the few we get, for things like boiled eggs.
I have never been able to figure out why they crack either, but found that it sometimes was hard to find clean eggs to use, since they often are very dirty when we get them. Our chickens aren’t super happy with the nice nesting boxes we use, so they have a tendency to lay eggs in the strangest places.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth of information. I will keep looking here, hoping someone knows why this happens. Ideally I would like to store some in lime if possible, for things like boiled eggs.

South African here, from a very hot in summer semi desert region where temps are above 35-45 deg C most days through summer.

I have successfully lime preserved eggs in this climate, stored in a dark but I don't imagine particularly cool place, although it would certainly be a good 5-8 deg cooler than outside.

I've only ever had this happen to one 3litre jar and it was jostling that did it. I bumped the jar as I put the last egg or two in and thought at the time that I hoped I hadn't cracked any. Well that jar stank and had a handful cracked eggs near the top. We opened it a year later. The eggs that weren't cracked were most certainly still fine, in the usual lime egg state of slightly more fragile with runny-ish insides.

We use reverse osmosis water, as we get very little rainwater and rely on a rather mineral rich groundwater supply.

Hope that helps pinpoint your possible issue. Also might be a good idea to make sure your hens are getting enough calcium while they're laying up a storm so that the eggs you preserve have good strong shells.

Something I heard about eggs that might be part of the cracking issue.  People buying eggs at the store were commenting about how thin the shells were.  I read somewhere that in general younger chickens lay eggs with a thinner shell.  Seems this would be more noticeable with factory farm chickens but might also apply to "better" raised ones.  Would be interesting to correlate the age of the flock to the incidence of breakage in lime water.  I have stored eggs in lime water usually about 3 dozen to a container and out of about 30 dozen only had 2-3 cracked eggs.  These were all eggs gotten from a neighbor so can't really say much about the age of the chickens.  

Hi, Josie.
It's hard to diagnose for sure, but yep, there might be these problems:
---If the containers were in a place with temperatures higher than 99.5 [Hatching temperature]. [Remember, if you have fertile eggs, these embryos still want to be born, lime water or not]. I refrigerate them before putting them in lime water.
---If there were tiny cracks [not always visible to the naked eye]. You might want to candle them before putting them in lime water, not to see if there is an embryo but to assess the condition of the shell: Some shells will show as porous: dark but with a thousand little spots with lighter color. Remember, if you would not have chosen them as eggs for incubating, they are probably not good enough to store this way. The lime water is used to make the shell totally impervious, so if there are imperfections... that's a problem.
---Just in case, for the next batch, start feeding a lot of oyster shells a week before selecting the eggs. I'm mixing them right in with their food. I have one hen who, for some reason, wasn't eating enough calcium: her eggs were always soft, with a very weak shell.
---Finally, make sure the lime water is strong enough: There should be lime accumulating on the eggs and at the bottom of the container. The lime should be added "to refusal".
As far as trying to salvage the eggs that you think might still be good, I wouldn't: they have been dunking in suspicious lime water for a while, so you can't be sure if they have absorbed anything bad from that water.
---Better start with fresh, perfect eggs. You want eggs that never had caca on them, eggs that candle well [with no indication of porosity]
Good luck to you.

I started to "lime" eggs about 4 years ago.  I looked for the lime on-line and put it in the checkout on Amazon and left it for a couple of days.  Got a notice that it was on sale then.
Went to buy it and it came up with a case of the stuff for $5.00 more.  Thought, "Why not?".  lol  I am on the second bag of 12 and have given away 2 bags.

I use 1/2 gallon canning jars for the eggs.  In 4 years we have not had any bad eggs but 1/2 dz cracked ones, and yes, they were on the top.

I only put fresh clean eggs in that I collect that day.

Super helpful thoughts and suggestions everyone - thank you.

Our laying hens are mostly young, so that could be an issue. I'll trying candling the eggs.

We have roosters so fertilised eggs could be a thing - I'll do the fridge trick just to make sure!