If you have poultry in your backyard and have a glut of eggs at certain times of the year, preserving them is a great way to keep some of that stash aside for when your chooks go off the lay.

Back in October and November last year, we were getting 10 eggs a day and simply couldn’t get through them, even when giving lots away. This was frustrating as there are times in the year when chooks simply don’t lay and we have to buy eggs. I wanted a way around this and my sister recommended storing some eggs in lime water for use when we don’t have them fresh. In this capacity, the purpose of the lime is to “seal off” the pores of the eggshell, keeping the egg fresh inside and preventing bacteria from entering.

Gotta say, I was a bit skeptical, but they were/are perfect! We ended up storing around 100 eggs and I wish I’d done more as our chooks stopped laying in April and are yet to start up again.

Water stored eggs can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 years, but my intention is to use them over winter each year so that we start again fresh for the following season.

Keen to try this?

Grab a large jar and add your eggs. I collected them over a few days and when the jar was full, I added 8 cups of water to 5 tablespoons of hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide). You’ll need to make up enough mixture so that all of the eggs are covered in water, but the lime doesn’t need to be completely dissolved – in fact, it will more than likely settle in clumps on the eggs and towards the base of the jar.

The jar doesn’t need to be sealed in any special way – I just used jars with a rubber seal to keep them reasonably airtight so that the water wouldn’t evaporate.

A few things to note:

• Don’t wash your eggs – you can brush any mud/poo off
• Use only fresh, home eggs – not commercial eggs, as commercial eggs have had their natural protective coating washed off
• I had a couple of eggs break in the jars, but it didn’t impact the rest of the eggs and didn’t smell off despite sitting in the water for 6+ months
• When you start using your stored eggs, wash them thoroughly so that you don’t get any lime residue in your food