I’ve been keeping chickens for about five years now. My first batch of four Rhode Island Reds were adopted from my sister when she decided she’d had enough of keeping chickens. She goes through this process every couple years, cleaning out her current chickens, taking some time off then replacing them later with peeps. I suppose it’s part of having a lot of children, a lot of responsibility and a lot of farm animals. The chickens are the easiest from which to take a break. So, I took the four layers and kept them outside in a chicken tractor the first year.
At that time I didn’t need to keep track of the dates I collected the eggs. Four hens were enough to keep us in eggs but not so many that they got old. I didn’t start marking the dates on my eggs until my chicken keeping habit passed 9 hens. Once you’re collecting a half dozen eggs per day they add up – fast. Now, at 13 hens, all of good laying age, I need to date the eggs every single day. If I don’t we could end up eating eggs that are 5 days old when we have others that are 5 weeks old. We try hard to keep them in a chronological rotation and use up the oldest eggs first.
Here’s how I keep track. A few years ago I pulled out my old China pencil from my art school days. I think it was still tucked into my husband’s old tackle box filled with drawing and painting supplies. Not only do I use it for the eggs, but I now also use it for all my gardening markers. I learned the hard way that Sharpies just don’t cut it in the garden when exposed to the sun every day of summer. Sharpies’ ink fades fast but China pencils are made of wax. It doesn’t fade or run in the sun, yet, if you write on plastic it can be wiped off with your fingers.
It writes clearly on eggs and the wax sits on top of the egg shell but it doesn’t wipe off or smear. It doesn’t soak into the shell like a marker or pen might. It’s also darker and more easily noticed than using a graphite pencil.
I keep one in the kitchen, right next to the refrigerator. When I collect the eggs, they get rinsed (if necessary), set out to dry, I date them and immediately put them into an egg carton and refrigerate them. In the summer I keep my eggs on the counter but they are always dated so I know which ones to use first.
You can pick up China pencils at an art store or you can order them online. They’re very cheap and they come with a cool peel off wrapper that you loosen with a string. It’s so quaint.