How to Water Glass Eggs for Long Term Preservation

With the longer daylight hours on the homestead, the hens are back to laying eggs at full capacity. This means we have baskets overflowing of farm fresh eggs. One way to preserve this harvest is to water glass the eggs. It’s a super easy technique that ensure we will have fresh eggs all winter long!

For years we went with the flow of the egg production here on the homestead. This would leave us with tons of eggs in the spring and summer and no eggs in the winter.

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We would miss those fresh eggs so much when the hens weren’t laying.

Read my no fail method for Boiling eggs in an Instant Pot

Why I love water-glassing eggs

After much research, I found out that you can actually preserve those fresh eggs to use during those times when the eggs are sparce.

I have been water glassing for an egg preservation method for a few years now and make it a high priority in the spring and summer to make sure we will have enough to get through the lean times.

There’s always an abundance of eggs in the spring and summer, however there are very few in the late fall and winter.

Although there are a few different ways to preserve farm-fresh eggs, water glassing is the only method I know of that allows you preserve whole raw eggs and use them as if they were fresh after many months.

This process of preservation involves mixing pickling lime and water for a pickling lime solution that will infiltrate the pores of the eggs “sealing” them essentially from air.

The eggs need to be unwashed but clean. Meaning, you don’t want them to have dirt or chicken poo on them. The egg shells should be free of any debris before water glassing.

Eggs have a natural protective coating on them called the bloom. This coating fills the porous shell of the egg preserving them for a short time.

By water glassing them, this extends the preservation for up to a year!

To ensure cleaner eggs, make sure you routinely change their bedding in the nesting boxes.

Fresh unwashed eggs will last on your counter for several weeks. If they are refrigerated, they will last much longer.

However, having them last up to a year is what I’m looking for when we are overrun with all these little nuggets!

Come December, we are so relieved to have “fresh” eggs for breakfast!

Is it hard to raise a flock of laying hens?

Raising laying hens is actually quite simple. The main considerations are predator proof housing, feeding, and watering.

When choosing a spot for your backyard flock, keep in mind the logistics of fencing and housing. It’s important for the hens to have room to roam and plenty of shade for summer. Also, consider that they will need shelter from rain and bad weather.

It’s important to provide fresh water and feed every day.

Keeping a small flock of laying hens in your backyard is a very rewarding experience. You will love the eggs!

If you are interested in getting started raising your own chickens, I recommend getting in touch with someone who has backyard chickens for some tips and advice.

Why preserve farm fresh eggs?

In the spring and summer, if you have laying hens, you will be over run with eggs. It’s pretty hard to eat as many as they will lay during that time of the year.

Preserving the eggs gives you a stock pile for when the days get shorter and the hens take a much needed break from their laying.

We always have enough eggs during the winter months and don’t have to by extra eggs from the grocery store because of our water-glassed eggs!

There are a few ways to preserve eggs: Freezing, Freeze drying, Dehydrating, and Water glassing.

Water glassing is definitely my preferred method.

Why Water Glassing?

Water glassing eggs is the only method of preservation that keeps the eggs intact and whole.

You can fry them up just like when they were fresh!

This makes it the most preferred way of preserving eggs on our homestead while we are over run with eggs in the summer months.

To water glass eggs, you will need:

1. Farm fresh, unwashed, clean eggs – You can not water glass store-bought eggs because they have been washed and removed the protective coating needed for this method to be effective. Use the cleanest eggs as dirty eggs will not preserve well and will most likely go bad.
2. Filtered water – For best results don’t use tap water. Distilled water should be okay.
3. Pickling lime or Calcium Hydroxide – You can pick this up in the canning section of your local store or order it here.
4. Half gallon mason jar – You can also put your water glassed eggs in food-grade buckets with a lid depending on the number of eggs you have to preserve. I like using a half-gallon jar as it’s a bit easier to see how many eggs I have.
5. Kitchen scale – A kitchen scale is important for this process as you need exactly 1 ounce of lime for a quart of water.

Before preparing the solution, choose your eggs. You will want clean but unwashed eggs that are free from blemishes or cracks.

How to water glass eggs

Using a kitchen scale, weight out 1 ounce of pickling lime.

This is the Kitchen Scale I use

Add to 4 cups filtered water and stir until dissolved.

In a half gallon mason jar, carefully start stacking the eggs in the jar.

When near the top, pour the lime water solution over the eggs until all eggs are completely submerged beneath the solution.

Put a tight fitting lid on and store on a shelf in the pantry out of direct sunlight or in a dark place.

Water glassed eggs will last for up to a year on the shelf at room temperature.

As you can see, this long-term storage method for eggs is an old time way of making the most of the feast or famine that is backyard eggs;)