 Perhaps you are a relatively new backyard poultry owner, or maybe you have years of experience. Either way, at some point you may find yourself with a surplus of eggs. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a way to preserve some of your farm fresh eggs for use later in the year when laying may decrease or stop altogether for a short period of time? We have good news for you. Freezing eggs is an easy and inexpensive way to preserve your eggs for use later in the year. We are going to discuss freezing mixed whole eggs in this presentation. First, break each whole, clean egg separately into a clean container. As you can see in the picture, I used a clean jelly jar for this demonstration. Examine the egg to ensure that it is in good condition and free of shell fragments. Then you can pour the eggs into a large container. The next step is to mix the eggs. The goal is to mix thoroughly while incorporating as little air as possible. The National Center for Home Food Preservation suggests adding salt, sugar, or corn syrup to the mixture to help improve the texture of the yolks in the final product. If you choose to include one of the additions, make sure and consider the future use of the eggs. For example, I use salt when I put up eggs for scrambled eggs. The amount shown are for each cup of egg mixture. The next step is to pour the eggs into a freezer bag and freeze. Make sure you label the bag with the number of eggs, the date, and any additives that you may have included. The eggs will need to be placed in the refrigerator to thaw the night before you are ready to use them. Frozen eggs should be used in dishes that will be cooked thoroughly. Again, you should consider how the eggs will be used. In the picture, I have a freezer bag with eight eggs. I chose eight because that is the number of eggs that my family typically consumes for a meal. You may want to package your eggs so that you have more control over the amount that you thaw at any given time. A good way to do this is to portion the egg into an ice cube mold. If you go this route, you should find out the capacity of your mold. Each cube in my ice mold holds about one and a half tablespoons of egg mixture. Most instructions say that one egg is about three tablespoons. Therefore, I know that two of my egg cubes are equivalent to about one egg. It can be difficult to remove the cubes from the tray after freezing. Running just enough warm water over the bottom of the tray to facilitate removal makes this process easier. However, the outer surface melts during this process. In order to prevent the cubes from freezing together in a solid mass, I place them individually on a baking sheet covered with wax paper or parchment paper, and place them back in the freezer until they are thoroughly frozen. Then, peel them off of the paper and put them into a freezer bag. Again, the egg should be thawed in the refrigerator and used in dishes that are cooked thoroughly. Enjoy! This presentation was narrated by Danny Reems, ACES Food Safety and Quality Agent. It was created with work done by the National Center for Home Food Preservation. For more information, please contact me at ACR 0087 at aces.edu or you can call me at 256-368-1694. You can also visit our website at www.aces.edu.