Do you remember when I shared my excitement about visiting Burnbrae farm? Well, the visit happened last week and it was beyond my expectations . I was looking forward to touching a chicken, learning about eggs and having some fresh air. I got all that and more!
Let me start the journey from the beginning. I took the train from Montreal to Brockville. It is a 2 hour train ride. One of the Burnbrae employees picked me up from the train station. While I was waiting for the other bloggers to come from Toronto, I had a nice chat with one of Burnbrae owners. He was so friendly and humble. Burnbrae is one of the largest egg farms in Canada and the owner took the time to chat with me. I loved that he was so down to earth, even though he’s the owner of such a well-known farm!
As soon as the other 11 bloggers arrived, we had a delicious meal prepared by Chef Seth. Check out this meal, doesn’t it look delicious?
After eating, we started the Burnbrae Farm plant tour. We were allowed to ask all the questions we wanted!
Highlights of my Burnbrae Farm Tour
- When I was planning my trip, I did not expect to visit such a high-tech plant. You know when you have some misconceptions: family business = not very developed. I was wrong. The plant had lots of machine from blood detecting machines, to grading machines and washing ones. I was really impressed!
- The plant could process 13,000 dozen in an hour. That’s a lot of eggs!!
- The eggs had trace-back eggs that could trace back to the plant (It is impossible to trace back to the chicken). The farm had 300,000 hens so I totally understand.
- Eggs are weighed and those that have blood (with the blood detector machines) are removed from the system. If you’ve ever cracked an egg and found blood in it, you know how fast it ruins your appetite. Burnbrae Farms takes extra care to make sure that doesn’t happen.
- There are 3 housing systems: conventional, free run and enriched. You can check the details on the Burnbrae farm website. The free run is very expensive to run as it requires more human intervention. I will stick to the conventional eggs.
- In North America, we wash the eggs. It removes a protective barrier and that’s why we need to refrigerate the eggs once washed. The other countries do not wash the eggs.
The farm tour was very informative and honestly, I did not think that a simple egg required that much handling before arriving to the store. Who knew!
The Burnbrae family was so welcoming to us. They opened their home for us and we were spoiled with an exquisite dinner and an amazing view.
I had the chance to pet a hen and I was invited to ride a horse but I was too scared (or too chicken) to do so BUT I took a selfie (or felfie!) with the horse. (Don’t pay attention to that frizzy hair, I forgot my hair products at home)
Want to learn more about Burnbrae Farms? Check them out on on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!
What Burnbrae Farm fact from my tour surprised you the most to learn?
Disclosure: I am participating in the Burnbrae Farms Blogger Farm Tour program as a guest of Burnbrae Farms. All opinions are 100% my own.
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Happy Travelling to you!
What an adventure this would be
Interesting fact about why we should refrigerate our eggs. Didn’t know that!
I liked how you were able to see behind the scene and see how their eggs get from hens to cartons.
13000 eggs processed in an hour!
I love it when you meet a owner of a company and they are just down to earth, that said you know that the company is like a family! Thanks for sharing your time out there, I enjoyed reading.
Looks like quite the adventure – something I would like to do myself!
Looks like it was quite the adventure! There so much to learn, thanks for sharing!
Wow, what a wonderful and interesting experience. Amazing how many eggs they can process in an hour! Looks like it was a lot of fun and there was much to be learned.
this looks like such a great tour. would love to do this one day.
very interesting. thanks for sharing.
What an impressive operation! I buy Burnrae eggs all the time. Sound like you had a wonderful experience there! I would love to have ridden the horse! :)
I love this post! So much awesome information. I would absolutely love to see you do more posts like this! I know it’s not always up to you, but these are the kinds of posts I love to read. Did they happen to share the recipes for the meal? ;)
I did not know there was a machine to detect blood
300 000 hens wow. thats a lot of hens to look after. I had no idea that washing leads to the fridge.
wow very interesting article!
that’s so cool, would love to do a tour like this
I had no idea about the egg washing or that there was such a thing as a blood detector – or that it was even an issue!
I knew about the washing eggs here, but I didn’t know it was connected to refrigeration. Good to know!
I didn’t know about blood in eggs. I did know that other countries didn’t wash their eggs. It’s really gross to see poop on eggs.
I love eggs, the blood thing freaks me out a bit though…I have seen that a few times over the years and yes when that happens your appetitive is gone…
I will probably stick with conventional until I can get our own chicken coop up and running.
I didn’t realize our eggs are washed and that is why we have to refrigerate them
looks like a fun day!
It looks like you had a great time and learned a lot at the same time!
I liked your Burnbrae Farm Tour: Getting Up Close & Personal With Eggs #BBFFarmTour post.
It would be a great place to visit.
I didn’t realize there was a machine to detect blood in eggs. I’ve cracked eggs that had small bits of blood in them before (not burnbrae brand) and nothing turns my stomach and causes me to lose my appetite more than that.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I new about the machine to detect blood but never have seen any in their eggs, have gotten it quite often when I buy from the farmers market
I didn’t realize that there was a machine to detect blood in the eggs.
Looks like a really fun but educational tour!
now that’s a fun tour!
That sounds like an interesting tour!
Wow looks like an amazing farm! We love Burnbrae and buy their eggs all the time. Would love to visit with the kids someday!
the blood detecting machine fact was interesting, explains why we only get the best eggs from Burnbrae
What an interesting tour!
I am surprised about the blood detecting machine – I had no idea this existed!
cool tour!
Thanks for all the wonderful info. So much goes into getting the eggs to us! I never knew there was such a thing as blood detector machines
eggcellent review! i didn’t know about about the washing of eggs and refridgeration part! Would love totour an egg farm!
Burnbrae eggs cluck for me
I’ve never heard of Lyn, Ontario before. Will have to look it up!
I really would like to have seen pictures of the hen operations, but thanks for the over view. The dinner looks great!
That would be an interesting tour.
Didn’t know of a few things you have pointed out … thanks for the info! =)
I didn’t know that they have 3 housing systems.
Egg Washing
Is washing of eggs recommended?
No, because washing may aid the transfer of harmful bacteria like Salmonella from the outside to the inside of the egg.
The priority in egg production is to produce clean eggs at the point of collection, rather than trying to clean them afterwards. The cleanliness of the egg should be assured by good management and hygiene of the poultry house, and by minimising the delay between egg laying and egg collection.
What are the risks associated with washing eggs?
Egg laying poultry (e.g. hens, ducks, geese) can be infected with Salmonella and other harmful microorganisms. Salmonella bacteria cause sickness, and in some people the illness can be severe and life-threatening. If egg laying poultry are infected with Salmonella, they can shed these bacteria in their faeces. If care is not taken in egg production, then the eggs can become soiled with faeces – and therefore Salmonella can be found on the shell. During washing, the natural barriers in the shell can be compromised and Salmonella may pass into the inside of the egg where it has the opportunity to grow. Sometimes, Salmonella can grow to very high numbers inside eggs and if these eggs are not cooked thoroughly (e.g. in the case of runny fried or boiled eggs or in desserts such meringue or tiramisu) the Salmonella survive and cause consumers to get sick.
What are the risks associated with not washing eggs?
Salmonella can survive for a long time in dried faeces on the outside of eggs. This presents two risks. Firstly, if eggs are stored incorrectly and condensation forms on the shell, the water may be sufficient to allow Salmonella to pass into the inside of the egg through the pores in the shell. This risk increases over the storage time, as the natural barriers of the egg start to break down with increasing age of the egg. Condensation on the outside of eggs also increases the chance that Salmonella on the shell may grow. Secondly, during handling and preparation of dirty eggs, direct hand-to-mouth contamination can occur, or other foods may be cross-contaminated from hands, dirty discarded shells, or during the action of cracking the egg.
What if my eggs are dirty and my customer demands clean eggs?
Remember egg washing is not recommended because Salmonella can move into the inside of the egg through pores in the shell, increasing the risk to consumers. Try to explain this to your customer and get agreement to accept unwashed eggs.
There is an increased risk of Salmonella transmission from the outside to the inside of eggs during washing. These risks can be multiplied several-fold by poor washing practice. For example, if soiled eggs are left uncollected for a few hours after laying, and/or if they are left to soak in wash water, then there is more time for the Salmonella to pass through the shell into the egg. Additionally, if the washing water is not at least 11oC above the temperature of the egg, then Salmonella can be sucked into the egg through the pores in the shell. Even after washing, if eggs are not dried quickly and completely before storage then there is more chance of Salmonella penetrating the shell. The use of chemical detergents or sanitisers in the wash water may not help, because some chemicals may actually increase the porosity of the shell making it easier for Salmonella to cross the shell barrier.
Getting egg washing right to avoid all these increased risks is not simple, and for that reason it is much safer not to wash them at all, but to concentrate on good husbandry, and the production of eggs that are clean in the first place
Very nice view of the countryside in the one picture you posted.
I’ve had the good fortune to tour an egg farm as well. It was a really neat experience and one I would like my 3 year old son to experience as well.
Nice experience,,those eggs look good!
Sounds like a fascinating tour.
Good to see how our food gets to us.
I am really glad we wash our eggs didn’t know other countries didn’t wash their eggs
Lovely Farm. The blood detection is a great thing. You don’t see that much in eggs anymore. I remember when growing up and have to throw away eggs because of blood in them/
What a beautiful farm! The meal looked so good; such an honour you had going on that farm tour!
This would be a great tour and a person can learn so much about our eggs.
I was surprised to learn that we wash eggs here and other countries do not.
I would love to take my kids on a tour of Burnbrae Farms!
I would have loved to go on a tour at Burnbrae Farm. I love the photos, especially the one with the horse. So adorable.
13000 eggs processed in an hour! That’s wild! Sounds like a grade A tour – would love to see something like this too!
Blood in eggs? I never knew this could happen. I was amazed to read there was a machine to detect this condition.
i like to see where the food comes from
that washed eggs are the reason we refrigerate them
I wish I could have joined you. I love farm visits and the food looks yummy.
I would love to be able to tour their farm. It would be so cool to see how everything happens.
I love farms. We live in the midst of a bunch of farms here in Oklahoma and we go to the farms every fall for all of their fun events. It looks like you had a really good time.
My son would love a farm tour like this! Great summer idea
That looks like an awesome experience. I want to take my daughter to a farm this year.
This looks like a wonderful place to visit!!! I’d love to take the kids!
This looks like an amazing place to visit. Everything is so fresh, and you know exactly where your food is from.
You know, I didn’t realize that there was a machine to detect blood in the eggs. I’ve never seen blood in an egg… now I know why! :)
I didn’t know they had something to detect blood. But yes, it definitely kills my appetite.
I didn’t know that other countries didn’t wash their eggs. Interesting tidbit of info about refrigerating them!