Eggshell Preservation

four tortoise eggs

I have a tortoise that lays eggs every once in a while and I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I could preserve some to show people?” So I looked around online and this is what I came up with.

Materials

Materials

02013/03/11: Materials laid out and ready for use.

  1. Clorox Bleach
  2. Baking Soda
  3. a back to put my own image
  4. Thumb Tack
  5. Thin Stirring Straws (Your local bar/pub will have them.)
Four Eggs

02013/03/11: The four eggs before any preparation.

Step 1

Wash the eggs of any debris. The first one has some green fecal matter that stained the shell – it’s okay, we’re going to take care of the stains later. This is just washing the shell off using dish detergent.

Poking A Hole

Step 2

Poke a hole about 1.5 to 2 times the size of your straw. I used a rubber mallet to lightly tap my thumb tack into the shell. After the initial hole, I just use the tack to chip/scratch away the edges until it’s as big as you want it. You’re going to want to do this on the bottom where it won’t be seen and you’ll only need one. Some sources may suggest making two holes and blowing the yoke through one and out the other, but I’m a minimalist.

Staw In Egg

02013/03/11: This hole is the smalled size achievable. Larger holes are suggested, or a smaller straw.

Egg With Large Hole

02013/03/11: This egg cracked a large hole easily. The shell seemed thinner.

Eggs Emptied of Yolk

02013/03/11: All eggs emptied. The total amount of contents was about half of a cup. The older egg had orange contents while the fresher three had a brighter yellow.

Step 3

Put the straw into the hole, point the hole into your receptacle, and blow on the free end of the straw. Don’t get your ends mixed up! If you’re having difficulty blowing the contents out, you may need a bigger hole. The first egg I did was slow goings, but the second egg emptied cleanly in less than a minute since the initial hole made a rather large, unintended puncture. I believe this is because the shell of this egg wasn’t as thick as the first and I hadn’t expected that.

Step 4

Wash the inside of the egg with water. Here I just filled it up with water and then blew out the contents with the straw into the sink until the contents were clear. You’re going to see whatever’s left inside sticking together and flushing out as white specks.

Step 5

Immerse the egg into 1:1 water-bleach for 10 minutes. I held mine down with the straw and left it in so I can take it back out without having to dip my hand. The bleach is going to disinfect the entire shell while bleaching out anything that may have stained it.

Step 6

Immerse the egg into water with baking soda for 10 minutes. I first rinsed out the bleach before submersing. This is going to neutralize the bleach so it won’t weaken the shell so much, or so I’ve been told. Either way, it’s good to neutralize the bleach.

Step 7

Pop the egg into an oven at 200 degrees F for 10 minutes. First of all, judge the size of your egg right – these eggs were the size of ping pong balls and 10 minutes burned a very light brown circle at the top of the egg. The second time I did it at 150 degrees F for 10 minutes and they were fine. I read this is supposed to strengthen the shell, but I have nothing to back this claim up. At the very least, it dries the shell out after all that soaking.

Step 8

Fill the egg with wax. I’ve seen beeswax suggested, and it makes sense since the color would be closest to the inside of a real egg. This is supposed to give it weight, prevent it from impact damage, and make it seem non-translucent. I chose not to take this step, but if I do in the future, I will update this appropriately.