Are these eggs old? Do they really need to be in the fridge??

[arwmommy]

OK, here's the deal. I have 8 hens (no roo's), 1 is an EE and last year when she started laying she refused to lay in the nest boxes. She instead laid in a corner of the coop that is hard to get to. Since she is our only EE, we loved the blue eggs, and were sad that we had a hard time getting to them, or even seeing them sometimes!

DH blocked off that area of the coop, and she was MAD! She stopped laying altogether rather than to cave into the "humans" and lay in the stupid nest boxes.

She had been on strike for a couple of months, and then it was winter and almost none of them were laying, so we took out the wood that blocked off that small corner area she loved.

Well guess what? I just found 5 eggs back there! .......sigh...... I guess we will have to block it off again, but my main question is that:

DD REALLY wants me to cook these special blue eggs for her! Is it OK? These eggs are now between 1-5 days old, the temps here have been (low) in the high 30's and (high) in the mid 50's for the last few days.

I remember that my grandmother used to just keep the eggs on her counter for days with no refrigeration, so I tend to think they are OK, but thought I would ask the experts.

 

[Imp]

If you are sure they are less than 5 days old with no cracks, they should be just fine.

I don't know for sure if she was sitting on them.

Imp

 

[ranchhand]

Probably fine. I always break each egg into a separate little bowl first, just in case there's a bad one. I sniff them while in the little bowl and look them over. If it smells funny, I throw it out.

I have a RIR who goes way back under the coop to lay- and when I blocked it off, she started laying from the roost- 5 feet above the floor! I removed the block, and now I crawl under again.........

 

[CovenantCreek]

The temps you mention practically qualify as refrigeration anyway, they should be fine.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

When in doubt, try to 'float' the eggs.

Fill the sink with warm water, place the eggs on the bottom.

If they lay flat, they're fine. If they tilt up, they're a bit old and wonderful for hardboiled eggs.

If they float, give them to the pigs ....

 

[Matt A NC]

We never refrigerate eggs, except in the 90+ of summer. The eggs can be 4 weeks old and still perfect.

Matt

 

[rmansker]

We usually have about a two week old supply of eggs at any given time and they are never refrigerated and have yet to find a bad one. We will do the float test on some of the older ones to make sure before we use them though. Some we have had over 3 weeks and have still been fine.

 

[arwmommy]

Thanks guys! You are all so brilliant!

I gave them to my mom, grandma, and even kept one for my DD!

Thanks again!

 

[arwmommy]

edit cause I'm a dork and posted on the wrong thread.....

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I wonder why it's called "floating" the eggs. Unless they're bad, you're not floating them, you're sinking them!

I always wonder why it's not called "the sinking test".

It works great, though. Occasionally I have a fresh egg tip up a bit, (I wash all my eggs in a sink full of soapy water, so they all get "the sinking test") but then I look closer, and so far, it always turns out they have small cracks in the shells.