Discovered a huge secret nest, how long can eggs last outside?

[cupman]

So I have been kind of slacking, I've tried a few things but my hens just do not want to lay in their nesting boxes. I've discovered the problem, lack of privacy, but haven't modified my coop to accommodate that just yet. Well, I let my hens out to free range and noticed they went right to this spot, I go back in an hour and I discover 34 eggs. Well, I have 11 hens, 2 green egg layers, 1 white egg layer and the rest brown egg layers. Out of the 34, 6 of them were white, the rest were brown.. not a single green. Since my white egg layer is a white leghorn I think she is popping out one egg a day. My best guess is they've been in this nesting spot for a week. Temperatures have been mild, it hasn't gotten much over about 75 all week. I cleaned the eggs and put them in cartons and stuck them in the fridge but I'm a little concerned if they have a problem or not. I know commercial eggs are 2+ weeks old when you get them, but they haven't been sitting on the ground for a week. What do you guys think?

edit: checked average temp, seems to be about 65-68 highs and lows in the high 40's low 50's for the past week. It also rained about 4 or 5 days.

 

[sonew123]

Float test everyone of them..the ones that float chuck them..the ones that sink keep..the older they get the bigger the air cell gets..causing them to float!

 

[cupman]

Oh no kidding? Well that's cool, I had never heard that one before. I'll give it a shot, thank you very much.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
Your welcome Hey out of curiosity..can you tell us what the count was on good and bad? I had a hidden nest last year in a dark cool hides hole..all24 eggs were good..and very cold to the touch I might add good luck

 

[cupman]

Out of the 34 eggs all of them sank to the bottom and didn't float back up. I dropped 2 in the sink rushing myself, stupid of me because they were one of the biggest, I think it might be my RIR laying those. I think it helped a lot that the temperatures here didn't get too hot, but I noticed my RIR had gone missing yesterday and figured she might be on a pile of eggs somewhere. I was real busy with school so I didn't get to investigate until after class today. I was pretty sure I was going to eat them anyways, but the float test definitely gave me some reassurance.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
Nice...congrats

 

[Pinky]

Will the float test work on eggs in the fridge? I have some that were hidden in the fridge.

 

[dantodd]

you should really have nothing to worry about if they are only a week old. Eggs are designed to sit that long or longer without spoiling. It is not uncommon for a hen to take longer than that to fill her clutch before she starts brooding.

 

[ChickInDelight]

When you go to use them, crack one in a bowl at a time. That way, if you get one rotten egg, it won't spoil the others you have cracked open.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
It should..an air cell is an air cell