Egg question for ya all....Should I toss them or keep them?

[californiachick74]

Good evening everyone

Could someone please tell me how long eggs can stay outside before they go bad? The reason I am asking this is because my 9 girls think they are Easter Bunnies...LOL! I happened to find a pile of 11 eggs today hidden away in my barn. My husband said he had checked that area about a week and a half ago and nothing...so I know that they are approx. 10 days old. It has been really cold here in So. Cal with all the rain we have had...40's in the daytime and low 30's at night. Should I toss them or keep them?????

Thanks
Evelyn

 

[obchix]

Keep 'em and enjoy! Eggs last a really long time so long as the "bloom" has not been washed off. Some say as much as six months...I have not tried that!

 

[FortWorthChicks]

put em in a bowl or pot of water fresh will sink... bad ones will float. and the middle ground is up for debate.

and seeing how it is cold -n- all i would not worry about those eggs having gone bad after 10 days

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

If they float is just means that they have lost some water content. They are still good to eat. If I get too many eggs and they get a little old, I boil them, cool them down and then mash the egg along with the shell and feed them to the chickens. They LOVE them!!! And it's good for them too...

 

[californiachick74]

Thanks ya all for your replies. I'm thinking they are keepers. Could someone tell me what the "bloom" is?

 

[countrychics]

well in hatching terms... some say the bloom is the original condition of the laid egg..being unwashed, or unsoaked..so perhaps if you were going to set an egg, instead of eating terms.... we would say original condition, unwashed, not rained on....however to incubate, rule of thumb, here in the country, is don't let fall below 40 degrees, or it kills the living embryos..... but as far as eatin, i agree with above posts....as cool as its been there, you are good to go...eat'em up.... boiling a bad egg will float it on contact of any temp. h20.... when in doubt...crack it in a bowl, before throwing into a pan...no questions, u can surely tell the difference between a bad and good egg!!!!!!!!happy eatin and hatchin!

 

[GreenGoddess]

Actually, the "bloom" is a coating the hen puts on the egg as it is laid.. Eggs are naturally porous and the bloom protects the egg from bacteria or any other germs that can enter the egg.. If you wash the bloom off, of course anything can get through the pores of the egg.. A lot of us leave the eggs unwashed for the same reason you wouldn't eat a cracked/damaged egg..

Goddess

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
They say ya learn somethin' new everyday and for me today, this is it! (Thank you!)

 

[GreenGoddess]

You are very welcome.. I've owned chickens just under a year but when I get into something I research as much as I can and then research some more.. I've had conversations about chickens with other chicken owners that I come across and my husband just shakes his head and calls me the crazy chicken lady.. LOL.. I am no expert by any means! There are many more on this forum that could blow me away in *any* conversation but I try my best to help where I can.. And if i don't know the answer to a question, I wait, watch and learn for next time..

Goddess

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

My mother is convinced I'm going to poison us all...meaning my three dogs and myself...because I collect the eggs, I don't wash them (I never get dirty ones) and put them in a wire basket on my kitchen shelf. I don't refrigerate them. Due to my heating system my kitchen is cooler than the rest of the house, but it is about 60 degrees in there.

I 'date' them with a pencil and eat the oldest ones first...but they have been just fine, and very tasty when they were as much as a month old. When they get about three weeks old, I'll hard boil a batch. I suspect it is their age that makes them very easy to peel.

Terry in TN