Found 4 eggs outside of the coop! Still good?

[Toothpick]

I'm sure the answer is they are fine but just thought I would ask anyway.....

I have a chicken that flies the coop every day. She roams the yard and jumps back in toward the evening so I haven't been to upset over it. However, today we heard her cackling up a storm near our pasture fence and walked over there to find her sitting on a nest with 4 eggs under her! Apparently she's been flying the coop and laying eggs. We gathered the eggs and my question is....are they still OK to eat?

Our chickens started laying roughly 2 weeks ago so it's not a question of them being too old to eat. But sitting outside where it drops to 60f at night and highs of 95f during the day. Would this affect the eggs at all?

Thanks for your answers!
-Jason

 

[Lamaremybabies]

My hens did the same thing when they first started laying I still ate the eggs and that was a year ago so I think they're fine.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Crack them into a dish, one at a time, as you want to use them so you can check them by sight and smell

 

[Toothpick]

I did the glass of water trick and they passed. Good tip on cracking one at time too.

 

[Kiki]

X2 on cracking them separately.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The float test doesn't tell you if they are good or bad, mainly it tells how old they are. As moisture evaporates through the porous shell the air cell gets bigger. At some point it gets big enough the egg will stand on end at the bottom of the water. At some point the egg will float.

A hen can lay eggs in a hidden nest like that for over two weeks and sit on them for another three weeks to hatch them without them going bad. Those eggs can stay good a very long time. The older they are the more suspicious you should be but just because they do not float doesn't make them good.

I suggest you sniff them first. If they smell like rotten eggs carefully get them out of your house. Now! If they smell OK crack them into a separate bowl before you use them.