I was wondering why my hens had taken a little break. Last night, I discovered that they hadn't at all. In fact, they were extremely busy the last two weeks, laying a huge pile under a prickly bush right next to the hen house. Now that I've removed all the eggs, at my own peril.... the rooster attacked my face while I was doing so, I hope they'll resume their egg laying in their nesting boxes inside the hen house. Question: the eggs range from being two days old to 15 days old - I have no way of knowing how old which ones are. The days have ranged from 80 degrees for a high and the evenings down to 30 degrees. I have a rooster so I'm sure a certain percentage are likely fertilized. I'm inclined to throw them all away. Would the eggs be safe to feed to the dogs?
They should be fine for the dog. Ours eat eggs all the time, and dogs are not nearly as susceptible to bacteria as we are (e.g. raw meat).
I agree my dogs love eggs and wait for the cracked ones I can't sell. The only thing that would keep me from giving the egg from you cluster would be if when you cracked it open, it is rotten.
I hate it when that happens - and it just happened here too. I was surprised at how much they had slacked off for the winter, and just found a nest in my tractor barn, with two dozen eggs. I scrambled them and fed them to the dogs. Kind of a win-win for everybody but me!!
Put the egg in a jar of water. If it floats, it is bad. If it stands on its tip, it is about a week old. If it lies flat on the bottom it is fresh.
Same happened to me and my favorite broody was missing. I cried all night just knowing she was going to get eaten by a predator. Next day I searched high and low. One more spot near the coop...the up turned tree from hurricane Irene. But she wasn't there. I turned around and saw her under a small bush. OH Joy! She was alive! I picked her up and she was on at least 20 eggs. Now I know why I only got 2 eggs a day from 13 hens in the coop. I let my dh composed the eggs. I normally would give my dog some but they looked really nasty. Can't believe my dog didn't find the nest of eggs before I did!!
