Found egg in run, safe to eat or balut?

[gtaus]

An egg could be a month or two old, and float due to evaporation(as liquid evaporates, air infiltrates), but still be edible(not rotten). Does that make sense?

OK, had to do some reading on this issue online to understand better.

As I now understand it, what makes an egg rotten is bacteria entering the egg. Fresh eggs have the bloom on them to protect against bacteria. Washed eggs have the bloom removed, and need to be refrigerated to slow down bacteria. So, ageing of the egg will be seen in the float test as older eggs will go from laying flat, to standing on end, and then floating as the egg liquid evaporates and the air sac increases in size.

The water test is just one way to determine how old an egg is, but it does not necessarily indicate that the egg is full of bacteria and therefore rotten. A fresh egg, if washed but left out on the counter top for a few weeks, might pass the float test because it's not very old but be full of bacteria because the bloom was removed and therefore become a rotten egg. Essentially, you need to apply the smell test to detect bacteria in a rotten egg and/or crack the egg in a separate container to check for color and freshness.

Well, in my case with the found egg, it passed the water test and did not smell. After hard boiling it, I peeled off the shell and it looked and smelled normal. But thank you for pointing out that there is a difference between ageing and whether or not the egg is edible/rotten. I had not considered that aspect.

 

[gtaus]

Yes, I open the floaters, one at a time. If they are good (yolk intact, no smell) they get scrambled for the girls. I noticed that the older but still good ones will gently float up to the surface. The bad ones have the gas developing and they will POP up to the surface.

Yikes! How long can you keep fresh laid eggs on the countertop before they go bad? I am thinking 2-3 weeks because that is what they are designed to do out in nature. I am thinking about getting an egg skelter, because they look cool, but also because you take the oldest egg off the bottom of the rack and the others roll down in line.



I am currently only getting about 2 eggs per day, sometimes up to 4 eggs, and the wife and I are keeping up with the incoming eggs, so far. But when all 10 hens start laying, I can see an excess of eggs. At that point, should we just refrigerate them as we collect them? I am also looking at other storage options such as pickling, water glass, freezing....

We have talked about giving some eggs away, but really, when eggs are less than $1 per dozen at the store, it would cost me more in gas to give the eggs away then to just cook them up and feed the excess eggs back to the chickens.

 

[aart]

The bad ones have the gas developing and they will POP up to the surface.

So they sink, then pops to the surface...and when you open those they are rotten??

 

[Sequel]

@gtaus your threads always have interesting twists! FWIW I always crack home grown eggs into a little bowl. Have had a few really bloody ones and one had a worm. The worm did not come from my hens thank heavens but it made me a believer! Lol

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus your threads always have interesting twists!

Is that just a polite way of saying my threads always seem to get off topic?

More seriously, I ask questions and the good people here on BYC forums respond and sometimes the discussion leads to other places. I guess that is part of the charm of these forums.

 

[Sequel]

Not at all! It’s always interesting!

 

[Sequel]

I probably didn’t say that correctly, but I like your threads.l

 

[aart]

Really, best bet is....don't float eggs.

Is that just a polite way of saying my threads always seem to get off topic?

Most threads do go off topic, not just gtaus'...
....but I'd say were still on topic here with 'what to do with and how to tell a potentially 'bad' egg'.

 

[Ginmary]

So they sink, then pops to the surface...and when you open those they are rotten??

No, they won't sink. but if you hold them down you can feel a greater desire for the egg to rise when you let go.

 

[aart]

No, they won't sink. but if you hold them down you can feel a greater desire for the egg to rise when you let go.

Ohhhh, OK.....yeah, any 'floater' will do that, to varying extents