Found hidden nest, eggs ok to eat or toss?
- Thread starter Joyflower
- Start date
Hazel my 1st
In the Brooder
- Apr 20, 2024
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Those eggs are not washed they can last months with chicken protection over the shell until it’s washed off so they do not need refrigerated until after washed so those eggs should still be good
If kept cool and dry, yes.
under the canoe in summer, is neither cool or dry. Op, pitch the eggs.
I would start by sniffing each egg. If it smells bad, you do not want to eat that egg, and you can toss it without doing any more complicated tests.
You can float test each egg in a bowl of water. Any that float are pretty old, so you probably do not want to eat them. Ones that sink are fresh enough, but you should check in other ways before actually eating them (crack one egg into a bowl, look and sniff, then if it seems fine you can cook & eat it.)
You could try candling, either instead of float testing, or in addition. To candle, take the eggs into a dark room (like a closet or bathroom with no window and a closed door.) Shine a bright flashlight through the egg, or a cell phone light through the egg.
When you candle, compare the with an egg you know is good (mark that egg so you don't get them mixed up.) The eggs have an air cell at the big end, and liight goes through that very easily. A fresh egg has a small air cell, and older egg has a larger air cell, a very egg has such a large air cell the whole egg will float in water. If the eggs have chicks developing in them, you might see a bunch of veins (it can look rather like a spider), or a big dark lump in the middle of the egg. If it is almost ready to hatch, the egg will be almost completely full of chick (too dark to see through), with a big air cell at the big end.
If an egg sinks in water, and/or it looks fine when you candle it, you should still crack it into a bowl and look & sniff before cooking it. That is a good idea even with eggs you do know to be fresh.
From what you said, they are probably fresh enough that you don't really have to bother with float testing or candling, but can just sniff each egg and then crack it into a bowl to make sure it's okay before cooking it.
What criteria do you consider makes an egg unsafe? What are you worried about?
About the last part of a hen laying an egg is when she puts a layer we call bloom on the egg. The bloom is wet but it quickly dries. That bloom forms a layer that works really well to keep bacteria from entering the porous shell as long as it remains intact. If you wash the egg or sand it or if a clump of mud or poop is on the egg then that bloom is probably not intact and bacteria could enter the egg. The egg yolk and white is a perfect food for bacteria. If the egg is warm that bacteria can multiply and you get what is called a rotten egg. Pretty disgusting and definitely not safe.
The bloom being intact is what enables a hen to lay eggs for two weeks or so in a hidden nest until she gets a clutch and then keeps the bacteria out for another three weeks as she incubates the eggs. As I said the bloom works really well.
If the egg is fertile and is kept at or close to incubation temperature it can start to develop. The egg should cool off enough at night that it can't hatch but it may develop enough that you can see veins and an embryo if you crack it. That does not mean the egg is unsafe. In some cultures a developing egg is considered a delicacy by some people. Do a search on "balut" but a warning, the photos may be graphic. They may be safe to eat but some people (including me) would be very uncomfortable eating them.
If you boil a really fresh egg they are supposed to be hard to peel without some of the whites sticking to the shell, making them pretty ugly. But if you age the eggs a few weeks before you boil them the eggs peel a lot better. I'm not sure I believe that 100% but I have read it a few places.
If I wash an egg when I bring it in I put it in the fridge so bacteria cannot grow since I've washed the bloom away. All dirty eggs get washed. But my unwashed eggs go into a basket on the kitchen counter. They are kept there at room temperature until I eat them. Sometimes that is more than a month. I collect my eggs daily, I do not leave them on the coop overnight as I don't want to attract snakes so I know they are fresh when I collect them.
I sniff the eggs before I use them. If they have bacteria inside and are rotten you can clearly smell it before you crack them. I crack my eggs in a separate bowl before cooking them or using them. Sometimes they might have a blood spot or meat spot in them. That does not make them unsafe but they may not be appetizing depending on how you are going to use them.
When I find a nest like that I usually boil them up and feed them back to the flock, after crushing them. It is not that I don't consider them safe, they probably are. My eggs are fertile so I don't want to take a chance in them being partially developed. And I have so many eggs that I give them away to friends, relatives, and a food bank. I'm not that desperate for eggs.
Are your eggs safe to eat? Most likely. Sniffing them and cracking them in a separate bowl should tell you that.
As another person said I would candle them, but they should be fine to eat!
Honestly, unless you have no other food, I would just toss them. As someone who has eaten a bad egg before, it's not worth the risk.
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