I am new to raising chickens, my hens just started laying about 2 weeks ago...i have a run and a coop for them, noticed that one of my hens was getting out every day...and today I found her near the coop in some tall grass near the old barn and she was laying on 12 eggs! I put her back in the coop and now have these eggs.. I am not sure what do do with them, should i toss them out or are they ok to eat? I thought about marking them and keeping some in the coop for the hen to continue to lay on.. .but i dont know if that is a good idea either?.. please help! Thanks!
Fill a bowl with water and place the eggs in there, one by one. Make sure it's deep enough to submerge the eggs. If they lay flat on the bottom of the bowl, they're fresh. If they lift up a bit they are probably a day or 3 old and if they stand up/float remove carefully and discard.
Assuming your hen is laying every day, the oldest would only be 12 days old. Egs aren good for 21 days without being refrigerated. Once refrigerated their shelf life improves dramatically.
