Gathering eggs in this heat

[Orpygal]

A friend called me w/a question and I had no idea what to tell her.... if eggs have been out for 2 or 3 days this week (upper 90degrees) can they be eaten or should they be thrown out?

 

[cmom]

She can do a float test.
Place the egg into a bowl of cold water. The water level should be about 2 times higher than the egg.

Observe what the egg does.

Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom of the bowl and probably lie on their sides.

Slightly older eggs (about one week) will lie on the bottom but bob slightly.

If the egg balances on its smallest tip, with the large tip reaching for the top, it's probably close to three weeks old.

Eggs that float at the surface are bad and should not be consumed.

 

[Ema]

float testing is a sure way of telling but I, and this is what I do...will not eat any egg that has been outside in this heat if it wasn't laid today. Again its just me, but I feed the eggs to my family and I sell them and I would not wan tto sell or crack a rotten egg...Yuck

I collect eggs every day, but even in this heat the barn is like 10 to 15 degrees cooler than outside...lucky hens!!!

 

[Titania]

I have absolutely no backing for my answer, but I also would not eat it. No way! Beyond the float test, you don't want to take any chance that some contamination has gotten through the egg and is incubating in a nutrient-rich environment for 3 days at 90F. Yuck, yuck. (I worked in a lab culturing bacteria and give them the right medium and temperature and they'll take over.) If you feel bad wasting it, cook it and give it to the chickens but not for people. That's just me, though. Perhaps someone with more experience could tell you what the actual chances of contamination are (as opposed to my imagination-run-wild ones).

 

[cmom]

I would break the eggs in a dish and look at them, but I am the curious type. If I have eggs that don't hatch candle first then I do eggtopsies to look to see how far along the chicks were in developing before they expired.

 

[dewey]

I would not eat eggs that have been left outside for very long in high temps. All reliable info I've seen says that eggs kept at 75 degrees (room temp) can lose 1 entire grade per day. Eggs float in varying degrees as the aircell expands, which, among other things, can happen when the eggs are left unrefrigerated or are a bit older but still perfectly fine to eat...so it's not a reliable test for whether an egg is good or not. A tinted egg white or an egg with any odor is an obvious health hazard and should be discarded.

 

[Beekissed]

If eggs are in a nest of any kind, they are most likely just fine. Think, if you will, about chickens~or any bird, for that matter~ in the tropics that have nests they are setting. They don't sit until they have a full clutch and that could take days. When they finally do sit those eggs are still viable and fresh enough to nurture the embryo inside.

Nesting material is an insulator and the eggs themselves are built to regulate heat and moisture. I never refrigerate my eggs unless I've had them for a couple of weeks...even in the summer. They taste just as fresh as the ones gathered and eaten in the same day. I don't have air conditioning, so my house is pretty much the same temp as a little hay-lined nest in the coop.

I've never had an egg go bad in extremely hot weather...even if not eaten right away. Be brave and try them!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I do refrigerate my eggs but many times we forget to pick up the eggs ("I thought you got them yesterday"). Never a problem or thought there would be. Europeans are famous for never refrigerating eggs, they last for month or more without refrigeration. What's two days? Even if fear of rapid aging with temps over 90F what's that make freshness of two days? About a week old egg in chiller.

 

[turbodog]

Quote:
I agree here. I just don't think a couple of days in the nest box, even in the 90's will cause the eggs to go bad. Float test em.

Now a couple of days laying on the ground I probably wouldn't eat.

 

[Orpygal]

I was thinking along the 'eggs sitting a few days b4 the hen starts sitting on them' line too but didn't want to tell her to go ahead and eat them! I probably would, just didn't want to give bad advice to someone else. She texted me that she made a quiche and it was wonderful so I guess all was well with them.