good enough to eat?

[chess0125]

I'm Doing the ten egg method with my birds - they lay an egg, I write the date and leave it, then on day ten I start gathering the one oldest egg to take in to eat. I want babies but I don't want to sacrifice good eggs for eating if nobody goes broody. My question is, now that it's getting warmer, will the ten day old egg be fresh enough to eat? The egg I gathered today was warm to the touch. Is this still a safe method to use?

 

[countrygirl345]

It is recommended that eggs be stored in your refrigerator or at room temperature (about 70 degrees or less) If it is warmer than that outside then I wouldn't eat the eggs after a few days.

 

[chess0125]

Will the water/floating egg test work on these eggs?

 

[lazy gardener]

All that will tell you is the size of the air cell. I agree with PP. Why leave eggs that you intend to eat in the nest for 10 days? If a hen is going to go broody, she will even if the nest is empty. Your better bet would be to fill some plastic Easter eggs with sand, or some other weight to approximate the weight of an egg, and fill the nest with those.

 

[chess0125]

If she goes broody and I've already taken all the eggs out of the nest, how will she hatch any chicks? Should I keep them in the house and if she goes broody stick them under her at that point?

What do you experts recommend I do? I want chicks, but I don't want to gamble that she'll lay 30 eggs and never go broody, those are good for eating too! What should I do?

 

[lazy gardener]

How many eggs are you getting/day? You could keep the eggs inside, stockpiling 7-10, and eating the oldest eggs every time you add new ones. Then, you would have a brood of eggs that would likely hatch if and when a hen does go broody.