How long are eggs laid outside safe to eat?

[Lady of McCamley]

In follow up to my post on hens found to be laying in the flower bed...how long do eggs laid outside keep?

I discovered a secret nest of 16 eggs...I'm pretty sure laid within the last 2 weeks, I think highly likely laid within the last week.

The nest is in a cool bed of vinca under a shady tree. The temperatures have been in the low 80's and upper 70's, but that tree shades the vinca pretty much all day long. I took the eggs into the house and rinsed the dirt off of them as they were pretty dirty from the flower bed. I then opened 2 which were obviously on the bottom, and the oldest, as they had vinca leaf imprints. The opened eggs were fresh looking and smelled fine. I put the rest in a separate carton in the fridge.

I'm guessing they are safe to eat? I plan to crack those into a separate bowl as they are used just in case. It's pretty obvious when an egg is bad to eat, isn't it? I won't use these eggs for anything that isn't thoroughly cooked.

Good plan?

Thanks
Lady of McCamley

 

[bakerjw]

I came across a nest of 25 white leghorn eggs in the run last week. The little pullets finally started laying and found their own "nest spot". I floated them in water and they all sank which is a good indicator of whether or not they had bacteria growing in them

I say float them first and then crack each into a small bowl before cooking with them.