Safety of buried eggs?

[ShrekDawg]

"When in doubt, throw it out!"

I would never crack an egg anywhere near my house to see if it smelled. I've had a rotten egg explode before and you can't hardly* get rid of that stink! Shudder! It sticks to everything... it's like having a cadaver explode.... having said that, according to the USDA, a commercial egg has 100 days to get from the hen to your plate. So that's like a little over 3 months. But I'm assuming it has been refrigerated every step of the way. My phone doesn't want to cut and paste links any more, but I Googled "how long is an egg fresh?" Maybe somebody else can post the link. Sorry I can't keep up w tecknowludgy any more, lol (that was a joke, kids!)

(*yes, purists, I know "can't hardly" is incorrect grammar. Sometimes ya just gotta bend the rules a little!)

Thank you! That’s what I ended up doing.

And thankfully I’ve never experienced a rotten egg but it sounds nasty and I don’t want to haha

And yeah, I think the refrigeration makes them last longer.

Hens don't need a ton of nest padding. The ones here scratch it down to the bottom here and lay on bare box anyway.
I think it is cooler, they don't scratch quite so far in winter but it is close!

Thanks, this makes a lot of sense.

I did an experiment in my fridge w 18 eggs they were still good except one cracked one after SIX months

Oh wow really!? That’s impressive haha

The saying is 'A day at room temperature is like a week in the refrigerator'. That's not 80F or more!
Mary

Thanks! That sounds like a good rule to go by! And yeah, with summer temps it’s probably way worse haha

 

[so lucky]

Does a "bad" egg mean that it is old and rotten, or that it may be cracked and bacteria like salmonella got in? Does an old egg automatically make a person sick? Or just not good to eat?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Im with Kiki too, collect eggs everyday! I have 17 pens currently and i check every one of them multiple times most days. Sometimes ISO eggs but also just to bother them i guess

Oh wow!! That’s a lot of pens and time!!

I guess I really do have no excuse lol

 

[ShrekDawg]

Does a "bad" egg mean that it is old and rotten, or that it may be cracked and bacteria like salmonella got in? Does an old egg automatically make a person sick? Or just not good to eat?

I was wondering all this too and would also like to know if it can still be bad even if it doesn’t smell? Like if there could still be bacteria or something starting to form in it but not enough to make it smell yet?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Looks like I’m a little late to this thread, but I have hens and layer ducks together. The ducks are fantastic at hiding eggs and are a bit fussy about their nest box (they don’t like the commercial nest pads). I have a few inches of wheat straw in nest boxes and I feel around through it every day since ducks bury their eggs. I’ve also found a number of hidden nests in the coop, and sometimes even an egg out in the muck by their waterer. In addition, we have guinea fowl who hide their nests in the woods. So, I have a tiered approach to found eggs: we sell only eggs that have been laid that day and are reasonably clean, so these are almost always the nest box eggs, possibly guinea eggs if I really know when they were laid. If I find a nest with eggs of uncertain age, my actions depend on how confident I am that they were recently laid. If I think that they were recent (like, it’s been two days since this duck laid in the nest box), I date and put a question mark then save in our own family’s eggs. We pretty much only eat eggs that are the “second quality”, like weird shape, a little dirty (then cleaned), or could be a few days old. When cooking them, I open each into a separate dish and sniff test individually. We’ve been doing this for a year and I’ve never gotten a bad egg, but I always check anyways. If the egg is really dirty (like laid in the mud) or I really don’t know how old the egg is, or it’s cracked a little, then I cook immediately instead of storing and feed to dogs, chicks, etc. if I think that the egg might be bad, or it doesn’t have a shell, is crushed, etc, then I open directly into compost pile, which is hundreds of yards from coop. I don’t throw old eggs in the woods nearby as I don’t want to attract predators to the area near the coop.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Looks like I’m a little late to this thread, but I have hens and layer ducks together. The ducks are fantastic at hiding eggs and are a bit fussy about their nest box (they don’t like the commercial nest pads). I have a few inches of wheat straw in nest boxes and I feel around through it every day since ducks bury their eggs. I’ve also found a number of hidden nests in the coop, and sometimes even an egg out in the muck by their waterer. In addition, we have guinea fowl who hide their nests in the woods. So, I have a tiered approach to found eggs: we sell only eggs that have been laid that day and are reasonably clean, so these are almost always the nest box eggs, possibly guinea eggs if I really know when they were laid. If I find a nest with eggs of uncertain age, my actions depend on how confident I am that they were recently laid. If I think that they were recent (like, it’s been two days since this duck laid in the nest box), I date and put a question mark then save in our own family’s eggs. We pretty much only eat eggs that are the “second quality”, like weird shape, a little dirty (then cleaned), or could be a few days old. When cooking them, I open each into a separate dish and sniff test individually. We’ve been doing this for a year and I’ve never gotten a bad egg, but I always check anyways. If the egg is really dirty (like laid in the mud) or I really don’t know how old the egg is, or it’s cracked a little, then I cook immediately instead of storing and feed to dogs, chicks, etc. if I think that the egg might be bad, or it doesn’t have a shell, is crushed, etc, then I open directly into compost pile, which is hundreds of yards from coop. I don’t throw old eggs in the woods nearby as I don’t want to attract predators to the area near the coop.

Thanks for the detailed reply! It’s really helpful. And we usually try to eat the dirty or weird looking eggs too.

And I forgot that I’ve given them cracked eggs on occasion too so it probably would have been fine but oh well haha

Oh and I threw them in the front which is pretty far away from the coop so I think hopefully it will be okay. We have like 2.5 acres and the yard is probably like half that or more so where I threw them is far from the coop.

 

[Kiki]

Oh wow!! That’s a lot of pens and time!!

I guess I really do have no excuse lol

The only word that comes to mind is an L word.

I'm going to remind you daily to check until it becomes your new habit.

 

[Kiki]

Does a "bad" egg mean that it is old and rotten, or that it may be cracked and bacteria like salmonella got in? Does an old egg automatically make a person sick? Or just not good to eat?

Yes.

 

[ShrekDawg]

The only word that comes to mind is an L word.

I'm going to remind you daily to check until it becomes your new habit.

You can say it lol tbh I’ve thought it myself and know I am lol trust me that’s honestly exactly why I don’t most of the time. I just don’t feel like it. well plus I don’t usually have time in the morning and they also usually lay in the afternoon so I like to wait for them to finish laying before I collect them so I can get them all at once but then I’m tired or don’t feel like it later lol same reason I hardly ever do night checks anymore either. but I guess it might be good for me to get outside more often and maybe I could even check multiple times daily and collect the eggs as they are laid ha

I used to love visiting the chickens and be kind of obsessive about checking eggs, checking on them, night checks, say goodnight to them by name every night, etc. and lately, for the past little while, I have been being really lazy and barely even check them anymore. they always have food and water but I have huge containers that last a while so sometimes I can go a couple days without checking them I really need to be better about it. With the littles I have been better but even then, now that they’re older and since they’ve been outside, I do the same. And I mean usually I do at least go over and say hi daily but that’s the extent usually. I don’t know. I used to love them. Still do. Love talking to them and visiting them but have been slacking on everything else. although that seems to be a trend with everything lately, not just the chickens ha should probably work on it.

 

[mixedUPturk]

Cant like that sweetheart. There are lulls in chicken keeping you jus have to power through it.