Life Lessons: Eggs

A few days ago, I found the naughty renegade chicken's nest. I shot a pic with my phone and sent it to Gabe, only to hear back that he had found it 3 days earlier. He thought he sent me a picture, but I never got it. :-)

Today, the girls and I went to work cleaning it out with the plan to mark a few eggs and put them back to encourage her to keep laying there. They brought in a bucket of eggs, and I set about to washing them in the sink. I just figured that it was safer to count them all as too old, so I had no plans to use any. But as they were soaking in the bucket, I noticed that some floated, and some sank. Knowing this must mean something, I googled it.


Apparently, if you need to test your eggs (this counts for refrigerated eggs as well) put them in a deep bucket or bowl of water (I read both cold and room-temperature). If the eggs lay flat on the bottom, they are very fresh. If they sink, but one end floats, they are still usable. If they float off the bottom at all, they are bad. And I learned that if they are strong floaters, they will also be strong smellers when I toss them in the trash!

This one had part of the shell break off, but the membrane stayed intact- you can see how the inside has solidified. Bad eggs are lighter and feel like something solid is inside when you shake them.
Anyway- the girls had a ball learning and testing eggs. Oh, and if they are really bad, sometimes they will EXPLODE, releasing an amazing aroma :-)