When our
pullets started laying,
they eschewed the nest box and made their own nest in the straw at the
back of the coop. I didn’t notice until I was refreshing the deep
bedding and nearly
stepped on an egg on the ground. Since I didn’t know how long the
egg had been present, I needed to test it before deciding if it was
safe to eat.
Luckily for those of us
with ornery layers, it’s very easy to run an egg test. Simply
fill a cup up with water and gently lower your egg in. If the egg
sits completely flat on the bottom like the one in the photo, it’s
newly laid and quite safe. Over time, an air pocket will form and
enlarge in the egg, so slightly older eggs will start to sit a little
crooked, with the blunt end angled toward the surface. That egg
is okay for baked goods and hard-boiling. But if the egg floats,
very carefully take it outside and dispose of it before it explodes
into a foul-smelling mess in your kitchen!
Since our pullets aren’t
laying up to their full potential yet, we’ve been buying grocery store
eggs as a supplement to our dog’s feed. I was curious to see how
“fresh” supermarket eggs did on the float test, so I lowered one into
my mug. According to the float test, supermarket eggs are good
for baked goods only, which is just about all I’d use them for (and
that in a pinch.) I sure am glad we’re back up to three homegrown
eggs a day!
How to determine the age of an egg
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About The Author
Anna & Mark
Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton are a pair of back-to-the-landers who have been homesteading for over a decade.
I heard some time ago that, generally, cake and cookie recipes, etc, from cookbooks and the internet are developed using commercial eggs. Have you ever found a difference in the quality of your baked goods when using commercial eggs versus those from the home flock?
That is a fascinating question. I hadn’t noticed a difference with our Golden Comet eggs, but I’m not sure I’m an expert enough chef to know the difference. I’ve also been learning to cook mostly while using our own eggs, so I tweak recipes constantly and might not have realized some of the tweaks were necessary because of the fresh eggs.
With this fall’s transition to smaller eggs, I have had to tweak my recipes again. These smaller eggs have bigger yolks in relation to the egg, which I believe is even more true if you ever cook with bantam eggs. That means adding more eggs if the recipe needs a certain quantity of yolks, but I don’t mind baked goods tasting eggy — I like that. 🙂