Need to check if your eggs are still good? The best way to find out is with the egg float test! This is a super easy way to know when your eggs are fresh and good to use and when they are bad and need to be tossed out without an unwelcome surprise and stinking up the house.
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How Do You Check If Eggs Are Bad?
Knowing if your eggs are still fresh is a problem that every chicken keeper (or person that eats eggs) will run into at one time or another. It’s important to know how to test if your eggs are fresh, and recognize when an egg is spolied. So here are some of the best ways to check if your egg is still good and our best tips to help you out.
What Is The Egg Float Test?
The egg float test is an old fashioned way of seeing if your eggs are still fresh that involves floating eggs in water and judging their age and freshness by that. An egg float test is easy to do and in just about 5 minutes you can test an entire carton.
How To Do The Egg Float Test
Fill a bowl deep enough that the eggs are covered, plus about two inches of cold water. To do the egg float test place the eggs you wish to check into the water. You can check the eggs one at a time or in small batches, just be sure not to overpack the bowl while doing the egg float test. Give the eggs a moment to settle.
Fresh egg = will stay at the bottom and lay on its side.
Not as fresh but still as good = will stay at the bottom but stand up on end.
Bad/very old = will float to the top of the bowl.
Once you’ve separated the bad eggs from the still good ones remove them from the water and carefully discard them. You don’t want to break them, especially inside your house because spoiled eggs smell really bad. We bury ours in our compost pile to compost down. Put the other eggs back into the carton and store.
Is The Egg Float Test Accurate?
The egg float test has stood the test of time and it’s a very accurate way of seeing if your eggs are fresh or not. A farmer friend of ours taught us the egg float test when we first got chickens and we still use it today. To this day it’s the only method we use to see if our eggs are fresh or not.
Other Options For Checking Your Eggs Freshness
There are several other ways to see if your eggs are fresh or not, but the egg float test is the easiest to do and the best for beginners. Here are some other ways to test if your eggs are fresh:
Candling
Those with experience can tell how old an egg by candling it. However, this isn’t an easy way to see how old and egg is so we don’t recommend it for beginners- unless you want to practice candling to get ready for hatching season.
Shaking The Egg
While it’s true that bad eggs do make a sloshing noise (as the air pocket evaporates leaving more room for the contents to slosh), this won’t tell you just how old the egg is so it won’t be as accurate as the egg float test.
Sniff Test
This method of testing to see if your eggs are fresh will only work if you’ve already cracked it. There will be no mistaking the smell of a rotten egg.
Plate Test
Another way to check the freshness of your egg is to crack it into a plate and then look at the way it’s sitting. A fresh egg have a vibrant yellow/orange yoke that sits upright and the white part will be firm and tight. An older egg’s yoke will flatter and the white will be spread out across the plate- this doesn’t mean it’s bad just that it’s an older egg.
If you are buying a store bought eggs you can also check the best by date on the carton.
How Long Do Eggs Last?
Eggs that are stored properly can last for quite a while. Eggs can be used up to 8 weeks after they have been laid.
How To Store Eggs Properly
When it comes to how to properly store eggs every country has it’s own practices. Many places in Europe leave their eggs out at room temperature as they have for generations. Now because of salminela outbreaks it’s recommended that you store your eggs in the refrigerator. Store them at 40-45F in the refrigerator, but avoid storing them on the door. Place the eggs in a carton on a shelf in the coldest part of your refrigerator. If you are wanting to preserve extra eggs try water glassing them.
Should You Wash Your Eggs Before Storing?
The answer to this question goes round and round with no one size fits all answer. If your eggs are laid in a nice clean nexting box this isn’t as big of an issue. However if you are dealing with eggs that are dirty you’re going to need to clean them. Washing them will remove the protective coating and leave the vulnerable to bacteria. Basically you have 3 options when it comes to cleaning eggs for storing:
- Wash them – wash in hot water, don’t allow the eggs to stay in the water. Use a cloth or scrubby pad to remove the dirt. Some people use bleach or dish soap to clean their eggs but it is not necessary. We like to wash our eggs with homemade GSE cleaner to kill any bacteria on the eggs.
- Use sandpaper – use a piece of sandpaper to scrub off the dirt.
- Toss them – you can feed them to your animals or toss them in the trash or compost pile.
It’s not necessary to wash your eggs before you use them, but if you choose to make sure you use those ones first.
Is It Ok To Eat Fertilized Eggs?
Yes! It’s absolutely ok to eat fertilized eggs. Having fertilized eggs doesn’t mean their is a chick inside just that you could incubate them if you wished. It doesn’t change the taste, edibility of the egg at all.
FAQ About Egg Freshness
There is a blood spot in my egg, can I eat it?
While gross, this doesn’t not make the egg unedible, use a spoon to remove the blood spot and cook as you normally wood.
My eggs have black spots in them, what are they?
Black or brown spots could indicate mold growing inside your egg, it’s best to toss the egg out.
My eggs has brown spots in them, what are they?
Brown or red spots in your eggs are “meat” spots. While offputting they are safe to eat.
Can you eat a three week old egg?
Yes! There is nothing wrong with a three week old egg, cook and eat however you like.
My egg yoke is pink, can I eat it?
No this could be mold growing in your egg, toss it out and get another one.
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