Egg help please!

[OverWyreGrower]

I found a secret nest today, with 17 eggs in it (16 duck and 1 hen). They are all sinking to the bottom of a bowl of water.

I estimate they've been there about a week. If the eggs are testing fresh (cos that's what sinking and lying there means, right?) they should be ok to eat. Given the nest was outside, the eggs should have been fairly refridgerated(sp?)...

I'm not worried about having lots of eggs to use up, I'm just not sure whether they'll be safe to eat?

[lindyloo]

they should be okay, but i would crack each one seperately into a bowl, before using. especially if you have a cockeral, as i have found that with mine, the hens take turns to sit on the nest, and then when you crack the eggs, they have started to seperate, prior to morphing into a chick ( nothing nasty, just broken yolk and some faint threads of blood) which is enough for me to throw them away!! i would also , after breaking them seperately, take the oppertunity to sniff them- if they aren't fresh they will have a smell about them. i thorw them away even if the smell is only very faint.

[Glutton4...]

t... after breaking them seperately, take the oppertunity to sniff them- if they aren't fresh they will have a smell about them. i thorw them away even if the smell is only very faint.

They will float in water before they get to this stage. I think?

[lindyloo]

yes, they will, but i am fairly nuerotic about poisoning myself- it was drummed into me when i was a child- bad eggs, tinned goods, fish, poultry and potatoes. so as the o.p. wanted reassurance, i just shared my neuorosis.

also, if they are just starting to seperate, but it is because they are fertile, and not because they are stale - they dont float up to the top. some people don't mind a faint streak of blood ( like my nieghbor- she just chucks it all in) but i like my eggs perfect, so i take ages getting even the tiniest bits of sac stuff out of the white.

[Glutton4...]

With you there LL - any 'foreign bodies' in an egg, and I won't eat it either! For me it stems from being made to dissect fertilized eggs at school. It may be thirty years ago, but I can still remember nearly puking, when we got the shell off, and there was a dead partly developed chick in the sack! From that day on, I didn't eat eggs for about five years!

[Hilary B]

With duck eggs, if they were even a bit dirty, cook them REALLY thoroughly. Duck eggs have a wonderful effect on cakes......

[lindyloo]

glutton4; god , that must have been alwful! i didn't have to do that at school, thankfully!

[OverWyreGrower]

Thanks everyone! I'll just check them before I use them then :-)

Hilary - I use duck eggs for everything now - haven't used chicken eggs all year. They make fab poached and fried eggs - lovely yolks!

[motherhen]

If they are only a week old and fairly clean they should be OK but my moto is if in doubt don't!!