I keep a jacket by the back door in case I need it to go see the chickens. It was a little chilly, so I grabbed it and headed out. About half way through checking chickens, I felt something in the pocket. An egg. Already in the pocket. Hm. There were two more in the nest boxes, so those went in the other pocket and I headed back in. I weighed and recorded all three eggs, then subjected the suspect egg (how long had it been in that pocket?!?) to the float test.

The egg didn’t sink to the bottom, so it wasn’t a fresh egg, but it didn’t float to the top (indicating a very old egg). Since it is floating slightly off the bottom, I estimate it was in my pocket for a few days, maybe a week. Hm. I broke it open to check the validity of the float test, and the egg looked and smelled just fine.

The dogs enjoyed their treat, so it was not a wasted egg.

In case you are wondering how the egg test works, it has to do with water loss through the shell of the egg, which is semi-permeable. A fresh egg hasn’t had time to have significant water loss so is denser than water, so sinks. A month old egg has experienced considerable evaporation, and is less dense than water, so it floats. And is more likely to have gone bad.