Questions about eggs

[AlCrowley]

Hope you don't mind a non-chicken owner crashing but I had a few questions on eggs and thought you guys would know best. We don't have any chickens ourselves, our garden is just too small, but DH's boss got some recently and he's been very kindly sending a few eggs home with DH every now and again...

The only experience I have with eggs are the ones that come in boxes (with free range printed on the side! ) with the BB dates helpfully stamped on each one.

So my question is - how long will the eggs stay fresh for? DH's Boss has kindly written the date they were laid on each one in pencil, so I know how old they are just not how long they are likely to stay fresh. The ones DH brought home yesterday say 4/6 and 5/6 on them. That seems quite old to me?

Also, I know commercial chickens are immunised against Salmonella so the eggs are unlikely to contain it but would domestic chickens be jabbed too? DH says they're not ex-battery hens so I guess it would be down to him having them jabbed?? We have a 3 year old who loves his dippy eggs and a 6 month old who's just begun weaning so I'll stick to bought eggs for them if not just to be on the safe side.

TIA

Hahaha!!

You think 10 days is old for an egg? Your commercial ones will struggle to get from farm to shop in a week.

They last for weeks - to check if an egg is still fresh, put it in a bowl of water - if it floats its off. Or crack it and sniff!!

My dc's were brought up on non-innoculated hen eggs. Domestic fowl are not jabbed. I have no idea what the current advice is on cooking eggs for babies and toddlers, but we have always eaten them so proabably have immunity.

Have you put this in Food too? Lots of knowledgeable foodies there. I only know about my hens!

Most of all, enjoy the eggs! They'll be far superior to shop-bought ones.

Your shop bought eggs might be two weeks old when you buy them - eggs last for ages.

The question of whether the hens are vaccinated or not comes down to the breed of hen. As a rule most hybrid hens are vaccinated but most pure breed hens aren't. There are obviously exceptions as different breeders will have different policies so the best person to ask is the owner of the chickens as he'll probably know. I can't imagine anyone taking offense if your DH explains that you want to know before giving dippy eggs to the kids.

If the hens came from a domestic breeder they almost certainly are not vaccinated.

BTW welcome to the chicken-keepers area!

I never knew that 'Fresh' eggs could be so old!

Should have guessed really though I suppose.

DH's boss has 2 small children of his own and another on the way so I doubt he'd mind if DH asked about the innoculations. He should understand why were asking at least. I will ask DH to check next time boss is at the office.

Will try the bowl of water trick too - thanks for that