Do eggs go bad in the heat?

[MandiRock]

Ever since I got chickens last fall, I've noticed a lot of people (mostly neighbors) have a lot of advice for me. And that a lot of them have never had chickens. And that a lot of the advice goes against things I've read lol

But today my neighbor told me be sure I collect my eggs every day early in the morning bc if they get left out in the heat they will go bad. Obviously I'm not worried about it right now, bc the egg laying is relatively new and my 3 year old insists on looking for eggs like 3 times a day, plus it isn't hot outside. But it did get me wondering... In the summer time here it can get up to 110. If I were to go out of town for a day or two, would the eggs be okay sitting in that heat? I don't have a rooster so they wouldn't be fertilized or anything.

Also as a side question, is it normal for a hen to lay in the middle of the day? One of my hens lays sometime between 11 am and 2 pm, I'm not sure exactly what time but there is always an extra egg when we check the coop the second time each day.

 

[JenellYB]

Different hens lay at different intervals and different times of day. Most seem to tend to lay early, getting up and about, excercise, eting and pooping mornings probably helps 'shake 'em down' somewhat, but only if the egg is fully developed enough, and that's not a set thing. For a good while, my "Chicken Little" banty was laying on about a 36 hour schedule, 2 eggs per 3 days but that meant early one day, late the next, skip a day, early the following day, late the next, etc..

As for how long the eggs will last in that heat, I'm not really sure. Maybe someone else knows. But many hens stop laying when its that hot, anyway.

 

[nurse_turtle]

Your eggs will not go bad because of the heat as long as they are collected regularly/daily. Both my Dominiques girls lay between 11-1pm every day. I think the eggs will be fine for a couple days at that temperature. Non-fertile eggs sit in an incubator for 10+ days @ 100 degrees and don't go bad. Also, you can use the float test. Good eggs sink all the way to the bottom. If I ever have an egg that floats or even hovers somewhere in the middle, I use it to feed it back to the chickens. When in doubt, the eggs can be boiled, scrambled and fed back to the girls. No egg has to go to waste. I even feed my quail egg to my chickens.

As far as advice from folks who don't even have chickens... just smile and nod. One wouldn't take advice on child rearing from someone who has none.

 

[FarmMama0708]

Your eggs won't go bad but if you don't collect them early enough you may get some par cooked. I have chicken and ducks and at 110 degrees, the whites will start to cook. We collect them before 100 degrees and throw out anything we find after that.