Most of you reading this may already know how to tell if eggs are fresh or not by floating them; but maybe I can help someone out who hasn't heard of this yet.
I grabbed a 2 quart freezer container (from the dirty dishes) and filled it half full of tepid water with a dribble of bleach so I could test my eggs and take some pics to share. I use the bleach as I'm going to put this dish back in the sink to be washed and I've hopefully cleaned any bacteria from the eggs. I didn't wash them for this test but they get a bit of cleaning in the testing. I handle them gently so I don't crack them by dropping them on each other.
Here you can see they all sunk right to the bottom, indicating they are all fresh! They have passed their test! So I clean them off a bit more and into the refrigerator they go except the one green one which was cracked when I found them. Part 2 of our spa experience is floating some old eggs. Old eggs float and that is exactly what 3 of these eggs do! There is one that sunk so it's fresh.
Aging eggs are suspended in the spa experience. In the picture below, 4 eggs are floating and are OLD. Two brown eggs are sunk showing freshness. In the lower left part of the pic, is an egg that is suspended. It's under water but not sitting on the bottom of the dish. Pitch it! It's not worth chancing opening it in the house in case it stinks and it's surely not something you want to eat.
As fun as the experiment was, it's over. The lesson learned is if they float or are suspended, pitch them. If they sink and lay in the bottom of the dish they are good. By floating eggs for freshness, you don't have to crack an egg and find it is stinky or nasty looking. If you find an old nest of eggs, you can check them safely.
I wash my eggs off prior to using them or prior to selling/giving them away. I use a little bleach in the water for this because I'm not germing up the sink and my hands so badly. ;) It's just an extra caution in protecting my food and my family's health. After all, it's only smart to have some clean handling methods with our food. Everyone has their own and their own reasons for what they do, but having a method that works for us is smart. As you can see from the dirty eggs I used, it's necessary!
Fortunately most of my eggs come in clean looking. I try to keep extra shavings on hand so I can replace it as it's mashed down or kicked out of the nests. I also have a kitty litter scoop to clean out hen droppings which also keeps the nest and eggs cleaner.
I hope I've helped in showing how to float eggs for freshness and added a bit of handling info too!
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