Q&A for a Lazy Sunday

There have been a couple of questions posed recently that I haven't actually answered.  And what better time to answer them than now, when I have nothing else of much interest to talk about?  Unless you want to hear about the enormous yew stumps A. battled with for most of this morning or the fact that Big Red is spewing smoke thanks to a suspected blown clutch.

Let's just go with the questions, shall we?

1) Why sheep?  Why indeed?  The very question I have asked A., and one I have yet to get a very good answer to.  The sheep are his, you see, but I'm not sure a whole lot of thought was put into the decision to get them.  He wanted animals.  Pigs are too smelly and hard to contain; cows are too big; goats are too wily.  So sheep it is.  They have the advantage of being small enough to be handled easily by A.--unlike, say, pigs or cows--and they don't require as much pasture as cows do.

2) How can you tell how long eggs have been in a nest and if they're still good?  This is in reference to the surprise nest I discovered a few days ago.  I knew those eggs hadn't been in there more than a few days because the nest had been created when we dumped the sheep-shit straw in the garden last weekend.  Also, the previous few days I had only found one egg, rather than the three or four I usually get, so I knew the hens had found a new nest.  As for if they're still good . . . unwashed eggs keep for weeks without refrigeration, but if there's any doubt, I drop them in a bowl of water.  If they float, they're bad news.  If they sink, you're good to go.  Something to do with an air pocket in the egg that expands as it ages.  I'm sure you can find more science-y explanations than that, but I just worry about the floating thing.

Any further questions, class?