11 Facts About Eggs That Will Make You Say, "Woah, I Didn't Know That!"

    They're eggs-ellent.

    Shyla Watson
    by Shyla Watson

    BuzzFeed Staff

    1. You can often determine what color an egg will be just by looking at the color of the chicken's earlobe.

    2. The likelihood of getting twin eggs depends on the age of the hen.

    3. If you drop an egg on the floor, putting salt on it will help you sweep it right up!

    4. You know that gross, white stringy stuff? Yeah, that's the sign the egg is fresh!

    5. Healthy eggs sink, but rotten ones float.

    6. Many supermarkets outside America don't refrigerate their eggs.

    Flickr: bigpinkcookie

    In America, the USDA requires that eggs sold in grocery stores — often Grade AA — are washed and chemically sanitized before they hit the shelves to avoid bacteria, such as salmonella. But, in many other countries, cleaning the eggs is thought to increase the risk of bacteria penetrating the shell and infecting the egg.

    7. People used to dye eggs red for Easter to represent the blood of Christ.

    8. A 19th century witch once used eggs to con people into thinking the apocalypse was coming.

    Pen and Sword Publishing

    In 1806, Mary Bateman, also known as the Yorkshire Witch, pulled off a scam known as The Prophet of Leeds. Once her hen laid eggs, she would inscribe "Christ is Coming" on them and insert them back into the hen to trick people into thinking that they were predicting the coming of Christ.

    9. The oldest globe depicting the New World is actually an engraving on two joined halves of an ostrich egg.

    washmapsociety.org

    It dates all the way back to 1504 and contains the inscription “Hic Sunt Dracones," above Southeast Asia, which translates to "Here be dragons."

    10. Though you can't make green eggs and ham without some green dye, some chickens do lay green eggs!

    11. It takes a hen 24-26 hours to produce a single egg.

    Nickelodeon