Hello, my son wants to color his Easter eggs now, but Easter is not for 6 days. So my question is, how long do boiled eggs last?

 Five days, 23 hours, and 49 minutes. Sorry, it's time that boy learned a little patience!

Actually, most reference books give you a week to safely store hard-cooked eggs in the shell. Even the US Department of Agriculture gives you a week. The department doesn't want the cooked eggs out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours, though, so that means a focused coloring and decorating period and a fairly quick, successful Easter egg hunt on Sunday.

The protective coating that exists on the shell of eggs is washed away when it is being "hard-boiled," which is why they are more perishable than raw eggs, which have a shelf-life approaching two months.

Another consideration your little one is going to have to accept is that you have to cook and cool and dry the eggs, and that is going to take at least a little time, too. But we say go for it – let the decorating commence!

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