[TeaPots]

Just a quick note about the specialised egg wash/sterilising solutions.... I use these products to clean my incubators, and sometimes if I have a precious hatching egg that is a bit mucky, I wipe it over with the spray immediately prior to setting.

Mostly I just keep the nestboxes as clean as possible, and I dont keep any in my fridge. My utility room is probably colder than my fridge anyway!!    I dont keep any eggs that are more than a week old, I throw them away or boil them and chop them up and feed the chopped eggs back to the choox.

[Tigerwren]

Hi all,
Harmony is now restored!    thank you all for your great advice, I really appreciate it!  HF, i will scour the interweb for the article you mentioned, but thank you all for being so thorough. 
 

[hillfooter]

I dont keep any eggs that are more than a week old, I throw them away or boil them and chop them up and feed the chopped eggs back to the choox.

Don't keep eggs for more than a week!!!  Don't you know that an egg doesn't reach it's optimum condition for hard boiling until it's about a week old.  If you hard boil a very fresh egg the white doesn't set properly and goes all crumbly making it difficult to peel.  Leave it a week and it is easy to shell after hard boiling
See you don't learn everything culinary just from Jamie Oliver
You can hatch from eggs which are upto 8 days old and thereafter the hatch rate drops off,  

I once hatched two eggs taken from the fridge which had been there almost a week.  It was an accident really.  My incubator likes to have a round half dozen in each row otherwise they roll about when it's turning them so I popped in a couple of eggs from the fridge to make up a row.  When I came to candle them they I found they had set and started to develop and eventually they hatched.

HF
 

HF

[TeaPots]

Best I clarify HF, sorry I wasnt clear. I have loads of eggs (over 120 chooks) and it is extremely important that I have a good housekeeping routine, I very rarely have any eggs left that are over a week old.

We eat any that are not good enough quality for other people, (cracks or poor shells, or mucky etc. and I boil up some for our lunches (always choosing the oldest eggs), but I take my eggs in to work every day, with an honesty box, and I assure them nothing is over 1 week old. My hatching eggs for sale, I boil and eat once they are a week old, (As I usually have fresher ones daily of course). If I am hatching, I shove in whatever I haven't sold, anything up to 3 weeks old. I have had 50% hatch from 3week old fertile cream legbars, but its usually only around 20% at that stage.

I just dont feel I am fulfilling my promises to other people if my eggs are older than I said, and with this many hens, in the summer I have 2 dozen a day minimum.

[Tigerwren]

Crikey HF!! Hatching from the fridge - you were lucky!! 
And Teapot, I don't know how on earth you cope with that number of eggs!  Well done!
 I am on egg number three and keep looking at them thinking how fab they are - all white from my white leghorn!  Though today's egg looks more transparent than the previous two.  Any ideas why that would be?  She does have plenty of oyster shell, greens, layers pellets etc

[TeaPots]

Is she a young 'un. Little ladies new at laying can lay all sorts, small, huge, lacking yolk!, lacking shell (known as a 'softie') strange shapes. It usually settles after the first half dozen  or so.

[Tigerwren]

Hi Teapots, thank you, yes she is not quite 26 weeks yet.  the egg is slightly bigger than the other two but more oblong ish if that makes sense.  So long as she is ok, that's the main thing!! It's amazing how attached you can get so quickly!! when I first joined and people were saying about becoming addicted, I thought four was plenty, but I am convinced now, that by the summer we could more than double that number without so much as a second thought!! 

[chickadizzle]

my of my new girls has just started laying and i had forgotten how small they are when they start they look so cute against my white stars giant white eggs!! and yes it reeeeeeally is addictive i will be getting more girlies in the spring when my finances allow it lol i am also trying to convince my OH that we NEEED a few turkeys for next Christmas fingers crossed ha ha

[Tigerwren]

ROFL Chickadazzle!! It has taken me 6yrs to get my OH to agree to 4 chickens which was originally supposed to be 2!! i am going to tread carefully and introduce my flock gradually!!

[hillfooter]

Crikey HF!! Hatching from the fridge - you were lucky!! 

What I can't understand is how did the cock get in there to fertilise them!!
HF

[Tigerwren]

Lol HF! n That must have been one determined cock!!

[chickadizzle]

ROFL Chickadazzle!! It has taken me 6yrs to get my OH to agree to 4 chickens which was originally supposed to be 2!! i am going to tread carefully and introduce my flock gradually!!

just tell him you NEED more lol he is well up for more chickens just hates turkeys i think they are so ugly they are cute lol i dont think the turkeys are gunna happen for me though    

[TeaPots]

I only started with 4 rescue hens  (Over 100 now, though 40 or so of those are young 'uns, ready to sell on)

[chickadizzle]

wow that is alot you must have a big garden or a field lol dunno how many i will stop at  think i could put bout 10 in my run not sure how many should go in tho it is 28 square meters