My daughter found a hidden clutch of 17 eggs today. My girls only started laying a couple weeks ago and they're locked up at night and sometimes during the day. I looked up candling and tried to make sure they were okay to eat, but I'm still confused on what I'm looking for. All the candling info I found is for people incubating eggs, I just want to know if they're okay to eat! I broke on open and it was fine (I could tell from the germ spot it had been fertilized, but no embryo or anything). Another was cracked so I went ahead and broke it open as well, again, no embryo, but it did have a blood spot. If those two were embryo free, theoretically the rest should be fine, right? My understand is fertilized eggs don't begin to develop until the hen starts to sit regularly, so they all develop at the same rate?
Also, it's been really rainy and muddy here so most of the eggs are dirty. I know that I normally shouldn't wash them to perserve the bloom, but for the dirty ones that needed washed, how long will they keep in the fridge? A few weeks?
TIA!
Also, it's been really rainy and muddy here so most of the eggs are dirty. I know that I normally shouldn't wash them to perserve the bloom, but for the dirty ones that needed washed, how long will they keep in the fridge? A few weeks?
TIA!