How can I tell if the quail eggs I purchased are fresh?

[Mama Austranought]

Sorry I should have explained - it was a yard auction/ livestock auction where we go to sell and buy our birds. The seller puts out his stock on the aution table and then the auctioneer sell it to the highest bidder(duh) and you pick up your item and take it home...you never meet or speak to the seller - safer that way or ... a million things could happen. I am a seller here as well as a buyer. It's a small country auction and its built on good faith BUT some people do use it to get rid of duds though.
I know if the egg smells it's bad but how can I tell if the ones whose shell doesn't smell at this stage - are fresh? I guess Im clutching at straws but if I've got straws left I might as well!
SEE MY original question below the intro para for what I really want to know.

 

[Mek]

perhaps sneakily say to that your incubator can only hold like 7 and you will eat the rest... maybe?

and if you get food poisoning its not fresh

I can only seem to find fertile quail eggs at $0.625 each + postage ... and I am in Australia as well...

Where abouts did you get your eggs from?

 

[Mama Austranought]

See above for where they came from. I've had food poisining once - and i'll make jolly well sure I do everything to not get it again. But perhaps if I mentioned it to an egg supplier it would carry some serious weight!

I went ahead and floated them in lukewarm water - they had to go into the incubator tonight. I have put the sinkers in the incubator. The ones that I thought were rotten because they smelled, floated and the others clearly sank. So I was right there. I dried them off quickly and put them in egg cartons to incubate with the pointed end down, then I tilted the incubator (just enough so the water wouldn't come out) 2inches. I will put the block under the other side when it's time to turn the eggs.

I have read hundreds of posts on here to see what to do etc and came up with my own 'set' of rules following a rough guideline of what I've read. So this is an experiment! We will see in 16-18+ days if I clutched at the right straws!

I know that I have probably done everything wrong but we'll see in a little while. Someone out there is bound to have the same predicament sometime so I hope it wont be all loss. I am sorry but I mostly learn by trial and terror, and you can read a million posts and still never get a straight yes or no answer (which is OK because who wants the responsibility of a whole ruined hatch...)

So I mostly take an educated guess... and try to stay calm when I mess up!

 

[JJMR794]

In My Experience Anyone Selling OLD Eggs At Auction... Likely Doesnt Possess The Internal Emotional Caring To Worry About Wether You Get Food Poisoning Or Not. If They Were Selling Them As Hatching Eggs In That Condition I Seriously Doubt That TheIr Scrupples Are Any Better About Consumption Eggs... This Is Usually A Character Flaw No Matter The "purpose Intended"

 

[JJMR794]

HOWEVER BOTH BOOTS AND AX HANDLES MAY BE USEFUL IN "TUNING" A CHARACTER FLAW WHEN USED WITH ENOUGH VELOCITY AND APPLIED LIBERALLY...


IN PLAIN WORDS AS APPLIED TO MY AREA--- SOMEBODY WOULD HAVE A WHOOPIN COMIN'

 

[Mama Austranought]

I guarantee you I will not be buying his eggs again I will look at the handwriting on the packet and I'll be able to tell

...Hopefully it will be me selling FRESH fertile eggs soon! Out of 60 eggs only 34 were fresh enough to sink the rest floated - some 75% OUT of the water! No wonder it smelt! and was a bad greenish colour! and I bet he was standing there laughing at the price I paid which was more than usual (I was told) for his rotten eggs. Anyway one consolation is that the guy who dropped them paid me out 10 bucks to cover the smashed ones - there was quite a few, mind. So for a small science experiment, as it has turned out, it was small comfort.

Is there anyone who cares to see what becomes of them?

If no-ones terribly concerned I will keep the results to my injured self.

If not I will share them with sympathetic others.

 

[Mama Austranought]

Quote:
Isn't it just as well I don't know who it was...or ...

!!!

 

[Jenlyn9483]

Good luck with your eggs. Sorry they are so expensive there I only charge $ 0.25 per egg. I have never bought eggs at an auction before but i have seen them auctioned. I never bid on them because of unknowns and people being able to sell what they want and not have to answer for the results. I prob would have thrown them all away if I smelled that stintch but I hope your perserverance pays off and that of the 34 that sank that some of them didnt get scrambled in the "drop" on the inside. Let us know how it turns out OK? Good luck!

 

[satay]

I would love to hear of your outcome. I am sorry the seller seemed to have given you old eggs. Good on you for trying still and I hope you are able to at least get a couple to hatch.

 

[HEChicken]

Yes, please update us. I'm an Aussie too and just received 70 quail eggs in the mail (1 cracked so I'll be setting 69 tomorrow). I guess we can do a little hatchalong....