Water Glassing: Egg Preservation Experiment!

[Sally PB]

I'm curious why people sometimes end up with cracked eggs when waterglassing. Do the eggs crack when placed in the jar? Or are these microscopic cracks, enough to let water in but not big enough to see with a naked eye?

I had an egg crack and break. I think it was a weak shell. My Bielefelders' eggshells tend to be weaker.

I think they overload their containers,, using large ones.
Smaller containers will have less eggs to top heavy.

That could have been what happened in my case. If I do another container, I'll do half gallon containers. I will keep this in mind for next year; the hens are definitely slowing down and getting ready to molt.

 

[fat brown hen]

I've never figured this out. I've been water glassing for 6+ years and can count on ~10% loss rate. The cracks on the bad eggs are visible, but may be easy to miss when you are cracking them open for cooking.

Dang, 10% is a lot. When the eggs crack, do they rot on the inside? Or does the calcium hydroxide prevent bacterial growth? Could I theoretically use the cracked eggs to make a Mexican omelette smothered in jalapenos to hide the taste of calcium?