How do you like your eggs?

I have to admit I rushed out at first light to let the hens out and see if they had left us any breakfast in the laying boxes. Sadly, there was nothing in the coop but three piles of garden gold. Ah, well. I figured it might take them some time to get settled in and feel comfortable enough to lay.

All morning we have been taking breaks from homeschool to look at the girls out the window or go out and visit them. At one point I noticed that Ginger was being very vocal and went up into the coop. Although I was dying to stay out there and peek at her, I gave her some privacy. When she came out a half-hour later, though, you better believe we were donning gloves and grabbing the camera and running out to see if she'd given us our first oval gem.

Sure enough!

 (In the left laying box you can see the golf ball we put in to encourage them to lay in the right place!)
 Our first brown beauty:

Now, I have heard from various sources that they do or don't wash their eggs. One friend only washes them if she knows she'll be serving it to guests, another says she only washes it if it has a bit of poo on it. Well, ours had a small spot of mystery wetness on it, so I decided to be "safe and sanitary" and give it a wash.

I have read that a vinegar/water solution is best for this, but I grabbed my bottled of straight white vinegar instead. I have to tell you, it did the oddest thing to the egg... I felt this sort of jelly substance well up as the vinegar ran over the egg. It startled me, so I immediately shoved it under running water, thinking the whole thing was going to turn to goo in my hand! I tested it, and nope - no goo. It was still hard. And, in fact, darker.

I ran to tell my husband about my little adventure and he pointed out that when we dye Easter eggs we soak them in vinegar with the color pellets. Ahhhh, of course. It etches away part of the shell to make the color stick. Perhaps if I would have left it in vinegar it eventually would have eaten it away, but just to rinse it didn't do anything bad. I think next time, though, I'll rinse the eggs in a vinegar/water solution if they need to be washed. (If nothing else I'll at least avoid the nasty jelly feeling.)