Showing Eggs

[bluemoon]

Has anyone ever shown their eggs in one of the egg classes at a poultry show? We attend the local agricultural show every year and they have poultry and egg classes along with the obvious sheep, cattle etc. It would be lovely to actually enter something, but I wouldn't fancy having to muck about shampooing a chicken, even if mine were show worthy and I doubt they are. (except for Coco, obviously as he's the world's most stunning cockerel) I'm told that few people show Marans and my Rhodies would fail miserably as they are red, - for a reason I've yet to fathom, show quality Rhode Island Reds are black . Egg classes though, they're possible and it would be lovely for my grandson and daughter to feel that they're actually part of the show and not just spectators. I don't expect to win, but I don't want to make any mistakes.
I've downloaded an entry form and it seems pretty straight forward, except; what's a 'tinted' egg? I imagine it to be somewhere between lighter than my marans lay, but darker than white. When does a tinted egg become a brown one?

[RichmondHens]

Tinted eggs, I believe, are not quite white, and brown eggs are various shades darker than that. Eggs laid by Welsummer and Marans are classed as dark brown, although I find there's quite a variation in shades among my Welsummers.

[bluemoon]

Yes, I've noticed that I can tell who laid which egg by the colour, shape and size. If I do show the marans eggs I will probably have to collect three from the same hen (probably Gytha) over the course of the week as I think one of the things they are looking for is uniformity in three eggs.
Think I'll do it! The cost is only 30p per class, so it won't exactly break the bank and it will be worth it just to say I've done it.
What's a 'contents' class? I've been in the poultry tent after judging has finished and noticed that some eggs had been broken open and the contents were on plates, but in my ignorance I'd always assumed that this was because the judge had found it difficult to decide and had looked at the yolks as a tie-breaker . I assume these then are the remnants of the 'contents' classes? If so, what are they looking for, apart from obvious things such as yolk colour?

[Hilary B]

At a guess, evidence of freshness, and lack of 'blood spots' or other unwanted marks inside....

[MaureenHall]

I've read in one of my Member of the Month books that eggs for showing shouldn't be washed or handled too much as this takes the "bloom" off them. Well, that's what it was like in the olden days anyway I'd love to do that, but finding 6 identical eggs from my lot ........................ might take a couple of weeks sounds like good fun though, good luck and let us know how you get on. We want a picture of the trophy!!

[bluemoon]

Don't know about a trophy, the show is one of the older agricultural shows and has been running for over 150 years, in that time I don't think things have changed much, the prizes are £1, 50p and 30p for 1st 2nd and 3rd places, the rule book probably talks about shillings. Though I think the poultry get rosettes. Thanks for the advice about not washing them, though our eggs are very clean, that's one of the things which really surprised me as some we've bought from the farmers' market in the past have been...well, filthy, so I thought they would all be like that. Even so, I'd probably have been tempted to primp them up a bit.

[bluemoon]

Right, I've done it! Entered 3 in the large fowl brown egg class and one in the contents class.

[CoraxAurata]

I entered my eggs in a local show and my girls promptly went into moult so I didn't have 3 matching eggs!

[bluemoon]

I entered my eggs in a local show and my girls promptly went into moult so I didn't have 3 matching eggs!

That would be just my luck too, but I'm hoping that as they're all this year's (or very late last year's) birds they won't moult this time. Still, they could all decide to have a week off.