h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Our grocer would give us an extra egg if we were prepared to take Polish ones - no testing to see if they were still usable was allowed.()

How often were they already bad?

oh.

Eh? Speak up luv!

During the second world war, because eggs were scarce, many families kept a few hens and they sold the eggs locally, beautiful fresh eggs at about five shillings a dozen, but illegal, average wage being well under five pounds per week they were actually very expensive. In comparison a loaf of bread was fourpence halfpenny,old money, twenty cigarettes were fourpence and better class ones sixpence. One shilling ie; five 5p today would buy two trips to the the cinema, complete with a quarter of sweets or a bar of choclate on each visit.

But really illegal was the practice of one local farmer, he went round some Yorkshire hatcheries where eggs were being hatched in incubators.
He bought the clears and sold them at top price on local markets.

Don't know what clears are then I will tell you, they are eggs that are infertile, he candled them after six days in the incubator and apart from being a bit thin in the yolks they were still edible.