Here's the 'official' answer, from British Lion Eggs:
"For optimum freshness and food safety, eggs should be kept at a constant temperature below 20C. To avoid the typical temperature fluctuations in a domestic kitchen, we recommend that eggs are stored in their box in the fridge".
Well I'll go with that Chris, I usually keep them in the fridge door compartment but it makes sense. We don't eat that many eggs anyway. I have a china cow, the top half is the lid with air holes in the cows nose, the bottom half is supposedly to keep eggs in, I've never used it for eggs I always assumed they would go off quickly in it.
I can't agree fully with you Chuck despite my thinking that perhaps you had a lot of knowledge about fowls. Ocasionaly you will find what appears to be a blood spot in an egg and I understand it to be spermatozoon. However most eggs are completely unfertile.
Apologies sfsorrow for my having strayed from the question. However, now back to the subject matter, I have always kept eggs in a fridge and they have been ok to use when some weeks passed their 'sell-by' date.