fertilized egg question

[jonbanks]

i cracked open an egg yesterday and it had two white spots outside of the yoke. is that fertilized? i thought i have all hens. can you please help, lol

 

[patandchickens]

If you are looking at *2* white things, they are probably the chalazae, the sort of curly fibrous thingamajigs at opposite poles of the yolk that keep it from rattling round unduly inside the egg. Store boughten eggs have them too, but they're not always as obvious as in fresh home-grown eggs.

There is probably also a small round whitish spot somewhere on the yolk. That's the part that would develop into an embryo if the egg were fertilized. You can often see it even on unfertilized eggs; on fertilized eggs it looks a bit different (there is a sticky on recognizing fertile vs infertile eggs somewhere, probably in the incubation and hatching section, with photos).

HTH,

Pat