My girls are laying I free range my girls during the day and I have been looking for eggs everyday since we had our first about a week ago. I just went outside and found one of my RIR's in an old feed bag next to the back porch. I tried to coax her out with no luck. Then it occured to me.....she's must be sitting on some eggs. Lo and behold 3 perfect little brown eggs. Here is my question....we have a rooster and unless he is sterile these eggs are fertilized(His nick name is Sir Humpsalot Now I dont want any more chicks right now and there is a possibility that one or more of these eggs is 3 days old. Is it too late to eat(I mean without anything creepy inside when it is cracked)?
I've read that when a fertilized egg sits for 24 hours a chick begins to develop. I wouldn't eat them now.
I've done a little reading lately about incubating eggs... After a week in the incubator, you candle them (shine a bright light through them) to see if anything is developing. Here's an image of a four-day old egg... The darkest spot is the embryo. The lines radiating out from it are the veins from the embryo to the other materials in the egg. Shine a bright light through the eggs and see what's inside. Then, you can decided what to do with them.