Are all "fertilised" eggs truly fertilised?

[dancingchicken77]

I have 3 fertilised eggs in my new little 3-egg incubator, 10 days to go and the wait is killing me!

My incubator has a special candler thingy, which lets you look but only at the middle egg. To me, it looks like it is not fertilised at all, looks fairly uniform throughout, speckled with bright splotches.

Here's my question: just because the mother chicken is getting jiggy with the rooster, does that mean that ALL eggs that pop out of her will necessariily be fertilised?

 

[JessicaGrant]

I don't know for sure about chickens, but as someone who had to jump through a lotta hoops to get my lovely twin boys I would guess no.

Good luck with your hatch, though! Maybe 10 days is too early to see anything?

 

[Southernbelle]

If you can confirm one of her eggs is fertile; I'd say all the eggs she laid were fertile if her and the rooster are still getting friendly. The caveat is that fertility doesn't guarantee a chick - anything can happen during development.

I stink at candling, so I can't help you there!

 

[swtangel321]

Before you put any of her eggs in the bator did you break any open and look for the bullseye ?? If so did you see any ??

If your rooster is mating with your hen and is fertile one breeding can last up to 10 days !!

What breed are they ? At 11 days in the bator when you candle you should be able to see some kind of "blob" that would be the chick !! You could always make a better candler thing and look at them with that !!

A 100 watt bulb with a box works good !! If you have a shop light metal cover thing (like the heat bulb holders) you cut a hole in a box and can look thought that !!

 

[Pumpkinpup]

At 10 days you should see something if the egg is truly fertile and was not damages in shipping. Try candling another of the three with a small mag lite flashlite after it gets dark so that you can see better inside the eggs.

 

[jvls1942]

no

 

[Akane]

Only way to check for certain if it's fertile is to break it open. You can't see the fertile mark candling. It's hard enough to see the first few times when you break one open. At 10days though a good egg should be doing something. Clears should be removed around that time or they may turn rotten and even explode. Something you never want to happen. Either that egg isn't fertile or was damaged so that a chick isn't developing. Sometimes you can have all fertile eggs and still only get a couple to grow a chick. Especially if they have been shipped. Temperature extremes, poor handling that scrambles the yolks, or xraying by the postal service can all kill fertile eggs.