Babies vs. Yolk

[rham5151]

1. How do you tell the difference between an egg with a chick, and an egg with just a yolk?
2. Is there a difference of how they are concieved, layed?
3. What is the difference between egg color?
4. Anything else I should know about eggs, and egg laying?

 

[SpringChickens]

Hmmmm.... where to start!

1) all eggs have a small white spot on the yolk. If the egg is fertilized, there is a "ring" around that white spot - looks kind of like a doughnut. If it's not fertilized, there will be no doughnut. This isn't easy to spot unless you're looking for it - most people would never know if they were eating a fertilized egg.

2) There is no difference in how they are laid. Obviously, you need a rooster to fertilize the egg and he fertilizes the egg long before it is laid.

There are only 2 ways to tell if an egg has been fertilized or not.
i) Crack it open and look for the "doughnut". This way has very poor hatching rates.

ii) Incubate it in an incubator or under a broody hen. See if it develops.

3) No color difference between fertilized/non-fertilized.

Does this answer all your questions?

 

[rham5151]

Yes it does for the most part. thank you. But for the last question. I want to know what is difference between different colored eggs (taste, health, and what causes the different colors.) Thank you for your help. Also what is a broody?

 

[SpringChickens]

The difference between different colored eggs is.... the COLOR!

Seriously though, it's a very common misconception that different colored eggs have different properties, when in actuality they're all the same. Its what the chickens eat that changes the make-up of the egg (how healthy, how it tastes). For example, free-ranging chickens tend to have more omega-3 fatty acids and have a much darker yolk which tastes much better (I think).

Here's more information than you probably want on egg color:

Egg shells come in 2 base colors, either white or blue.
Most breeds have a white base, but some also have blue (EEs, Ameraucanas, etc.)
To get a brown shell, the hens put a brown coating on the egg (white base). To get a green egg, the hen puts a brown coating on the blue base. The color egg a hen lays is determined by her genetics.

A broody hen is one who wants to raise a "brood" of chicks. She wants to sit on her nest until her eggs hatch (21 days) and then will typically mother her chicks.