Can you eat fertile eggs?

[mommy of two]

This might seem like a silly question but I have no clue so I am asking! I really want a rooster but I didn't know if you could eat the eggs as long as you gathered them up every day before the hen gets broody and incubates them. And if you can eat them do they taste the same as an unfertilized egg?

 

[bugglesmommy]

Yes, you can eat them. They taste the same and as long as they haven't been under a broody to start the incubation it is pretty much exactly the same as an infertile egg.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Yes, you can eat a fertilized egg. Gathering eggs often during the day, washing them, and getting them in the fridge are the best thing to do with your eggs, especially if you have a rooster around. All of the eggs you get won't be fertilized anyway. If they are, the most that you will probably see is a fertilization spot.

 

[mommy of two]

Thanks! Also if we do decide to hatch the eggs does it matter if they mix breeds? I want a barred rock rooster so what if he bread with one of our Rhode Island Red hens? What would the chick be like?

 

[bugglesmommy]

They can crossbreed, the chicks would just be mutts. I'm not a genetics expert and I don't know much about dominant or recessive traits with those breeds.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Thanks! Also if we do decide to hatch the eggs does it matter if they mix breeds? I want a barred rock rooster so what if he bread with one of our Rhode Island Red hens? What would the chick be like?

Both are considered to be dual purpose chickens. I do know that Rhode Island Reds are used in some of the crosses that produce sex-link chickens, which enables you to sex the chicks at birth because of color, but they use a Rhode Island Rooster in that cross and a Delaware hen(I think).

It is hard to say what they would look like, but I would think the hens would be decent laying chickens. .

 

[mommy of two]

Thank you! My husband is all worried if we end up having mixed breeds that they will be ugly chickens!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Thank you! My husband is all worried if we end up having mixed breeds that they will be ugly chickens!

If you get ugly chickens, time to change the rooster!

Here's a lovely mixed breed hen. The rooster (a RIR) is her father, mother was a Golden Buff (red sex link from Meyer).

 

[bugglesmommy]

I don't ever find chickens to be ugly really ... except naked necks. They freak me out! (Sorry naked neck lovers)

To me there are chickens and then pretty chickens.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I don't ever find chickens to be ugly really ... except naked necks. They freak me out! (Sorry naked neck lovers)

To me there are chickens and then pretty chickens.

You'll need to check out the Ugliest Chicken Contests here on BYC. You'll change your mind right quick.