Can you eat unfertilized, incubated eggs? What size incubator should I get?

[BigBlueHen53]

Yeah now that I think about it, it would interrupt incubation.

Hmm. I was thinking you'd end up with a staggered hatch. Which is a serious problem if you have a broody setting on the eggs, because she'll abandon the ones that haven't hatched yet. ... but when you're doing the incubating, your problems are a little different. Your chicks are going to be different ages. And even if they're just a few days different, the little ones can end up being crushed by the bigger ones if they're all in the same brooder. I've lost purchased chicks that way, if one was a little smaller. They all huddle together and the little one .... just can't shove his way out.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Well, keep us posted! Let us know when you're ready to hatch, and we'll do a Hatch-A-Long with you! And ... feel better!

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Oh ok! Thanks for clarifying. Should I put aside a batch of 20, then put them all in at once, then check them to make sure they’re growing? And if they’re not fertilized, should I switch them out?

No you should not switch them because then you have different look down times. Unless you have another incubator to place the first eggs in for lockdown

 

[DIYGuy24]

In the Philippines there's a food dish called balut which is a mostly developed duck/chicken egg. As gross as it sounds, they eat it as an aphrodisiac. So I forget who said it, but if it doesn't smell bad when cracked then I'd say it's edible even if many people wouldn't it.