Can you tell if a egg is fertilized or not?

[bob505]

I don't know much about chickens but i recently got some for laying eggs but could i tell if the egg is fertilized?

 

[Mattake2]

It's difficult for an untrained eye but you can crack one egg, then empty it onto a plate. If the egg is fertilized, a tiny dark spot is visible (which is the sperm). This process wastes the egg, unless you want to fry it up with some taters but will let you know if the other eggs are also fertile.

 

[Judy]

Oh, yes -- but you have to crack it, or incubate it.

If you crack an egg onto a dish and look closely, you will see a small white round spot on the yolk. If the spot is a solid circle, it is not. If it looks like a target, with a white outer ring and a white spot inside that, it is. Best done on a clear glass dish so you can see both sides of the yolk. Ignore any red spots or that small stringy white thing; these have nothing to do with fertility.

Or you can incubate (or leave under a broody) and candle after several days.

There are some good photos of a fertile egg yolk on this site somewhere, but they have changed the search engine, and now I can't find them.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Umm, no, sorry. The spot is not dark, it is white, and it is not the sperm, it is the developing chick at a very early stage. Dark spots are usually "blood spots," a tiny bit of the hen's blood, harmless and quite edible.

 

[bob505]

Is there any way to tell if its fertilized from not cracking it?

 

[Mattake2]

 

[dancingbear]

Bob, you might want to read the 2nd sticky at the top of this section. The one called "How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg" (Pictures).

I read something about somebody being able to see the germinal disc well enough when candling, to tell whether an egg was fertile, but I've never been able to. Maybe with a really strong light, and thin, light colored shells.

BTW, do you have a rooster? If not, your eggs will not be fertile. If the hens have a rooster with them, then the eggs most likely will be fertile.

 

[saddina]

Bob to tell and NOT crack it open, you need to incubate it, the egg shell is formed after fertilization, and does not show any change. Which I think is what you wanted to know.