Eating fertilized eggs... (please move if in wrong forum)

[FabulousMandy]

Food for thought (pun intended

): "balut" is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell; it's considered a delicacy of Asia and is especially popular in the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

I think eating a fertilized egg from your backyard is just fine; maybe your mom should have sampled that little chick

apparently balut is extremely delicious!

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

If you gather them fresh every day, I don't think you will have a problem. She won't know if they are fertile or not. I know this is a "duh" thing, but they only way to get a chick that developed in an egg if they have been incubated by a hen. I think you have enough brains to eliminate that egg from the eating egg carton. You may have to sit down and explain things further for her to understand this.

 

[SpringChickens]

Quote:
I've heard of that, but I think I'm still too chicken to try!! Don't know that I could get past the crunchy bones

 

[ChickensInTheNorthWoods]

As long as you are collecting your eggs daily you have nothing to worry about. The only way I have been able to tell the difference is that on occasion I might find an egg with a small blood spot on the yolk when I crack them open.

 

[FabulousMandy]

Quote:
I've heard of that, but I think I'm still too chicken to try!! Don't know that I could get past the crunchy bones

My mom is living in Indonesia right now and I keep begging her to try one for me lol! I've heard they're actually really tender; since they're not all the way developed the bones are still soft cartilage.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Again, sorry. Blood spots have nothing to do with whether an egg is fertile or not. Blood and meat spots occur just as much in infertile eggs as they do in fertile eggs.
You have to look for the bullseye to distinguish a fertile egg from an infertile one and if you don't look closely, you'd never know. Out of every dozen eggs I crack, at least 11 of them are fertile. I have an active roo.
ETA: This link with pictures of the bullseye: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008

 

[ChickensInTheNorthWoods]

Quote:
Again, sorry. Blood spots have nothing to do with whether an egg is fertile or not. Blood and meat spots occur just as much in infertile eggs as they do in fertile eggs.
You have to look for the bullseye to distinguish a fertile egg from an infertile one and if you don't look closely, you'd never know. Out of every dozen eggs I crack, at least 11 of them are fertile. I have an active roo.
ETA: This link with pictures of the bullseye: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008

No need to say "sorry" I am thankful to have learned something new today!

That is why I love BYC!

 

[Rootball]

Next Time you go to the market read a few of the egg cartons. Almost all grocery stores sell at least one brand of fertilized eggs.

Im kind of astonished that people in this thread were throwing away fertilized eggs. LOL. I sure hope you weren't buying fertile eggs again from the grocer.

 

[Rootball]

The whole fertilized egg thing is kind of a newer fad, but I just found this info in a University of Florida Paper:

Fertile Eggs

Almost all eggs produced commercially are infertile. Roosters do not have to be present for hens to lay eggs and roosters are, therefore, not kept with laying flocks.

When there is an excess of hatching eggs in the poultry meat industry, eggs from broiler breeder flocks can be sold for human consumption. A large percentage of these eggs will be fertile. Fertilized eggs are safe to eat. There is no nutritional difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs. The embryo does not develop in fertilized eggs that are refrigerated soon after laying.

What I get from this is that producers aren't required to label fertilized eggs and that you are sometimes eating them without knowing it.

 

[Uppity Peon]

Quote:
OMG! what a waste! lol
Oh well, now you know.