Egg fertility

[Cierrascoop]

Is there anyway to know if an egg if fertile? I've never incubated but a friend would like some eggs from my girls to incubate. I have two roosters, but, I do want to make sure that the eggs she gets are going to have the best chance of hatching, on my end anyway. Any certain way to tell ?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Is there anyway to know if an egg if fertile? I've never incubated but a friend would like some eggs from my girls to incubate. I have two roosters, but, I do want to make sure that the eggs she gets are going to have the best chance of hatching, on my end anyway. Any certain way to tell ?

Not really other than to incubate them

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

If you have enough eggs you could crack a couple open to check them for fertility before incubating the rest. Generally the rest should be fertile if your cracked ones are. So for example ~ last time incubated my own eggs I wanted to set 20 in the incubator. I collected 25 and cracked 5 open to check for fertility. Eggs fertile with a blastoderm (bullseye) so I set the rest.

 

[Cierrascoop]

Not really other than to incubate them

What is your thoughts on incubating eggs that have been in the refrigerator for a few days? (Not washed). The chances would be much lower I'd assume?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What is your thoughts on incubating eggs that have been in the refrigerator for a few days? (Not washed). The chances would be much lower I'd assume?

I don't do it, but just because I always have too many eggs to bother risking a lower rate. I think a lot of people have done it though, and some even get store eggs to hatch, and those have been in the cold for months

 

[mcdze]

yeah you could dump some in a bowl and look ... generally if you have just several hens it will be just one or two that isnt mating so you can recognize the eggs from them .. or, you could just assume with relative surety most are fertile if you witness your rooster getting happy frequently ...