Egg question, need help!!

[Ema]

I am new to do so bare with me.

I bought fresh farm eggs for the first time from a lady down the street who had like 3 hundred chickens not sure how many roosters but lots of them. Anyhow she told me she gathers her eggs every single day, dates them and places them in a fridge she purposely bought for all the eggs she gets every single day. loads of people buy from her, which is funny because I never even knew about this until I recently told someone I bought chickens and I have lived here for 5 years and been lookign for farm fresh eggs since moving here. anyhow seeing the amount of roosters she has, do I need to worry that some of her eggs I bought may be fetilized?? is there a way to know for sure. I asked her and she said she has never had an issue. I just don't want to crack one open and find a chick in one of them...some direction from more experinced people would be great!!! am I worrying for nothing??

 

[CindyG]

You're going to get lots of replies, all saying the same thing, if the eggs are taken directly the chickens have laid them, even if they are fertilized, there will be no chick inside. They need incubating to develop.

 

[Ema]

Quote:
awesome thank you for responding...I have no clue what the process of an egg becoming a chick entails so I was a little worried about making pancakes with my daughter and allowing her to crack the eggs (her favorite part)

 

[rancher hicks]

Once the egg is in the fridge it's not likely to hatch even if it is incubated. Developement of the chick does not "automatically" start just cuz it's fertilized. Never had anyone explain why they think this is the case either. It's an irational fear. You have nothing to worry about.

 

[Ema]

Quote:
my worry came from the fact she has a lifelong illness that keeps her from getting out there every day, she gets her kids or hubby to go when she can't get out of bed. Her kids and hubby have no clue what they are doing according to what they told me and they keep all the chickens together, broody hens, rooster, chicks etc...what I should have said is, how do I know the kids/hubby didn't make a mistake and take one of the eggs from the hens that are suppossed to hatch babies....lol....because she told me she has about a dozen hens that are incubating thier eggs right now.

 

[le neige homme]

a refrigerated egg can most certainly be hatched, but that's kind of off on a tangent.

If you want to do a Google Image Search for "fertilized egg", you'll see that there's nothing gross to worry about.

 

[le neige homme]

Quote:
Well now that is something that could happen and that would be disgusting.

 

[Ema]

Quote:
Well now that is something that could happen and that would be disgusting.

hahaha, this is what I was certainly refering to!!

 

[Kittymomma]

In that case I would be sure to crack the eggs in a seperate bowl (I do that anyhow) just in case somebody made a mistake. As the others have said, properly collected and stored eggs will not have any "surprises" in them regardless of being fertile, but eggs mistakenly taken from a broody hen......

 

[greyhorsewoman]

If she has 300 chickens and lots of customers, I'd bet there isn't going to be a problem. Customers finding developing chicks in their eggs would definitely be turned off. We have a batch of free ranging chickens in our barn and even though there are plenty of nests, they often prefer to make their own somewhere in the hayloft. When we come across them, I keep them separate, just in case. However, in all the years, I've rarely found any that aren't still edible ... even though they may be several days old whenl we find them. (If a hen is SETTING on the eggs, that is a totally different story.)