Egg question...

[Country Gal]

Okay, I have a question about eggs...

One of my biggest fears is going to crack an egg into the frying pan and a half developed chick falls into the pan. Can I assume that whether or not an egg is fertilized, that if I remove it shortly after it's been laid and put it in the fridge, that it won't develop?

Thanks for your help!

 

[bayouchica]

You should be fine as long as you colllect eggs everyday & refridgerate them.

Miriam

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Quote:
We don’t have a rooster currently but even when we did we have never had a problem of an egg developing an embryo, we don’t refrigerate our eggs but collect them every day. We keep them in a cool location we also don't wash them since that removes the outside protective layer that helps keep bacteria from penetrating the egg, we keep their laying nest clean so the eggs never get dirty.

 

[Marion]

A fertilized egg, once laid, is in a state of suspended animation until it's incubated. If you collect the egg right away and refrigerate it, the embryo will never develop, and I'll bet you'd never notice the difference between that egg and an unfertilized one.

This "suspended animation" enables a hen to lay several eggs over a period of days before she settles down to the business of incubating, that way all of the eggs hatch at about the same time. A hen will normally sit on a clutch, after the first peeps hatch, for a couple of days to make sure all of the eggs have a chance to hatch, in that period the chicks already hatched live off of the yolk they absorbed right before hatching. After a couple of days the hen will leave the nest with the new chicks in tow!

 

[Country Gal]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[mudhen]

Great info here. I'd like to ask a related question:
How many days can a fertilized egg stay in 'suspended animation' before incubation?

 

[cornishman]

if you are going to inc the egg then you need to turn it once a day and never let it get over 7 days old. this is just the way i do it. i'm sure others have different ways but this has worked very well for me. cornishman.