Eggs for food vs eggs for chicks...sound off please

[ChickGirl007]

You can leave the cockerels in there all the time and the eggs can still be eaten, but I wouldn’t recommend it as they get too frisky sometimes and they jump on top of the hens, tire them out and then the hens start to lose their BOOTY feathers. You will only have chicks when your hens are broody and start sitting. You can eat the fertile eggs. They taste the same, and, if you don’t want chicks sometimes, remember to collect the eggs daily. Your hens should be at least over a year old if not even two. 4 months is too early. When they’re older, put the cockerels in the with chickens for one week every month. The eggs should be fertile. That’s all I can help.

 

[cbain0432]

re eating fertilized eggs, last yr a BYC member put some Walmart eggs in her incubator and one of them actually hatched! She named it Wally. So there's a good chance many people are eating fertile eggs without knowing it.
Back in the 1960's, fertile eggs were considered superior and you had to pay more for them! It was a selling point.
I think there's absolutely no difference.

Can you actually incubate an egg that had been refrigerated, as the eggs from walmart are?

 

[SueT]

Can you actually incubate an egg that had been refrigerated, as the eggs from walmart are?

Apparently, yes! But you surely will decrease the chances of hatching, not only with refrigeration, but with increased time lapsed after laying. I have read here on BYC of people hatching refrigerated eggs from their own chickens too. Again, not ideal conditions.....

 

[cmom]

Can you actually incubate an egg that had been refrigerated, as the eggs from walmart are?

No, the eggs are not fertile. Those eggs come from battery farms for egg production only. There are probably health food stores and a store called Trader Joe's that in the past have sold fertile eggs.

 

[cbain0432]

Omg eggs like daily vitamins, your not joking, at one point I found a way to integrate eggs into everything I cooked. Then I knew that I was having surgery and got rid of them for a year..... I had NOT ONE egg the whole time. Lol it was like a detox....your lucky you have buyers around.

I'm finding that my grandmother and her friends want to buy my eggs. The older generation seems to know what's good. Lack of education on our young generation.

 

[cmom]

I had my first flock around 50 years ago. Things were much different then.

 

[Kusanar]

Can you actually incubate an egg that had been refrigerated, as the eggs from walmart are?

If they are fertilized, then yes, some cage free and free range eggs may be fertilized simply because a cockerel slipped through and it's hard to spot one rooster in 10,000 chickens so he may stay for a while before being caught. Caged eggs will never be fertilized.

As for them being refrigerated, people have hatched them with some success, there is even one person on here that has hatched Balut which is a duck egg that is incubated to a certain extent, then refrigerated during transport (it's final intended use is to then be hard boiled and eaten) so apparently at least duck eggs can handle a day or so of refrigeration when partially incubated.

 

[jspeese]

I've heard of people hatching eggs that have been refrigerated, and even read that you could refrigerate eggs for a short while (don't how long, maybe a day) to kill the rooster embryos if you don't want a lot of rooster chicks. But I think most eggs from the supermarket would probably have come from flocks without a rooster and would not have been stored under ideal conditions to maintain hatchability even if they are fertile.

 

[cbain0432]

Exactly....that's why I prefer the cone.

I've heard some people claim they just grab the chicken by the neck, pick them up, and a quick swing of the body to snap the neck works. Is this real? Seems this would be the most humane way for me.

 

[aart]

I've heard some people claim they just grab the chicken by the neck, pick them up, and a quick swing of the body to snap the neck works. Is this real?

If they know how, yes it would work....I wouldn't try it.