Fertile egg eating

[nhrocks]

So I have fertile eggs. I eat and sell them all the time. Yum yum.
This past week I was away, and my egg collector did not see the need to collect every day. I also have two broody hens who like to sit on any egg that comes their way. So my eggs this past week have been incubated for anywhere between 12 and 48 hours.
I know the 12 hour ones aren't a problem, but what about the ones that have been developing for two days? Will they look different when broke open? Should I not sell them? The obvious problem is that I don't know which are which. Also I won't be eating them all myself any time soon; there are 36 sitting on my counter.
Anyone dealt with this before?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would personally toss them, or feed them back to your chicken, why risk it, especially if you're selling, they might be extra bloody inside if they were incubated a bit, why risk grossing out your customers. And why haven't you broke one open, just wondering.

 

[trailrider330]

Maybe break a few open and check. Make a quiche, egg casserole or something else that requires a lot of eggs. If there are no visible differences, go ahead and eat them. Or try candling them, and see what you can see. You can also look at the chart below and see where an incubated egg is at 48 hours. I guess I would not have an issue eating them (unless they look differently), but if there is a visual difference you may not want to sell them to your customers.

 

[trailrider330]

Oops! Wrong chart. Those are for ducks. Here is the one for chickens:

This one shows what to look for when candling.

Hope that helps.

 

[nhrocks]

Haven't broken any yet because it's not supper time yet lol. But I guess that's the only way. They're brown eggs, so candling won't show anything this early. Better go pick some zucchini for omelettes.

 

[nhrocks]

Update: I cracked a weeks worth of eggs that I know are from one chicken, and two had enlarged germinal discs, with a sort of pale halo around them. No blood, no veins. Didn't look too weird, so I guess I'll sell the rest. But based on the exponential growth rate of embryos, I would not sell any that were sat on any longer than these were.