Fertile Eggs Question

[NeoRoey]

Hello everyone. I would just like to know if I gathered some eggs to eat from my birds that have a possibility of being fertile, is the individual sperm still inside the egg? Trying not to cast dispersions, I personally think that it would be a bit disturbing to eat an egg with the knowledge that it may be fertile.

P.S.
Please do not flame me for creating this post. I don't know if this forum is friendlier than the others, but I don't want this to be taken as a childish joke (except for the title, that was just for kicks). Other than that, I am completely serious about this post.

*Edited to add the word "Question" to the title.

 

[bargain]

If for any reason, you do not want to eat fertile eggs, then you should not have any roosters with your hens. That's the answer for you on this one. I personally have no issues in eating fertile eggs but that is literally your choice and or belief system. Hope this answers your question and have a blessed day. Nancy

PS In response to your comment "Before I start, I would like to apologize for the immature title", I think that you might also want to change your title to "eating fertile eggs" .

 

[ScotH]

Watch an episode (or 5) of Bizarre Foods when Andrew is in S.E. Asia. Some people love eating that.

Maybe use a light to see if anything is forming in there, or as a last resort you could get Maury Povich to do a DNA test on the yolk?...

EDIT: OK, I admit I'm completely ignorant of brooding chicks.

 

[NeoRoey]

I'm not going to watch the Bizarre Foods thing

. I really don't like seeing people eat gross things, especially sperm. Well...-no, still pretty gross. I just think that knowing you are eating an egg which could be fertile is disturbing. I wouldn't go so far as to do a DNA test on the egg. I'm not sure if that's possible. When the time comes that I'm hungry and we ran out of eggs again (we usually get more eggs once a week), I'll separate Chickapee (female quail) and switch her with Tic (one of two male quails) so that I will know the egg isn't fertile.

 

[booker81]

I'm not sure what the waiting time is, but I'm pretty sure that after birds mate, the eggs will be fertile for at least a few weeks, whether or not there is a male around.

I suppose for myself, there are more "ew" things about eating eggs once you think about it, more "ew" than if there is a microscopic single celled organism in them.

Course, I think drinking cow milk is "ew".

 

[dawnchick]

Quote:
Once the egg is fertile, it is fertile forever. You can't unfertilize an egg. The "few weeks" applies to how long the hen carries sperm inside her after mating, and fertilizes her eggs before she lays them, at least in chickens. I'm sure the process is much the same in quail. But it will look like an ordinary egg forever, just a yolk and white, unless it is incubated. Sometimes, ordinary store bought eggs are fertile. Obviously, the big egg houses prefer hens, but a rooster or two does show up now and then.

There is a slight difference in the appearance of a fertile and nonfertile egg. You have to crack it to see. It has to do with a tiny whitish spot on the yolk, whether it appears to have a dark place in the middle or not. This applies to chicken eggs, and probably to quail eggs, though with quail, it may be too small to see. There is a FAQ about it on here.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might try going to the quail section and start a new thread, asking how long quail eggs stay fertile after a mating. A chicken can lay a fertile egg for three weeks or so after a mating, but I don't know how long it is for quail. If there is a male with the female, the eggs will almost certainly be fertile.

By the time a fertile egg is laid, the individual sperm cell is no longer in there. It has already combined with the ova and formed an individual cell. That individual cell has already split a few times. That's why the ring forms that Dawnchick was talking about. That may make it even worse for you than just the sperm cell. I don't know.

Some, not many but some, of the eggs you buy at the store can be fertile. Many commercial enterprises have breeding flocks to hatch out replacement layers. The business model for some places is to produce fertile hatching eggs. The nurseries we buy from, Ideal, Cackle, McMurray, have excesse fertile eggs, expecially out of season. If they have more eggs than they need to hatch, they probably sell them instead of throw them away. Some of these can easily wind up in our food chain.

Maybe more information than you wanted, but you asked about it.