Fertile eggs?

[Buckhowdy]

I received my cockerel chicks in the mail on Christmas eve. My older pullets are laying an egg almost every day.

• When should I expect fertile eggs?
• How will I know when to buy and use an incubator?
• I bought an egg candler, when do you use them?
• Do fertile eggs turn off egg consumers?
• Do they go bad faster?
• Do they taste different?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I received my cockerel chicks in the mail on Christmas eve. My older pullets are laying an egg almost every day.

• When should I expect fertile eggs?
• How will I know when to buy and use an incubator?
• I bought an egg candler, when do you use them?
• Do fertile eggs turn off egg consumers?
• Do they go bad faster?
• Do they taste different?

If the hen is laying and the roo is doing their job you should see fertile eggs within a couple days of the first "act" if your roo is making contact. You buy and use an incubator when you are ready to incubate- after you have learned about incubation and why and how to control humidity. How often to candle is a personal decision. Most people candle and mark their air cells at days 7/14/18 to monitor air cell size. People are funny in their conceptions of "farm fesh eggs" so yes, there will be people who have wrong notions that will balk at them, for the most part, to most educated people it will not make a difference. No they don't "go bad" any faster and no they don't taste any different from an unfertilized farm fresh egg but a farm fresh egg does taste different than a store bought egg (on average) because they are fresher and have a different dietary intake.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Oh...and in case you don't know how to tell if an egg is fertilized, crack one open and you look for the "bulls eye" on the yolk (no it's not sperm).

 

[Buckhowdy]

Oh...and in case you don't know how to tell if an egg is fertilized, crack one open and you look for the "bulls eye" on the yolk (no it's not sperm).

My two Barred Rock roosters are about 14 weeks old and are from Ideal Poultry. The 9 older Barred Rock pullets are about 27 weeks old and are from Cackle Hatchery. I'm looking forward to hatching some chicks some day! I'll start looking for the "bulls eye" then I can get started!

Thanks for the info on the fertile eggs. I was worried about eating, selling, or giving away fertile eggs.