fertilized egg?

[jtconnery]

ok, so i'm totally new to the chicken thing. we have 2 chickens and are pretty sure one of them is a rooster. he crows every morning and shows some aggressive behavior towards the female. we've had these 2 since may and only just today i found our first eggs in the nest boxes! how do i tell if the eggs are fertilized? the hen was not sitting on either egg when i opened the coop. also how do i check to see for sure if one is a male?

 

[deidreschultz]

can u post pics. generally roos are very horny little animals. that's the first thing and last thing mine want to do each day, and all day long. the roos comb and wattles will be much larger than the hens.

 

[Uppity Peon]

To start with, when you crack a fresh egg and examine the yolk you may find a whitish spot the shape of a donut. That is the sign of a fertilized egg. It is subtle.

But the only real reason to check is if you want to hatch eggs, becuase they taste the same and are nutritionally the same as unfertilized eggs.

You can spend a little while browsing the various forums here at BYC and probably get a ton of questions answered, including photos of the donut spot.

Edit: atrocious spelling

 

[jtconnery]

i have no idea how to post an image, but i uploaded a picture and this is the link i got. the chicken in question is the white one, we think it's a Brahm? he's huge. he crows nearly every morning, jumps on the other hens back and pecks her feathers. we don't see him doing this every day, probably a couple times a week.