Fertilized Eggs

[catterbug]

If you have a rooster, will all the eggs be fertilized all of the time? I can't fathom the idea of eating a fertilized egg knowing that it is fertilized. I am sure I have eaten them in the past but now I know how to tell.

 

[joe17]

Eating fertilized eggs is just like eating regular non fertilized eggs. Its not a chick it just has the potential. Nothings bad about it. And 9/10 your egg will be fertilized if you have a roosters. It really depends on the hen to roo ratio also. If you crack and egg open, there is a white disc/bull's eye on top of the yolk.

 

[suzettex5]

Ummmmm, nnnnoooooo.... Didnt anyone tell you only every other egg will be fertile?





Sorry, I was just kidding.... Fertilized eggs taste the same- we eat them all the time. Honestly I was kinda grossed out too....but when your hungry at 2 am, and all ya have is fertilized eggs, they taste REAL good!!

If your roo is with your hens all the time, chances are most the eggs will be fertile, not all, depending on alot of factors, fertility, age of birds, etc. But really, its not a big deal at all. Some people even prefer to eat fertilized eggs. I just told myself 'Eh, this is probably not one of the fertile ones' and I got over it.
If you just cant stand the idea, get rid of the roo, wait about 2 weeks, and you wont have any problems with fertilized eggs.

 

[pkw]

No offense but you sound like my husbands side of the family. They want to buy eggs from me one day but they know I have some cockerels and that one day the eggs will be fertile and they just don't want to eat a fertile egg. I don't taste the difference fertile or not.

You see, my husbands family thinks that a fertile egg means there is a baby chick in that egg. Not true unless the egg gets incubated by a broody hen or in the incubator.

 

[catterbug]

I don't understand how an egg can be fertile but not have a baby in it. I get that the hen has to sit on it (or heat needs to be added) but isn't it still a baby inside.

 

[gryeyes]

No. No chicken development occurs until the egg is INCUBATED, either naturally under a chicken, or artificially in an incubator. If the egg is not incubated, no chicken forms.

Between Laying and Incubation, there is no growth; it's a stage of inactive embryonic life.

Here are two websites with information and drawings of the process of incubation:

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_chicks_embryo.html
and
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/info/chicken/egg.shtml

 

[Faracas]

Especially true if you are collecting daily and putting them right in the fridge. Eggs don't come back from low temps. So, if its been in the fridge for an hour, it would never be a chick anyways.

 

[Over Easy in Adna]

This was a concern for me too......at first. Once I cracked a few eggs and saw that they looked, well, just like an egg, it is no longer an issue. I do tell the egg customers that we have a rooster with the hens, that way they know that the eggs may be fertilized.

 

[Bawk Vader]

an egg, is an egg, is an egg. I have eaten fertile chicken, duck, and goose eggs. They are all egglicious. Eggs the other white meat ... with yolk.

 

[suzettex5]

Quote:
I have sucessfully hatched eggs from my flock that had been in my fridge for 2 or 3 days. And my fridge gets so cold, it keeps freezing my lettuce and tomatoes. Cold temps can severly affect hatchability, but chicks can be incubated and hatched from refridgerated eggs. Some people buy refridgerated, fertilized eggs from Trader Joes and have hatched chicks from those eggs. It can happen, but I dont think it happens all the time.