I know this is going to sound really stupid and show how green I am at this chicken business(and I really wish I had an alias to ask this) but I have a question. If you have various hens laying eggs how do you know which ones are to eat and which are to hatch? How do you tell if its fertlized or not? I
If there's a rooster with the hens, you would assume the eggs are fertile. You can't tell if a particular egg is fertilized by looking at it unless you crack it open and look at the yolk or incubate it to a certain point and candle or again, crack it open and look for veining. You can eat fertile eggs-there is no taste difference whatsoever.
If you have a rooster in with your hens..all or most of your eggs are going to be fertile... You can not tell the difference in a fertile egg / non-fertile one by eating it...they taste the same... Development of fertile eggs only happens when you start the incubation process either by a Broody hen or an Incubator... Only way to tell fertile /non fertile is to crack one in a dish and look for the bulleye disc...or to incubate for a few days and candle the egg...
