Finding which Eggs are FERTLISED...

[takis]

Hi..Eggheads..! -Does anyone knows of an "instrument" / "tool" (????) to that end???
-We are a bit fed-up (me and friends) -finding out that half of used eggs for hatcing are NOT fertilised..!!
-Logically, something like this must exist...
-Regards to ALL of you -from CRETE...! -Takis.

 

[Ridgerunner]

No, I’m afraid something like that does not exist for us. I know of one way to tell if an egg is fertile but you can’t hatch it if you check. Crack it open and look for the bull’s eye. This link has photos and an explanation. If most of the eggs you crack open have the bull’s eye, most of the eggs you don’t crack should. So you can at least check if the egg is fertile.

Fertile Egg Photos
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008&p=6

Some people will recommend another way, which is what you are doing. Incubate it for a while and see of it develops. This is not totally correct because there are several other things that may cause an egg to not develop even if it was initially fertile. The general rule is that if the egg does not develop or dies in the first week of incubation, your incubation is not what caused the problem. Something happened before you started incubation to keep it from developing. Fertility is certainly one possibility but improper storage before incubating or something wrong with the parent flock could be the cause.

I recommend you open several eggs and look for the bull’s eye. It may be on the bottom so maybe turn it over gently and carefully with a spoon, not a fork. Once you open enough to feel comfortable your averages mean something, you should be able to determine if fertility is your problem or if it is something else.

Something else you can try. Look inside the eggs that don’t develop and see if you can see anything to maybe help you see what is happening. It may be real hard to see the bull’s eye because I find those egg yolks and egg whites to get pretty delicate after they have been incubated for a while. But if you can maybe see some eyes starting to develop or maybe a beak you will know that they were actually fertile and you need to look for another problem other than fertility.

Good luck! This one is not always really clear cut.