Quote:
Sure, but there's a difference between eating an egg that may be fertilized and specifically shopping for ones that you know with certainty are. I'm missing what the purpose is of specifically going for the fertilized eggs.
I have a couple ideas why they're marketed:
1. For the people who prefer "natural" methods of chicken keeping (without keeping any chickens of their own), getting eggs advertised as fertile "proves" the hens are getting SOME sort of normal life. Chances are a commercial chicken farm wouldn't go to the extra expense of Artificially Inseminating their hens, but just keep a rooster with 'em. Which also means the chickens aren't kept in cages 24/7.
2. For the people who believe there is more nutrition in fertilized eggs. Yah, we know there's no difference, but you can't tell everybody that. Even my landlady believes it and was pleased when one of my pullets "turned into" a cockerel. She was pleased to tell me I would be eating "better" eggs, and since I give her eggs, she would be too. In her mind.
I didn't set all the eggs I bought - I cracked a couple open to see the bulls-eye before I set the rest of the eggs. Yup, fertilized. Okay, there's a chance these just might hatch! (And four of 'em did.) I had dug through the whole section to find the freshest eggs, too. One dozen were less than a week from their laid dates. The second dozen I bought at a different TJs and it was 9 days old. That's the dozen that only hatched one chick...
