Has anyone hatched a first laid egg?

[Project Blue]

On December 29th I found a dark green egg in the coop laid from either a Splash Ameracauna pullet, (not likely) or a half Ameracauna pullet almost certainly the layer. I'm not expecting it to be fertile as the rooster is also a first timer. He has grown out nicely but doesn't seem to be crowing yet. I'm really curious if the very first egg a chicken lays can be fertile? It was just such a beautiful and unexpected colored egg. The eggs the pullets hatched out of were pale mint colored and the roo that fathered the pullets is a Wheaton Ameraucana.

Aside from the fertility question, I'm also trying to figure out parentage of the pullet since I'm trying to recover my original type chickens slaughtered by a pit bull. I gave a relative a Wheaton roo, hen, and buff hen, all Ameraucanas. She also had a BCM, a solid white EE with greenish legs, a brahma and some solid light grey hen with a single comb. The BCM and Brahma have feather legs the pullet does not.

The pullet came from that bunch. She looks like your typical EE, mostly red with black markings, muff and beard, but bright yellowish orange legs. So now she is officially a dark olive egger with spots. Who is most likely her mother? I asked my relative to give me her blue eggs and got like I said, late season pale mint eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm really curious if the very first egg a chicken lays can be fertile?

Of course it can. All it takes is a male capable of fertilizing the egg to mate with the pullet a few days before that first egg is laid. You can check to see if it is fertile by cracking the egg and looking for the bull's eye. This link tells you what to look for. Crack the egg in a small bowl. If the spot is underneath the egg gently turn it with a spoon. Do not break the yolk, be very gentle.

How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures) | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

"Can" means it is possible it is fertile. It does not mean that it is. The male may not have deposited his sperm. Even if it is fertile that does not mean it will hatch if you incubate it. I find that I get a better hatch rate and larger healthier chicks if I wait until the pullet has been laying for at least a month before I incubate any of her eggs.

 

[Project Blue]

Of course it can. All it takes is a male capable of fertilizing the egg to mate with the pullet a few days before that first egg is laid.

I'm aware, that it's possible for an egg to be fertile, I just wanted to know if anyone successfully hatched a first laid egg. It just doesn't seem likely the first egg could hatch, though I'm giving it a shot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm aware, that it's possible for an egg to be fertile, I just wanted to know if anyone successfully hatched a first laid egg. It just doesn't seem likely the first egg could hatch, though I'm giving it a shot.

I don't think I have ever hatched a "first laid egg", the very first egg that a pullet laid. I may have but I did not keep track that it was her very first egg. I have hatched eggs laid right after they started, just a few days after they started. Sometimes I get very good hatch rates, sometimes horrible hatch rates.

I think you are looking for some kind of affirmation that it can hatch. In my opinion it is possible that it can. I cannot tell you yes or no, that it will hatch. You have to try to determine that. Since you have already started it I would not add any more eggs to that hatch because of possible (probable) staggered hatch issues. But you can open an egg that she laid after you started to see if you have a bull's eye in that egg. If you do, your chances of success go way up.

 

[Debbie292d]

If their first laid eggs had a shell and wasn't a fairy egg, you bet I incubate those. They hatch fine. I know it's advised not to by some, but when I'm testing a pair, like now, I need every egg I can get.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If their first laid eggs had a shell and wasn't a fairy egg, you bet I incubate those. They hatch fine. I know it's advised not to by some, but when I'm testing a pair, like now, I need every egg I can get.

I like to hatch in February to put meat in the freezer in early Summer as the meat starts to run out. That includes eggs from mature hens and eggs from pullets just starting to lay. One year I had two pullets that had just started to lay. I hatched 5 out or 6 eggs from one, and zero from 5 eggs from the other. I don't think the rooster had noticed that her eggs needed to be fertilized as those 5 never even started to develop. You do not get guarantees one way or the other, you have to try.