How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures)

[speckledhen]

Hmm, sorry, that one just doesn't appear fertile to me, but with the glare on the pic, I can't say 100%. Believe me, I was in your shoes at one time, trying to figure out if I had a fertile egg. I just couldn't believe my rooster was taking literally months to get even one girl's egg fertilized, but he was. The following eggs are fertile:

 

[Half-a-dozen]

ok thanks Cynthia. I gues I'll have to keep on checking :|

 

[littlelemon]

Thank you so much for this!!!

 

[Parson's Wife]

Saw someone was looking for this....hope it helps!

 

[julia]

speckeldhen that is so cool. thank you so very much i am new and i would have never known that i have had my chickens for 2 years and have incubated several batches before. and didnt know it. call me stupid but is there away that you can tell if the egg is fertelized in the shell. I know that you have to have roos with them and have always depended on them. I guess that I have been very lucky .

Thank you Lord Jesus.

 

[speckledhen]

Boy, don't I wish there was a way to tell if an egg was fertile without incubating or cracking it open! No, sorry, those are the only two ways.

 

[Mawchickkidie]

My question is in some eggs I do crack after a 2week incubation period and they have the red speckles in them put appear not to have been fertile at all, what exactly are the red speckles from?

Mawchickkidie

 

[BikerBabeRules]

Hi,
i definetly see a bullseye in all 3 of these images. I'll be that egg was fertile. Look closer, it's defiently there.

 

[ChickNLittle]

Ok, one other questions. My Hens and Rooster were free ranging until the coons started carrying too many off at night. So they are now penned up with the roo and they are laying like crazy. Will there be a problem with the roo not fertilizing the eggs since he is now "cooped up"? No pun intended. Tehe!

 

[Myst4]

Hi, I am really new with having chickens.I have 20 hens and a roo( a real stud too haha). I have several different breeds of hens and my roo is Wyandotte. I alos have a Wyandotte hen,a white leghorn, 2 Barred Rock hens, 2 hens that leg green eggs, several black hens(red breasted),a light gray hen,a huge black hen with gray around her neck, and several red/brown hens. As you can see, I'm not familiar with all the breeds.
Anyway, my white leghorn has turned broody I think. Every time she lays an egg she continues,throughout the day to go back to it and sit on it. So, 7 days ago I decided to let her have her eggs. She continues to sit on them throughout the day off and on....and would probably sit on them more if it weren't for the other hens kicking her out of the nest to lay their eggs. I don't have an incubator ..yet. I would like to get one soon. But, until then, what should I do? I went today to collect eggs(I take all of the others and just leave the white ones from the leghorn(called "Icecube",kids named her haha). To continue, I went to collect the other eggs and one of my Barred Rock hens was on Icecube's eggs and when I tried to get her off so that Icecube could sit on her eggs...there was a major fight....well, the Barred Rock hen would not let me near the nest. She was making growling sounds and pecking at me etc. Could she be going broody too? How can I get Icecube's eggs from her? Should I just stop collecting my hens eggs for a month and let them have their babies? I don't know what to do....help!

Thanks, Carrie: