How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures)

[Tala]

Thought I'd share even though it's not all that close up, you can still see that they have bullseye spots.
I showed them to DH, because at first he said "NO ROOSTERS!" (until after ours faught off a raccoon). He never would really say why though, and I always suspected that he was afraid that he might somehow see a half-grown chick or something. I showed him the difference between these fertile eggs and a store-bought one, and explained that if I put the eggs in the fridge then they would never get any different than that. I'm the only one who cooks, so he really had nothing to fear but....he's just freaky like that.

 

[Urbanchickenfarmer]

ok so i have never seen this spot in my eggs... well actually i havent looked for this spot. but when i have opened some eggs they had red dots in them.... is that also a bullseye???

 

[PortageGirl]

Quote:
no, not at all.

 

[speckledhen]

Sometimes, you have to take a spoon and gently turn the yolk over to see the spot.

 

[Dustin Biery]

Please explain to me how you can prove these two are fertile? They are cracked open and there is no way to discern. That could very easily be the blastosperm.

 

[speckledhen]

I don't think that Tala's eggs above are fertile. I see the blastodisc, but no bullseye. Can't really see that well, though, with the glare and the distance from the egg. Are those the ones you're referring to, Dustin?

 

[denasfarm]

I took these a while back. Does this help?

 

[Rennie]

Just what i needed to know ..thanks

 

[BJS]

In reading through the thread I saw the question asked a few times about how long you can keep fertile eggs in the refrigerator and still hatch them. I did not see the answer anywhere, so here goes:
Once you put the fertile in the refrigerator (long enough to cool it) it is done and cannot be incubated and hatched at all.

Also to clarify, a few folks said blood spots were from broken blood vessels on the yolk. The egg itself doesn't have any blood vessels unless the egg is incubated and a chick starts developing. Blood spots are bits of tissue from the mother that traveled with the yolk before the shell formed around it.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
That depends on how cold the fridge is, and how long the eggs were in there. People on here post in detail about hatching eggs that have been refrigerated, I've hatched some myself. It's not recommended, and will lower the hatch rate, but it's not at all impossible to hatch an egg that's been refrigerated.

On the 2nd point, blood spots, I haven't seen people say it was from a broken vessel on the yolk. I've read that blood on the yolk is from a broken blood vessel in the hen's oviduct. Meat spots, usually kind of gray-pink or light brown, are bits of tissue sloughed off inside the hen.