How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures)

[speckledhen]

Nope.

 

[Skyrider]

Quote:
Thanks for making this a sticky post. I had a bunch of questions surrounding all this and this is what makes this forum so valuable! Also, wonderful pictures!

Thanks again!

Sky~

 

[Barnbrat]

Great pictures, thank you! I've seen a bullseye in my frying pan many times before and wondered if they were fertile.

 

[ScoobyRoo]

I've been scanning through to find an answer to my question (don't have alot of time, canning a lot of tomatoes) I was wondering if you harvest the eggs twice a day and put them in the fridge will that stop a fertilized egg from growing. I guess I'm trying to say if I put the eggs in the fridge will the white dot advance to the bulls eye if it were fertilized? Or will the refrigeration stop it? Thanks in advance.

K in Linn Co., KS

 

[speckledhen]

A fertilized egg wont grow unless it's kept warm, no matter how many times you harvest or not. And the white dot is just the white dot-it is a bullseye right from the start or it isn't, so if you are not seeing a bullseye, it's probably not fertile.

 

[ScoobyRoo]

Thank you speckledhen.

This site is a wonderful source of information and it is awesome that a lot of people as well as yourself contributes their knowledge of chickens to the rest of the world. We have one BO rooster and I know that we are likely to get a fertilized egg. As of now, I don't plan on hatching any til I learn what my chickens have to teach me since I'm new at this. I just didn't want to crack an egg for breakfast and see a BIG bulls eye on the yolk. The pics you posted was a neat learning experience for my family and I. Have a great weekend!

K from Linn Co., Kansas

 

[HorseFeathers]

MY question is if you want to hatch the eggs, you obviously don't want to break them... so how do you tell? Candling? Waiting?

Nice pics, too!

 

[shmooborp]

usually its by chance that u find fertility.. say if u have 10 eggs and they are all from a pen of hens with a rooster in there, and u break one open, and u see that its fertile, the chances are that the rest of the egggs are fertile also.. and u can also do a incubation test, thro a few eggs in the bator, wait a few days, candle, if they develop then u have good fertility. hope that helped

 

[Skyrider]

Henry'schickens :

Thank you speckledhen.

This site is a wonderful source of information and it is awesome that a lot of people as well as yourself contributes their knowledge of chickens to the rest of the world. We have one BO rooster and I know that we are likely to get a fertilized egg. As of now, I don't plan on hatching any til I learn what my chickens have to teach me since I'm new at this. I just didn't want to crack an egg for breakfast and see a BIG bulls eye on the yolk. The pics you posted was a neat learning experience for my family and I. Have a great weekend!

K from Linn Co., Kansas

We collected our hen's eggs -- 22 of them -- and just kept them at room temperature. Here in India, that is far from refrigerated temperatures. Then when it was obvious she was done laying, we put them all under her and 11 of them hatched. I think the 22 was too large a number for her, or they might have hatched too. We could see that some of them had really grown inside, but must have died.

I'm still a new egg, so what do I know?

Sky~​

 

[ScoobyRoo]

22 eggs?! I don't know if I could have handled 22 chicks if they were all to have hatched. I'm a newbie too and I started out with 10 minus 2 (nieghbor's dog, need I say more) All 8 hens(24wks) are laying and I have 14 more that are 17wks and should start laying any time. I want to see how they do in the Kansas winter. My kids would love to experience one of the hens hatching baby chicks. As of now we are eating the eggs fertilized or not.


Right now we have 1 BO Roo, 2 BO hens, 2 RIR, 3 SLW, 4 Austrolorps, 5 leghorns, and 5 EE.

K in Kansas