I need a lesson in chicken reproduction

[Mrs. Mucket]

We have a mystery at our place.

We have two flocks of chickens. One includes three banty hens. We have had very few eggs from the three all fall and winter and don't know who has or has not been laying. The laying has picked up a lot in the last week or so with increasing day length. We're now getting a banty egg about every day.

This morning I cracked open a banty egg and saw a distinct bullseye. I looked again and again and compared it to other eggs. It sure looked fertile to me.

But here's our mystery: The little banty roo that used to run with these girls has been gone since October. That's almost five months ago. There is a large rooster in the next pen, but it's next to impossible for him and a banty hen to have gotten together. Even if they were in the same pen, I'm not sure the 15# roo could make the right connection with the little teeny hen. I've been diligent to keep the banties separated from him because he is so huge.

Is it possible that the little banty roo fertilized an egg back in October and the egg didn't develop till February? Or do we have some very clever shenanigans going on here?

 

[slickchik]

Clever shenanigans (or maybe you only think you know what a fertile egg would look like... NO OFFENSE intended IN ANY WAY !!!!

... Just throwing out some options... Please forgive me

).

It is easier for a large roo to mate with a small hen rather than the other way around...

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

LOL Slickchik--no offense taken! I'm the first to admit I don't know everything

 

[happyhens44]

Quote:
x2

 

[sourland]

All eggs contain a clealy visible nucleus. They are indeed a single cell. In the case of fertilized eggs, the nucleus undergoes a couple of cellular divisions then goes "dormant" until incubated. Is there any possibility that what you are seeing is the unfertilized nucleus?

 

[happyhens44]

Maybe if you get another egg from her tomorrow crack it open and take a pic and show us....

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

I will watch for another one and take a pic. What I saw was a clear bullseye on the yolk, which I have only seen on eggs from the girls that are with the rooster. All other eggs have just the white spot. But I am fairly new to looking for fertilization (getting ready to incubate some meatie eggs) so I certainly could be mistaken.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

OK Here are some pics...unfortunately I couldn't take a good one with or without flash. Not sure if you can see the germ. It has a center dot, then translucent ring, then whiter ring. Looks the same as the eggs from the hens that live with the roo.

So, does it look fertile?
Can fertile eggs sit in the reproductive system for months?
Or did one of my little girls sneak out somehow?

 

[sourland]

Was your rooster on Viagra? That sure looks like a fertile egg to me.

 

[bluere11e]

Are your girls free ranging? There must be another rooster near by..lol