I swear this is fertile

[Chey1214]

Does this egg look fertile? I swear it is. The only rooster I have is a bantam ameraucana… golly that must have been tough for him breeding with. Leghorn lol

 

[NatJ]

The only rooster I have is a bantam ameraucana… golly that must have been tough for him breeding with. Leghorn lol

Some bantam roosters definitely do manage to mate with full-sized hens. If you incubate eggs and they develop chicks and hatch, then you know they were fertile.

Does this egg look fertile? I swear it is.

I know some people say they can tell by looking at eggs, but I can't, so unfortunately I can't help there.

(I understand the idea involved, and I often think I can see the difference, but I am wrong way too often. I have checked by cracking an egg to look, then incubating an egg laid by the same hen the day before or the day after-- repeating this on multiple occasions proved to me that I cannot tell by looking.)

 

[Kiki]

Some bantam roosters definitely do manage to mate with full-sized hens. If you incubate eggs and they develop chicks and hatch, then you know they were fertile.


I know some people say they can tell by looking at eggs, but I can't, so unfortunately I can't help there.

(I understand the idea involved, and I often think I can see the difference, but I am wrong way too often. I have checked by cracking an egg to look, then incubating an egg laid by the same hen the day before or the day after-- repeating this on multiple occasions proved to me that I cannot tell by looking.)

I agree. The bullseye thing is not reliable because a lot of my chicken eggs look like they have bulleyes. I have never had a rooster.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My eyes aren't that great and I sometimes can't tell when the eggs are in front of me but I would tend to agree with you. Open another and perhaps it will be clearer.
What causes the halo effect is that upon fertilization in the infundibulum is that for the next 22 + hours while the future egg is making its way through the isthmus, magnum and uterus, the body temperature of the hen causes cell division in the resulting blastoderm. The cells at the center, (what was the blastodisc) begin to die off creating the halo.

 

[Oob Child]

You could try incubating a few?

 

[Chey1214]

You could try incubating a few?

I could….but I have a big chicken problem right now and I’ll want to hatch it lol

 

[NatJ]

You could try incubating a few?

Yes, that would be a way to conclusively settle the matter. A chick means the egg was fertile.

I could….but I have a big chicken problem right now and I’ll want to hatch it lol

Yes, having too many chickens would be a good reason to avoid hatching more right now

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I could….but I have a big chicken problem right now and I’ll want to hatch it lol

So in that case, you can just tell yourself, "maybe it is".

 

[BDutch]

I could….but I have a big chicken problem right now and I’ll want to hatch it lol

You could try to sell the eggs as hatchery eggs to someone nearby as easter eggers for a nice price with no guarantee. Ask/contact for feed back on the outcome.

 

[Chey1214]

So in that case, you can just tell yourself, "maybe it is".

Maybe it is! lol