"Let's Get It On!"

[thmokeyjoe]

So I saw my 15 week old roo's doing the nasty with a couple ladies. I really want to keep my boys with my girls - mainly for protection. I want to be able to eat the eggs as well. What's the best way to tell if they're fertilized? I don't want to be cracking open eggs and finding them to be fertile. I heard that a hen will become "broody" to fertile eggs. Is that the only way to tell? I imagine "candling" would be difficult to see. Help...
Mista J.

 

[Uppity Peon]

If you collect your eggs often you will have nothing to worry about. Fertilized eggs are just as good to eat. Just don't eat the ones that your broody hen has been sitting on for a week or two. Hens can't tell which eggs are ferile. They will go broody and sit on unfertile eggs and even pecan nuts, apparently.

A fertilized egg will have a tiny whitish spot on the yolk. There is a sticky thread in here with pictures if I remember correctly.

 

[vfem]

Ummm... are you asking because you don't want to eat fertile eggs?! They taste the same, look the same and it makes no difference. However, if you want to tell because you want to try to hatch some eggs... you have to crack a couple open now and then to see if there is a small white spot that looks like a bullseye on the egg yolk to know if its fertile.

Anyways... some chickens don't go broody, some rarely go broody and some go broody like every 6 weeks (i.e. - silkies) you can't make them brood eggs.... they just go by what nature wants them to do, when nature tells them its time to!

 

[thmokeyjoe]

That's amazing! I don't have a problem eating fertile eggs. I just don't want to see a speck, or more, when I crack them open. As long as I get them daily and don't take them from a hen sitting...I'll remember that.
You say it's a white speck on the yolk? I thought it would be red. Thanks!

 

[Uppity Peon]

Here is a photo showing the spot indicating a fertilized egg:

 

[thmokeyjoe]

The white, see-through spot in the center of the picture?

 

[Judy]

Here you go:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008

You will occasionally see a speck of blood when you open an egg. It has nothing to do with fertility, just a "burp" in the egg making factory, and is harmless, perfectly good to eat.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

A good idea that has been often posted here and other boards, is to break the egg into a coffeecup or shallow dish before you put it in the pan. That way if you run into something gross, its in a cup by itself and doesn't ruin the other 6 eggs already in the pan.