May just be paranoia...

[nwbfrmrgrlz]

ok I may be paranoid, but before I plunge in and buy a coop full of chickens I want to examine all the situations.....I have a question it may be silly but noone would know if I didn't ask it...When you gather the eggs to take into your house or sell or whatever the case may be....how do you know if they contain eggs or a baby??? Is it certain times a year that this may happen? or does the male act differently when he needs action in the hen house (like some men) (oh that part was meant as a joke) I would hate the thoughts of taking a baby from one of the girls. Just curious.
nwbfrmrgrlz

 

[justusnak]

If you collect the eggs every day, or even several times a day, and put them right in the fridge....there will be no baby chick inside. The egg has to be incubated to grow a chick...well, and has to be fertile. Just a yummy egg! And no you are not paranoid....LOL Best thing to do is ask...and learn!

 

[Llysse]

If you just want eggs with no possibility of chicks, you can keep all hens and no rooster. The hens will lay eggs without having a rooster around--the eggs just won't be fertile.

If you want a rooster around for his beauty and his crowing, you can still eat the eggs from your hens. Just gather them every day, as Justusnak says, and refrigerate them before the embryo starts to develop. Then, if you decide you want chicks, you can either incubate the eggs (unrefrigerated ones) yourself, or wait for one of your hens to go "broody," meaning that she wants to set on eggs to hatch them.

The only way you'll ever accidentally come across a developing chick in an egg is if you let an egg sit around under a broody hen for a couple weeks before you gather it. They just don't develop on their own, as you'll find if you decide you want to incubate them yourself. The conditions have to be just right for the chick to develop.