On the Eating of Fertilized Eggs..

[Rootball]

If you are against the eating of fertilized eggs then you will probably have to stop eating eggs altogether as you have probably eaten fertilized eggs hundreds if not thousands of times in the past.

Not only do many stores, Whole Foods, Kroegers, Trader Joes, etc. specifically sell fertilized eggs for human consumption to people who believe them to be of higher nutritional value, but often times the broiler industry will sell huge volumes of fertilized eggs from their breeders to the grocery chains during times when they dont require them for chick production. Additionally many of the free range or cage free eggs from smaller producersare from mixed flocks.

Many of the eggs you have eaten have been fertilized.

When there is an excess of hatching eggs in the poultry meat industry, eggs from broiler breeder flocks can be sold for human consumption. A large percentage of these eggs will be fertile. Fertilized eggs are safe to eat. There is no nutritional difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs. The embryo does not develop in fertilized eggs that are refrigerated soon after laying
From University of Florida fact sheet




BUT

That doesnt mean anything just because an egg is fertilized doesnt mean it will ever develop into an embryo. Remember the point of conception for a chicken isnt at the ferilization of the egg, but it is at the setting of the egg. A fertilized egg taken from the nest on the day of laying is not yet set.

Remember Most laying breeds have had broodiness bred out of them. A wild leghorn might lay 300 fertilized eggs a year and never sit on them.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Now, for the most part, if a person goes to a store and buys a standard dozen eggs to eat, not the free range or designer eggs, I am talking a standard 99 cent a dozen eggs, they are more likely than not to be not be fertilized. Those eggs generally come from battery cage egg producing plants where the hens are crammed 3 to a small cage and fed who knows what to get them to lay a maximum number of eggs for a year before the hens are sent off to become dog food. Those hens generally never even see natural daylight let alone a rooster. So it is a really great possibility that those 99 cent a dozen eggs will not be fertile. So keep on eating them folks.
I do agree that if you don't want to run the risk of getting a fertile egg then stay away from the designer eggs.
I don't quite understand the last part. Once a rooster mates with a hen she can remain fertile for up to 3 weeks. You do not need a broody hen to have fertile eggs that will hatch. I can catch an egg in my hand as it is layed, place it in the incubator and within 3 days there is enough veining to see when candled. Here in Florida we have to be really careful during the summer to pull eggs a couple times a day. Like today is 100 degrees out. That is warm enough to incubate an egg and if you left that egg in the nest for a few of these hot days it will begin to develop. I have had egg buying customers come back to me and say that they cracked open an egg into a fry pan and had it partially developed. The first thing I ask them, if they picked up that days eggs, is where did they have the eggs? They will respond that they had them on the counter. Embryo developement will only stop once they are placed in the refrigerator.
So, I do not understand your last comments????????

 

[Rootball]

Here is the point. I mentioned the free range designer eggs, However that is not what Im talking about.



When there is an excess of hatching eggs in the poultry meat industry, eggs from broiler breeder flocks can be sold for human consumption. A large percentage of these eggs will be fertile. Fertilized eggs are safe to eat. There is no nutritional difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs. The embryo does not develop in fertilized eggs that are refrigerated soon after laying .....................

was mentioned in my post. I highly doubt that the breeding stock for broilers is free ranged or fed flax seeds. Moreover I doubt they are layers of jumbo sized eggs.

Something that made me very suspicious(not that I really worry) was last week I went to Kroeger's and bought a cheap dozen of the generic store brand non jumbo eggs. The eggs where in one of those styrofoam containers. On the top of the container just below the brand marking was printed "Date Candled ____________" and on the line was a date that was hand writing in ball point pen.

These weren't the type of eggs that they sell at Whole Foods to Yippies and Trustafarians. These were the kind of eggs you sell to a restaurant or a hotel or a school.


Now granted if you buy some eggs from your local farmer and leave them out on the counter in Florida you might get an egg developing. But I know that I have worked in Kitchens and restaurants for years and I personally have never cracked open an egg and found any development. In the commercial industry I think it would be extremely rare that they would have eggs sitting out at a temperature which would prompt development. I do think though that you often times receive fertilized eggs without ever knowing a thing.

 

[AHappychick]

does that mean if we time it right and are really lucky we could set and hatch meaties?

 

[Rootball]

I think so. There are a couple of threads on here where people have hatched store eggs I know one guy hatched some white leghorns off of eggs that were marked as fertile. I dont see why we couldnt figure out a way to tell when the store is stocking fertile eggs and hatch some meaties.........next time a see a carton with a marked candle date I think would be a good time

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Well, the big companies candle the eggs to check for blood and meat spots so I am assuming that is what it meant by "date candled", and eggs don't have to be fertile to have those. However, I was talking to a man here who raises egg layers for some large comapny (it is Arkansas, won't mention which one but I am sure most have an idea). I was talking to him about getting some of his spent laying hens before the poor girls were taken to slaughter. He mentioned that I could also get some of the roos. I almost fell over. ROOS?????? Yup, sure enough, he said roos roam freely with the hens in the houses (apparently they are NOT caged) and while I am sure there aren't enough to ensure a lot of fertile eggs, some obviously are.

 

[bryan8]

if you buy fertilized eggs from a grocery store you can hatch them?

~Bryan

 

[Katy]

When I was a teenager I worked at the neighbors big poultry farm....every egg that was laid was candled.....looking for cracks and blood spots. Had nothing to do with whether they were fertile or not. There wasn't a roo anywhere near that place.

 

[Rootball]

Ah well interesting info about the candling explains alot....


Also interesting post about the egg farm with roos.

It would be interesting to know how large the breeding operations are for the broiler industry. There must be times when copious amounts of eggs are not used.

and yes there are tons of posts about hatching grocery store eggs

heres one: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1698384



also just search trader joe or trader joes eggs....lots of threads about those.

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
yeah I followed that thread. Sounds like a fun experiment