O.K. I am new to this whole egg laying thing, but my hen (Easter Egger) is finally starting to Lay, I do have a Rooster who let's say ummm visits the ladies he coups with them in the evening and I was wondering, if they are visting with him, can you still eat the Eggs? Or is it better to not have the Rooster if we want to have the eggs for the table?
Yes, they are fine to eat. Cook the first one your very favorite way to eat eggs.... and you'll wonder why you waited so long to get chickens! p.s. We took pics and measurements for our "first eggs". One of my friends made pinholes, blew out the eggs, washed & let them dry. Now she has a collection of the first egg from each of her hens.
Fertilized eggs don't start to develop until the hen starts sitting on them. The heat of her body warms up the egg to a certain temperature and then it starts to develop. It continues to develop, as long as it stays at that temperature. All you need to do for the eggs you want to eat, is make sure you gather your eggs every day. Then they'll be fine. If you ever find eggs in a hidden spot and you don't know how old they are, that could be a potential problem. For the ones from the nest box every day, no worry.