What do I do with fertilized eggs?

[Mr Hen]

My chickens are about seven weeks, so they won't be laying soon. It's pretty clear that we have 19 hens and 1 rooster. I'm happy to keep my rooster as long as it doesn't become aggressive, but that means my eggs will be fertilized, and I would prefer to avoid opening an egg to partially formed chickens. What can I do to prevent his?

 

[Fred's Hens]

It doesn't work that way.

Unless a hen decides to sit on the eggs, (go broody) for 21 days and hatch out chicks, which is highly unlikely with most modern birds, or you place them in an incubator and mimic the process, nothing happens.

A fertilized egg merely has a speck so small that unless you know exactly how to find it, and even if you know how, it is extremely hard to see. There's no difference in taste or any other quality for home use. The truth is that many eggs are fertile in the organic stores and whole foods markets.

 

[ChicKat]

Ditto what Freds Hens said. Refrigeration will stop any development of the embryo. You won't know they are fertile.

 

[Mr Hen]

Yay!

Now cross your fingers for me having a docile rooster that only crows at the crack of dawn like the movies say.

 

[Fred's Hens]

We've had them that never seem to stop, except for a few hours from 10 pm until 3 am. Good luck.

 

[Nicole01]

Give some to me, so I can further my chicken addiction after we fence in our 4 acre property? LOL

Just make sure you put them in the eggs in fridge by the next day of laying. You won't even know they are fertilized. On a serious note, I'm waiting for one of my hens to go broody, so I can hatch from the fertilized eggs across the street. She wants more chicks from her own and I want another Easter egger. I have 2-3 breeds that are suppose to be super broody, but no luck yet.

 

[featherz]

Ditto to all of the above. And I leave mine on the counter for a day or two until I have enough big ones to fill my cartons and I've never opened an egg to a chick. Eggs have to be kept at 90+ degrees to develop, and to be safe under 70-80. So as long as you collect eggs daily you'll be fine. Put them in the fridge and you're definitely fine. I get several dozen fertile eggs a day and no chicks here unless I want them.

Only time I'd be concerned is if it's been warm outside and you find an egg in a mystery spot, like behind a barn, in a tree stump, under a bush, whatever. If it's unknown how long it's been out there, you could either toss it or candle it (I candle my surprise eggs with an LED flashlight and have still never seen any development - but the aircell can help tell me how long they've been out there).

All the roos I've had have crowed pretty much all day long starting around 4AM. Sometimes they get a bit quiet in the afternoon, but not always.. PLUS they'll join in on egg songs.

 

[ChicKat]

Yay!
Now cross your fingers for me having a docile rooster that only crows at the crack of dawn like the movies say.

Good Luck with that one Mr Hen................... but you just never know. :O)

 

[HEChicken]

Yay!
Now cross your fingers for me having a docile rooster that only crows at the crack of dawn like the movies say.

All the roos I've had, have started out with 4-6 crows first thing in the morning and then nothing the rest of the day. After a few weeks, I'll hear a crow in the middle of the day. And by a few weeks later, its pretty much all day, every day.

 

[1amarillomamaw]

To have hatched eggs,Do I put in incuabor right away or leave for the hen to sit on.."?