What do with the egg?

[james78]

My niece got an egg from her neighbors to have it hatch in her nest toy. Basically it has been sitting at a room temperature. A dumb idea indeed. Can this egg be returned to the chicken farm it was taken from and will that even work?

 

[Rooster14250]

How old is the egg? It loses its fertility drastically the older it gets (i don't hatch anything older than one week).

 

[james78]

Probably 2 days. They took my niece to the farm 2 days ago and she returned with an egg. Her parents don't want to do anything with it as they are vegetarians and live in an apartment.

 

[chicken-whisperer]

A egg can sit for a week or more if cool. It will start developing when warmed up. If the eggs is fertile there is a chance it could still be viable.
On the other hand I get 20 eggs a day and would not want it back if it was from my flock.

 

[mortie]

They should probably just throw it out. Not worth the effort to try and return it, and if they're not going to eat it, just toss it I'd say. Or give it to someone who will eat it.

 

[james78]

It was fertilized. They will definitively not eat it. For me it is more of a moral dilemma.

 

[Rooster14250]

Are there any local breeders? I'm sure they'd be happy to hatch it.

 

[n3kms]

It was fertilized. They will definitively not eat it. For me it is more of a moral dilemma.

Most farm eggs are fertilized and are eaten. They are not growing baby chicks unless incubated. Fertilized eggs at room temp will keep for quite a while and can still be eaten or thrown away. You can even go to Trader Joes and buy a carton of fertile eggs for the purpose of eating, just like non fertile eggs from Publix or Walmart. What is causing the moral dilemma?

 

[torilovessmiles]

Most farm eggs are fertilized and are eaten. They are not growing baby chicks unless incubated. Fertilized eggs at room temp will keep for quite a while and can still be eaten or thrown away. You can even go to Trader Joes and buy a carton of fertile eggs for the purpose of eating, just like non fertile eggs from Publix or Walmart. What is causing the moral dilemma?

I agree with this. If not incubated, a chick will never develop. I don't see any difference between eating an unfertilized egg and a fertilized egg that hasn't been incubated to begin development. If you gave it to the farm, they'd probably just throw it out. It possible that it's not fertile and won't develop anyway (you can't tell without incubating it or cracking it open and looking for the "bullseye")
Since it won't hatch, I'd say throw out the egg and get a toy chick to put in it's place, to keep the imagination alive. It'll be obvious it's a toy, but kids are good at using their imagination to make things more real to them! It's near Easter so the little bouncing chick toys would do great

 

[mortie]

Plenty of people eat fertile eggs all the time. If you buy farm fresh eggs from a farm or even many places along a country road in rural settings, they are very likely fertile. Not incubated it will not develop. Not all fertile eggs are incubated. I would say that the vast majority are eaten.