The chicken and the egg
I've noticed a lot of dead fledglings and raided nests lately. Sometimes, mixed in with all the broken eggshells, I find an unhatched baby bird. And that got me wondering: are grocery store eggs fertilized? How come you never come across one with an embryo or a little chicken inside? If they're not, why does a chicken spend the energy required to produce unfertilized eggs?
Egg (and chicken): (Photo by Peter Cooper)
When you google "are chicken eggs fertilized?" you get a lot of responses. Guess lots of other people had the same question.
The answer is that chickens will lay eggs even when they've had no contact with a rooster. According to the "Ask a Scientist" feature of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
"If an egg has been fertilized, then the embryo inside has already divided several times but remains a group of unspecialized cells [at the time the egg is laid]. When the egg is incubated at about 37 to 38 °C, the embryonic cells differentiate to form a chick, which will hatch after 21 days. If the egg has not been fertilized, then the oocyte [or egg cell] within will never grow or divide, and the egg will never hatch. The eggs you buy at the supermarket are eggs that have never been fertilized.
Domestic chickens lay one egg every 26 to 28 hours (about one egg a day) for a period of 4 to 6 days. In between periods of egg laying, the hen rests. Wild birds may rest for months before laying more eggs, but domestic hens, specially bred for abundant egg production, may rest for as little as 1 day between egg-laying periods."
In commercial egg operations, hens are kept away from roosters, and the eggs are collected as they're laid. Chickens raised to produce eggs only need to mate to replace hens that get too old to lay eggs.
Sometimes you come across a grocery store egg that contains a blood spot. I was told, as a child, that a blood spot indicated a fertilized egg. But that's not so, according to the American Egg Board. Instead,
" Contrary to popular opinion, these tiny [blood] spots do not indicate a fertilized egg. Rather, they are caused by the rupture of a blood vessel on the yolk surface during formation of the egg or by a similar accident in the wall of the oviduct. Less than 1% of all eggs produced have blood spots.
Mass candling methods reveal most eggs with blood spots and those eggs are removed but, even with electronic spotters, it is impossible to catch all of them. As an egg ages, the yolk takes up water from the albumen to dilute the blood spot so, in actuality, a blood spot indicates that the egg is fresh. Both chemically and nutritionally, these eggs are fit to eat. The spot can be removed with the tip of a knife, if you wish."
What about those weird white stringy bits you see when you crack an egg? The American Egg Board says they're called chalazae:
"[Chalazae (singular=chalaza) are] ropey strands of egg white which anchor the yolk in place in the center of the thick white. They are neither imperfections nor beginning embryos.
The more prominent the chalazae, the fresher the egg. Chalazae do not interfere with the cooking or beating of the white and need not be removed, although some cooks like to strain them from stirred custard."
Here's a neat site about the structure of a chicken egg.
And another one about how a hen lays an egg.
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Heh, thanks for this. My 2 year old was just asking me today if his scrambled eggs had birds inside them, and while I knew the answer was no, I didn't actually know why until I googled and found this post.
Hello, my chicken was laying eggs for a few weeks but all of a sudden she stopped. i wanted to know what it was that was making her not able to lay eggs anymore. thanks a bunch
I found this on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Ask a Scientist website:
"Domestic chickens lay one egg every 26 to 28 hours (about one egg a day) for a period of 4 to 6 days. In between periods of egg laying, the hen rests. Wild birds may rest for months before laying more eggs, but domestic hens, specially bred for abundant egg production, may rest for as little as 1 day between egg-laying periods."
So maybe your hen is resting? Egg laying is also related to hours of daylight. Once a hen no longer gets about 14 hours of light a day, she tends to quit laying.
Without more information, it's hard to say. But this page from the Virginia Cooperative Extension might help. Or this one, PoultryHelp.com.
Chickens will also stop laying if they're "clucky". Which basically means that they think that their eggs are fertilized and therefore sit on them for ages. I've heard of many ways of curing a chicken of "clucky-ness", things like: dipping them in a barrel of water for a sec (personally I've never tried it, but if you decide to, then do it on a warm summer day so she can dry out and not get a cold or die of a flu), or one that my mum used to do to our chookies was but them in a dark small, dark box for 24 hrs it's not mean as they really don't mind but they just loose sense of time and think that their babies have already hatched or something. But they'll get over it eventually, so if you don't want to do anything drastic or can't stand to lock your beloved pet in a box overnight the don't fret to much.
I remember quite vividly my uncle told me when I was about six that the best way to cure a "clucky" chicken was to put it in the oven and then on the dinner table. It took me a second to understand and when I did I kicked him in the shin quite hard and told him he was a big meanie and I wouldn't let him near my speckles (pronounced more like 'thbekels') which was the name of my chicken.
I was mad and I managed to ignore him for about an hour and a half before he bribed my adoration with a sweet.
Anyway, that's all.
its called a broody hen not "clucky"
its broodiness not "clucky-ness"
and 4 more info about makeing and breaking broodiness pleast read the following
"Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
my email is turtmaster@yahoo.com
oh my god i dont know how to really thanks you this really helped me with my science project i dont know what to say anymore but thank you very much it quiet interesting and by the way i am 13 yr old and i am in 8 grade
Chickens also stop laying when they moult. In the fall the hens loose their summer feathers and get new winter feathers. This is a stressful time for their body and they stop laying. Look closly at your chickens. Are they getting brighter and look cleaner. Once they stop moulting they will go back to laying. Also what the person said about the time frame of laying is correct. They can go for days and lay and then they rest for a day or so.
Are unfertilized eggs that have been stored in a refrigerator considered dead or alive?
I'm not quite sure that I understand your question.
Since the eggs are unfertilized, there are no embryos, alive or dead.
If you're asking if the cold renders the oocyte itself (i.e. the genetic package contributed by the hen, not the rooster, and not the hard-shelled object familiarly called an egg) inviable, that's an interesting question. But it's also a moot point. Once an egg is laid, it can no longer be fertilized.
I found the following exchange on the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History's Electronic Naturalist website, where naturalist John Weissinger answered people's egg questions:
"Q: Can you hatch a chicken from an egg in your refrigerator?
A: Yes you can but only if your egg is fertile to begin with. Most of the eggs sold in stores come from large chicken farms where the hens are maintained totally separate from males. No males, no fertile eggs! If you get eggs from chickens that are free range, then there is a good, or at least better, chance that you'll have fertile eggs. An egg can be quite cool BEFORE incubation starts but once it has started, you'd need to maintain a reasonably constant warm temperature. Hope this helps."
My daughter has a pet chicken (Sally). Sally is her best friend. The Sally waits for my daughter to get off the bus, and comes and knocks on the door so that she can go out to play. Tonight, I went to put the chickens in for the night and Sally was not around. We have three eggs from the last three days (they are in the ref.) and I was wondering if they would hatch? Please let me know.
Thank you, Lori.
If ref. is short for refrigerator and they've been in there for three days the chances of them hatching is 1 to 1,000 so don't even try to do anything about it
An egg cannot get below 40 degrees or it is no longer viable. You cannot put a fertilized egg in the refrigerator and expect it to hatch when you put it in the incubator. People need to do research before answering somebodies question.
I cited my source--a reputable expert. And my answer was reviewed, after posting, by local poultry expert Jacquie Jacob. So I stand by it.
But you're right: people should research the answers to questions before posting them. An incorrect answer isn't helpful to anyone.
I agree with Anonymous................you really need to do some research before answering anyone's questions, they really want the truth and really want to know what to do, how to do it and all the how to's. It seems really like common sense if you put a bunch of eggs in the icebox and they get real cold...do you really think you can take them out and heat them up and hatch a egg into a chicken? Think about it...the incubation process...they have to be at a certain temperature for 21 days talking about chickens, I just hatched over 100 guineas from eggs. Eggs left outside in cold temperatures can freeze and they are no longer good. I agree with Anonymous, ask them your questions.
OK, read the original question: The poster wanted to know if it was possible that eggs kept in the refrigerator for three days, that had never been incubated, could still hatch. And my answer was, it's possible. If the eggs aren't frozen, and development hadn't begun (i.e. they weren't being incubated), it IS possible that the eggs could hatch.
It's not a recommended practice for people who are trying to raise chickens. But that's not what the questioner wanted to know. She just wanted to know if it was possible. And it is.
It is possible for a fertilized egg that has been in the refrigerator to hatch.We hatched our pet turkey Charlie from a group of four eggs that were in the refrigerator for about 24hrs.Only one of the eggs hatched so the chances are slim but possible!
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
Most refrigerators store feed at 45F, which is too cool for successful hatching of fertile eggs - though, as you noted, it is possible (your odds just go down). Hatching eggs are best stored at 55F. Then they can be stored for a week or more with a relative high success of hatch.
So to answer the original question - it is possible for the eggs to hatch, but the probabilities go down with a lower temperature and with time in storage. Chicks are extremely resilient and anything is possible.
my friends egg dropped in class today it was refrigerated and it had a head forming!
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
I am curious as to what you saw that you indicated that a head was forming. Also, were you indicating that the egg was refrigerated before incubating - how long had it been stored in the refrigerator, what temperature was the refrigerator (the ideal temperature for storing hatching eggs is 55F), and how long had it been in the incubator before it was dropped?
Okay, my classmates and I are arguing back and forth about this one...Can you see the "sperm" or "sperm sack" on a fertilized chicken egg. I've read that the white, stringy thing, the Chalazae, is the "sperm sack", now, I read here that it anchors the yolk. So can you clarify, can you tell by looking at a cracked, raw egg; has it been fertilized. p.s I do buy farm fresh eggs where roosters reside w/ the hens.
According to the Ohio State University extension service, the yolk of a fertilized egg has something called a "blastoderm," while an unfertilized egg has a "blastodisc." (You can see a picture here.)
If you don't crack the egg open, but instead observe it by candling, these pictures will help you distinguish between fertile and infertile eggs. Or these.
I'm a city girl, not a chicken expert. But I can tell you what *I* think, and then quote an expert!
My guess would be that, no, you can't see sperm in a fertilized chicken egg. Why? Two reasons. Male chickens do produce packets of sperm, but they go to fertilize many eggs, not just one. (I read a lot about chicken sex--more than I ever wanted to know!--to answer questions related to this post...) Second, chicken eggs (oocytes) are fertilized before the eggs (white, hard shells, crack 'em and cook 'em to eat 'em with bacon) are laid. By the time the chicken lays a fertile egg, the sperm and oocyte have united and the embryo inside the egg has even already divided a bunch of times. So you wouldn't be seeing sperm in a cracked egg.
Dennis Chang, of Harvard University, had this to say:
"Birds, like mammals, use internal fertilization. Many species of birds lack a penis; instead, the male just has a genital opening (cloaca), which must be positioned against the female's genital opening (also called a cloaca) for sperm transfer. Male chickens, however, do have a small penis to facilitate mating. In any case, after copulation, which only lasts a few seconds, the sperm quickly swim up the oviduct toward the ovary. The sperm can stay alive in the oviduct for several weeks, ready to fertilize the next egg cell (oocyte) that appears.
Oocytes are produced in the ovary, packaged with yolk within a thin protein membrane, and released one at a time into the funnel-like infundibulum of the oviduct. The oviduct is a tubular passageway leading from the ovary to the outside world. It is also an assembly line in which the various layers of the egg are constructed. After an oocyte-yolk package is released into the infundibulum, it lingers there for about 20 minutes. If sperm are present, then the oocyte is fertilized and becomes an embryo. But if no sperm are around (that is, if the hen has not mated), then the egg still proceeds down the assembly line of the oviduct. In this assembly line, albumen (egg white) is added around the yolk, shell membranes are added, and the shell itself is constructed. Finally, the complete egg is pushed through the vagina and out the cloaca.
If the egg has been fertilized, then the embryo inside has already divided several times but remains a group of unspecialized cells. When the egg is incubated at about 37 to 38 °C, the embryonic cells differentiate to form a chick, which will hatch after 21 days. If the egg has not been fertilized, then the oocyte within will never grow or divide, and the egg will never hatch."
Does that answer your question?
Can you clarify the fertilized egg issue.....if you have a rooster in the hen house, how can you tell which eggs are fertilized and which are not?
If the egg takes 21 days to hatch, an unfertilized egg will be long past the edible stage so you've wasted an egg. But if you collect the eggs daily, you risk destroying a fertilized egg. If you candle the egg after 10 days, you again have wasted an edible egg.
Do you see my dilemma? How do you tell the egg is fertilized, right after it's layed, so you don't waste either an edible egg or a fertilized egg?
Well, I don't keep chickens, but everything I've read suggests that if you keep hens and a rooster together, you should assume that eggs are fertile unless it becomes obvious that they're not.
I don't think there's any reason you shouldn't eat a freshly-laid, fertile egg if that's why you're keeping the chickens. After all, if you eat the adults... Also, a fertilized egg, once laid, is in a state of suspended animation until it's incubated. If you collect the egg right away and refrigerate it, the embryo will never develop, and I'll bet you'd never notice the difference between that egg and an unfertilized one.
If you want to eat the eggs but don't want them fertilized, keep the hens and the rooster separate. It's the only way to be sure.
My question is, how do you avoid the waste. I'm not worried about eating fertilized eggs. There must be a more accurate way of telling which eggs are fertilized and which eggs are not.
Let's say you are raising chickens to sell the eggs, but you also want to steadily replace older hens so your egg supply stays constant. If you isolate some chickens with a rooster so that they will reproduce, how do you know which eggs from that bunch are fertilized/unfertilized?
You would want to incubate the fertilized eggs and still sell the unfertilized eggs. But by not being able to tell and only guessing, you would end up incubating eggs that aren't fertilized, thereby losing some of your saleable eggs. And, if you guessed wrong that an egg wasn't fertilized and collected it for sale, you thereby destroy a potential chick that could have strengthened your chicken supply.
There has to be some method for identifying which is which.
If you candle them (Hold the egg up to the light) you can see if it's been fertilized. Thee will be a mass there.
Thank you for telling me how to tell if the egg is fertilized without having to break it open.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
You can't actually tell whether or not an egg is fertile or infertile by candling - unless the egg has been incubated for 2-3 days so that the embryo is large enough to see.
Table eggs are candled to verify the interior quality, including the presence of blood or meat spots (which are not embryos).
You can only tell whether or not an egg is fertile or infertile by breaking it open. An infertile egg will have a small white spot on the yolk. This is called the blastodisc and represents the female genetic material. If the egg is fertile the white spot will appear more like a donot (white ring with clear area in the middle). This is the blastoderm (or germinal disc) and is the developing embryo. It takes the hen 24-26 hours to assemble an egg, and the egg is fertilized before the process begins. Thus the embryo is 24-26 hours old when it is laid.
You can see the differences between infertile and fertile eggs online.
See the parts of the egg, including the germinal disc.
Once a fertile eggs has been incubated 2-3 days post-lay the embryo is large enough to see. Online, you can see some candling photos.
If you have a healthy rooster with the hens, and he is servicing them, you can pretty much assume the eggs are fertile. After he boinks them a few times, the hens will be producing fertile eggs for up to 2 or 3 weeks, even if you remove the rooster. If you want to hatch some, collect them for a few days, keep them cool, and then start them incubating all at once. After 3 to 5 days, you can candle them to see which ones are developing. And if they are not developing, I wouldn't eat them. They've been at 99-100 deg. F for days. Yuck.
We had 17 roosters, well that is a short story even now, we have one now and 17 hens, i took him out of the pen with the hens and put him with my guineas for a while, he was de-feathering them on their backs, they needed some time to heal, so i removed him, I have now put him back because i am fixing to gather me some eggs for hatching babes, so i put him back and i ordered from the hatchery a while back orange beak pieces to fit across his beak,so he cant see straight on, we did this to all our roosters all 17 of them when they were trying to eliminate each other, the one we kept and put with the guineas his fell off after a while, so now i have to put it back on, seeing that I have put him back with his hens so he can fertilize the eggs, because I will gather them in two weeks for incubation, for new babes.I will wait for two weeks that way I know for sure all 17 hens have been with their favorite rooster the only one we have ha ha. All my hens feathers on their backs have grown back now, so i have to put the roosters beak peice back on, or he will de-feather them again.It really just looks bad on my hens and I don't like it when they look like they are all beat up on their backs because i have a over-active rooster that holds them down for awhile.Anyway I will in two weeks put all my eggs in the bators....that do turn and have fans and i keep them the same temp they are suppose to be for 21 days. Then 4 days before the 21st day I take out the ones that are marked the right date.I write on my eggs with a pencil lightly, the date i put them in the bator then on the 17th day i put them in the still bator i call it, they should not turn no more but be still-they are positioning them selves inside to get ready to hatch, with same temp and humidity...make sure the water canal is full always in bator. Then after 4-5 days babes will come, and i let them dry on the screen in the still bator i call it, and then i put then into the infant box that is set up for babes, a water bowl with glass rocks in it so they cant fall in and drown, and a jar lid with scratch feed in it,also a real nice hanging lamp above them that also has to be a certain temp.Then as they get bigger i put them into a bigger box or place ,because i have to have room for the new babes.With guineas you cant mix babes with 2 or 3 week babes the older ones will try to kill them, believe me i know.As for fertilized eggs they are all the same, taste the same and are no different, and are not chickens or babies unless you put them into a incubator then try to eat the eggs later, then you may be eating some chicken in the egg ha ha.The egg has to form and be incubated before its a chicken, its still just an egg, we eat the fertilized ones and the non-fertile ones, they are just eggs.It does matter what you feed your chickens, think about it..I dont agree that commercial eggs and farm raisesd are the same nope! Think about it? It's what you put into the chicken is what comes out and what you eat is what you put into the chicken common sense right? Right! Just like your brain what you feed it comes out of the person...you eat trash , trash comes out, the thoughts and the mouth and the actions.This is all from experience, i do this all the time. If you raise guineas dont and wont to hatch babies dont feed them shell, their eggs are so very hard anyway, i personally had to deliver most of mine from their egg so they would live, they couldnt get out of their shell most of them, not all.So i helped them and now i have over 100 of them and their healthy and happy.
ok so my neighbor gave me and my friends these three eggs. he has a coop with a bunch of hens and a couple roosters. and i really want to know if the egg's he gave us are fertilized. he's keeping them unprofessionally too, if that makes it easier for you to help me. he feeds them the right food, but he i don't think he really know's what he's doing. he said that a hen will lay a couple eggs a day and sometimes she won't lay any. so is that just like a natural infertile cycle? or could they be fertilized. it's been about 3 days since he gave them to us. and i tryed the candle thing and nothing showed i couldn't even see the air sac. can you help me out?
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
There is no way to tell if a fresh egg is fertile or infertile without breaking it open. Candling it will only tell you if it has blood spots and how old it is (based on air cell size). Candling is used in verify interior egg quality before selling eggs, especially the large egg producers.
If you can't see the air cell when candling the egg, you may not be doing it correctly. While in a dark room, shine light through the egg. The air cell is typically in the large end of the egg.
If the neighbor has roosters with his hens it is only important that the roosters know what to do - add it does come naturally to them. If there are too many roosters for the number of hens, however, you can get a case where the roosters spend more time fighting with each other instead of mating with the hens.
A hen can only lay 1 egg per day. Birds only have 1 functional ovary, and this is the case for chickens. It takes 24-26 hours for the hen to 'assemble' an egg (from the time that the ova/yolk is released from the ovaries to the time that it is laid). If eggs are not collected at the same time each day, you may have a case where a farmer collects eggs early one morning and then late the next day. In such cases they could end up picking of more eggs than normal.
You can eat the eggs whether they are fertile or not. You only need fertile eggs if you are going to be incubating the eggs.
Hope that helps.
Can I get a list of classes that Dr. Jacobs teaches. There are no upper division classes to be found in California.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Kentucky - Poultry extension specialist
When I was at the University of Minnesota I taught four poultry related classes, but none were available on the internt:
Avian Sampler - covers a wide variety of topics related to birds. While there is some poultry, a wide variety of avian related topics were covered.
Poultry Management - pretty much what it says.
Poultry judging - to prepare a team for the national collegiate poultry judging contest in Baton Rouge, LA in April.
Advanced poultry judging - to prepare a team for the national collegiate poultry judging contest in Fayetteville, AR.
Now that I am no longer at the U of MN (currently at the University of Kentucky with no teaching appointment) none of the above courses will be taught.
If you are looking for more advanced poultry-related courses, you might consider the Midwest Poultry Consortium which offers 6 poultry courses - students take three each of two summers (6 weeks for the 3 courses each summer). There are scholarships available - but only for students in the 13 midwest states and Florida, since they participate in the program. You could go and pay your own way I suppose. Applications are taken in early spring.
Their website is http://www.mwpoultry.org/
An article discussing the program is also available online at http://ps.fass.org/cgi/reprint/77/2/211.pdf
It's actually a vegetarian issue. Some vegetarians will eat non-fertilized eggs, but fertile eggs are off-limits. And of course, in that case, you wouldn't eat the adults either.
how many eggs can a chicken lay per day? I've heard that farm raised can lay 2 a day.
It depends on a variety of different conditions, from the breed of the hen to her health and diet to the length of the day. Generally speaking, it takes about 24 hours to lay an egg, but there are certainly exceptions to that.
why is it not good to eat a egg with blood in it?
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
There is no problem with eating an egg with blood in - it gives you a bit more protein (from the blood). They candle out eggs with blood because of the appearance - consumers don't like to see blood in their eggs.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
Birds have only one ovary and oviduct and it takes 24-26 hours to assemble an egg, so hens can not lay more than one egg a day. If, however, you don't collect eggs at the same time each day you may find 2 eggs from one hen - but they were laid 24 hours apart.
Can you eat fertilized eggs? My sister-in-law had someone give her some and doesnt know if she should eat them or if it would be like eating "baby chickens".
I think you can eat them, it's not poisonous is it? Some cultures even eat "baby chickens". If it hasn't been hatched/incubated: I'm sure it will still taste somewhat the same. Besides, if you're hungry you're hungry. If you don't eat it, it will rot and be wasted if you don't hatch it anyways. Hatch it and raise them, hatch it and eat them after you raise them, or eat them.
But if one has no mouth, eating an egg is impossible.
You can eat them. Some people even prefer them.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
You can definitely eat fertile eggs. As you can see from these photos, fertile and infertile eggs look very similar and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference without looking closely, unless the eggs have been incubated, of course.
There are some people who pay a premium price to get fertile eggs for consumption, while others will not eat them at all. It is a personal preference.
There are some cultures that eat embryos, especially duck embryos. A food product called balut is produced by incubating duck eggs till just before the embryo develops feathers (about day 18 of the 28 day incubation period). The embryo is boiled in the shell, salted and eaten. It is very popular in the Phillipines and Vietnam.
For more information on 'fetal duck eggs' see:
Wikipedia entry
Deep End Dining
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
You can eat eggs whether they are fertile or infertile - there are nutritional or food safety differences between the eggs. In the fertile eggs the embryo is about 24 hours old when it is laid (since it is fertilized at the top of the oviduct and it takes 24-26 hours to complete the assembly of the parts of an egg so it can be laid). You really can't see the embryo without a magnifying class. If properly refrigerated the embryo will not develop any more at all.
If you feel that life begins at conception, then in theory you are eating 'baby chickens' but if the egg is not incubated the embryo will never develop into a chicken. So it is up to you whether or not you want to eat fertile eggs. I have friends that will never eat fertile eggs, since it 'grosses them out.' I personally have no problem eating fertile eggs - but all eggs in the typical grocery store are infertile unless otherwise indicated.
Hey
I saved a egg from a tree that had been cut down, i don't know what type of egg it is but its small and a pure white colour. I have wrapped it up and placed it in the airing cupboard but i don't know if it is alive or not. It was cold when i first found it but it feels warm now. I want to look after it until it hatches but firstly i need to know if it will hatch. This site said leave it for 21days. Is there anyway to tell if it is alive? Do you think it is alive?
Thanks, any comments would be appriciated
Jadie,
I passed your question along to Dick Oehlenschlager, the museum's biology collections manager. He said,
"I really can not say much here, without more information. Letting the egg sit by itself for 21 days certainly will not induce the egg to hatch. I would say there is no or next to no chance for it to hatch, and there is no point in trying to make it happen. Since many or most cavity nesting species lay white eggs, and I don't know how small the egg is, I can only suspect woodpecker, tree swallow, small owls,etc. It is also illegal to possess eggs of these species (regardless of the circumstances under which they are found) and permits from federal and state agencies to do so are not issued to individuals, only scientific or educational institutions."
Sorry.
Yes but i once found a egg that was cold but ti still hatched. explain that?
Because the hen can only lay an egg every 24 hours, eggs need to have a dormancy period. Let's say that it takes the hen 10 days to lay a clutch of 8 eggs... during those 10 days, the hen will turn them but not keep them warm. Without warmth, the embryo will not develop. I *believe* the eggs can remain dormant for about 30 days (though after 10 days, chance of hatching begins to decrease). Theoretically, the eggs would have to endure cool temperatures during this time. After the 10 days, the hen would set on them, providing the constant turning, temperature and humidity we mimic with an incubator for 21 days, and all the eggs would hatch at the same time.
So, provided your cold egg was dormant when you started the incubation period, there shouldn't have been a problem.
hold the egg to a bright light after about 10 days then you should see a feoutus inside if the eff is fertile then the chances are it wil hatch and die in a couple of days as it is very hard for an inexperienced person to feed a chick if it hatches contact me and i tell u how to raise it my email is mwgriffin@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks two of my buddies and I had an ongoing argument about this for the last two months and this web page has proven me right about hens laying eggs without roosters
Hi
Thanks to all who answered, i took the egg to my sixth form and the science teacher held it up to a light and claimed that it was a fertile egg and he took it to look after it, we don't know what type of egg it is yet but my teacher is looking in to it. He said that it definatly isnt a woodpecker egg or a tree swallow and that it isnt illegal for us to look after it until it hatches, once he knows what type of egg it is however he is going to hand it to a bird sactuary (not a scientific or educational institution) as i agree that both he and i arent experienced enough to look after it and we do want it to survive. However when it hatches and if it survives i want to release it back to the wild.If it hatches i will send you all photos.
From references to "sixth form" and also your spellings of certain words, I'm going to assume you're writing to us from outside the US. Dick Oehlenschlager, our biology collections manager, was assuming you were writing from somewhere in the US. And here it IS illegal to collect the egg of a migratory bird.
But we'd love to know what happened: did the egg hatch?
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
You can find more information on the Migratory Bird Treatry Act online
According to the act, it is illegal to possess any migratory bird, part (which includes feathers), nest, egg or product.
The only birds in the U.S. that don't fall under this act are pigeons, sparrows and starlings, since these species are not native to the U.S. They are introduced species (and in some cases have become nuisance birds).
My rooster and my sister's hen are together all day and everyday. And we don't know if our hen is pregnant or not. What are some signs of her being pregnant?
According to the Mississippi State University Extension Service,
"If a sexually active rooster is placed into a flock of hens, fertile eggs can be produced by the second day after introducing the rooster. If mating occurs within a short period, the next egg yolk released by the hen's body can be fertilized. The remainder of the albumen and shell requires about 26-28 hours to be formed around the fertilized yolk. Therefore, a minimum of 30-36 hours is necessary to produce a hatchable egg.
If the flock has many hens and only one rooster, it may require several days before mating with all hens takes place. It is advisable to allow at least 4-7 days before expecting a high level of fertility in eggs. If the rooster or hens are one-year or more in age, the waiting period may need to be increased."
But your hen won't ever be "pregnant." If the hen and the rooster have mated, then sperm are in her reproductive tract, waiting to be incorporated into the next egg she lays. If not, the hen lays eggs anyway, but they aren't fertilized. Development of the chick happens inside the egg, but outside of the hen's body.
It sounds, though, like maybe your hen isn't laying eggs at all? Egg production is dependent on how much daylight the hen is exposed to. If you want her to lay eggs, she needs at least 12, and preferably 14, hours of daylight or its equivalent each day.
If she's laying, and she's with the rooster all the time, she's probably laying fertilized eggs.
I am a farmer in rural Misssouri and my chickens haven't laid a single fertile egg since I introduced a rooster among them last month. Could I have me an infertile rooster?
I have been told that when you introduce a new bird or move birds to a new home it can take a month for them to be realy settled. Wait a little longer. If you see him mating with the hens and leave the eggs in the nest to pile up and eventually the hens should get broody and start laying on the eggs. I have never had chickens before but got a cockerel and a hen. I followed this advice and today i have chicks hatching.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
Fertility is affected by a number of factors - some affect female fertility and others affect male fertility. You can actually 'milk' a rooster to collect semen and examine it under a microscope ot see if it contains active sperm.
How old are the hens and rooster? Age (too young or too old) can affect fertility.
What type of lighting program have they been exposed to? Roosters, as with hens, are long day breeders in that they breed when days are long (more than 12 hours).
You also need to look at the ratio of males to females - optimum ratios depend no breed but are typically 1 male to every 5-6 females.
How have you found that they are infertile - by opening them or incubating them? If incubating them, you might have fertile eggs with very early death because of storage conditions prior to incubation and conditions during incubation.
Hello,
I have just discovered that one of my chickens has a secret nest with 10 green eggs. She sits on it infrequently. I brought the eggs to the house and tried to "candle" them. I can use my imagination and say that there is a dark disc on one end of each egg, but it's the same spot on each egg, so it could be just that -- my imagination. I broke one open and saw a whitish circle pattern that you had described. My question -- if they are fertile, how much time should the hen spend on the eggs? She leaves them alone all night and I see her all over the place, not on the nest. They are small eggs and her first ones ever. They are cold when you pick them up. If they are not going to survive because she is not sitting on them, should I borrow my daughter's teacher's incubator and give it a try? Is it too late (maybe a week old)? Are they going to be not fit to eat?
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
Once a hen starts incubating her eggs, she sits on them most of the day, leaving only to get something to eat. She will wait till she has finished laying her 'clutch' of eggs (the number of eggs she is going to incubate) before she starts incubating on them - so they will be cold to the touch. It may not be too late to incubation artificially. You could incubate for a week and try candling them again to see if there are any embryos in them. You should be able to see them by then, though it is more difficult with green eggs.
hi i am 11 years old and have 4 hens and 1 rooster this question is for Dr. Jacquie Jacob
i have an incubator and i am going to hatch eggs BUT i don't know if all my eggs are fertile and my chickens just got a dose of medicine to clean there systems so i have to wait till thursday to incubate but can i use eggs from last week that are sitting in the kitchen in a basket outside of the reridgerarator please email me
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
It is impossible to tell if the eggs are fertile without breaking them open - so incubating them and then candling at about 7 days to see if there is an embryo or not is the only real way to know.
Eggs stored in a fridge typically have reduced hatchability, especially after 1 week. Hatching eggs are typicallly stored at 55F while most fridges are at 45F, which is too cold. You can try though - it doesn't mean you won't get any chicks hatch, just the percent of eggs that hatch will probably be lower than if stored at the correct temperature or for a shorter period of time.
Hi, my question is, is it true that if you touch an egg in the nest, the hen will no longer touch it or look after it?
Thanks.
I am a novice at this but i know the answer as my three year old took two of the eggs from under my chicken. i made her put them straight back. The chicken is still laying on all the eggs as she should be. But from what i have read its not great to touch them as our hands can spread germs to the eggs.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
Depends on the temperament of the chicken and whether or not she has gone broody. If the hen is broody, periodically touching the eggs shouldn't be a problem. I have had hens go broody with no eggs and added my own - they are pretty good for incubating duck and geese eggs as well as chicken eggs.
hi sorry to comment so much but...
is it possible to get a red layer chicken to go broody? and how please email me
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
Broodiness is hormonally controlled so there really isn't much to induce it - different breeds having different tendencies to go broody. You don't indicate the breed you have - and may not even know it if it is a cross-bred so it is hard to say what the likelihood is that she will go broody.
Most people are trying to stop hens from going broody - I don't know of any efforts to cause a hen to go broody - most just usually invest in a breed that easily goes broody.
this site is so interesting! When I started reading about fertilization, I was amazed! I always thought that if you were to sell eggs to a grocery store, they would have to be fertilized. But it's really interesting to find out that you can't sell fertilized eggs at the market because if they're fertilized,a chick will form during incubation. thanks for the great info dude. by the way i'm a girl i just like saying dude a lot!
hi I just wondering if I had a fertilized chicken egg and I decided wether to put it in an incubator in three months or so will the egg still be fertilized and hatch? or will it not? if so how long have I got until the egg is not fertilized. Thanxs
Once fertilized, always fertilized. However, after three months, that egg is no longer viable and will not develop even if you put it in an incubator.
I have heard that you can only eat eggs from chickens for a ceteian number of days, 74, I believe is what I was told. After this certain time you have to get new chickens to get edible eggs. Is this true?
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
You can eat the eggs from chickens of any age. Hens typically start laying eggs at 18-20 weeks of age. They will continue to lay for several weeks, increasing production levels quickly, peaking and then slowly reducing production levels till production reaches a level where it is typically not economical to keep them in lay. This is usually around 60-70 weeks of age.
In commercial operations producers may put their hens through a 'molt' which is forcing them to take a break and stop laying. After a few weeks they come back into production at a higher level than before the rest was initiated.
Alternatively, the older hens can be replaced with new pullets which are just starting their laying cycle.
You can find more information on egg production online.
Im not sure that my young hen is a hen. How can I tell the difference ? It is about 6 months old and looks like small spers on the legs with long tale feathers.
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
By 6 months of age most chickens have taken on the typical characterists specific to male and female. Males have long pointed feathers around the neck, shoulder and tail. Their combs and wattles are larger than those of females. (The comb is the fleshy material on the top of the head and the wattles hang down from the throat. Both sexes have them, but they are bigger in males than in females). Males also typically have larger spurs at the back of the leg.
By six months of age, if your chicken is a rooster, it should be crowing by now.
Of course, to complicate things, it is possible for a hen to take on the characteristics of a rooster, due to hormonal problems (PDF).
This same website shows the difference in feather structure of males and females.
I'm glad you mentioned that hens can take on characteristics of a rooster. We purchased a pair of ''show chickens'' that we named Rudy and Judy. Clearly obvious who was who, sex wise. Beautiful birds, very sweet pets. Eventually we were given other hens. Rudy and Judy both, did the side-stepping around the other hens, mounted the other hens and Judy clearly ''crowed'' with the best of roosters. We took her to our Vet., who stated she was clearly a hen! She never laid an egg. She had a long and happy life, confused, but she was a doll:)
how do you tell the difference between a rooster and a chicken when they are young
Dr. Jacquie Jacob
University of Minnesota - Poultry specialist
It is very difficult to tell the difference between male and female chicks. Often it takes specially trained technicians to sex them, using feather and vent sexing techniques (PDF).
According to Keith Bramwell at the University of Arkansas:
"All in all, the best way to sex chickens in the backyard flock is to watch them grow. Feed them, water them, observe them and enjoy them while they mature. As they develop, changes will become obvious as the males will begin to act manly and their voices will change from the chirping common to young chicks to attempted crows. In nearly all breeds of chickens (Sebrights being the exception) the young males’ feathers will also change from the round oval-shaped feathers common to hens and young birds to the shiny, more narrow and pointed feathers found on their necks and at the base of their tails.
While a number of 'old wives tales' exist about sexing chicks, these methods are no better than flipping a coin. While feather sexing and vent sexing are accurate methods of determining the sex of chicks, perhaps the best and most enjoyable method is just watching the birds grow."
A rooster has that thing hanging below their throats.
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