I recently got a interrogate from a lector who wanted to hatch some of his chickens eggs. He has 8 chickens and 1 cock. He presently has collected about 20 eggs and is wanting to know if they are prolific, so that he can put them in an incubator .
While I am not allowed to have roosters ascribable to my region covenants, I have always kind of wonder if I would get a fertilize egg before I get rid of them. { We order chicks and normally get a cock or two out of the bunch–we get rid of the cock pretty soon after we know that it is in fact a cock, though. }
therefore, beginning a fiddling talk about the birds and the bees { only, in this case, it very only involves two birds }. In ordain for an egg to become fertilize, the cock and the hen have to have mated prior to the constitution of the testis. If this happens, the hen will lay a fertilize egg .
This credibly goes without saying, but if you don ’ t have a cock, you will not have any fertilized eggs…ever. A hen can lay fertilized eggs from anywhere to 2 days after mating up to 3 weeks after mating with the cock .
The oldest and easiest way to tell if an egg is fertilized is called candling the egg. It is literally holding the testis improving to a unhorse candle { not to warm it, but in order to see inside of the egg } .
You can besides use a very bright modest flashlight. If the testis appears opaque, it is probably a fertilize testis. { By opaque, I mean, you can ’ metric ton in truth see through the testis or it is much cloudier than all of the other eggs. }
As a side note, just because an egg is fecund, does not mean it will become a dame. It must be by rights incubated by the hen or under an incubator in holy order to develop into a chick.
After 3-4 days of incubation, you can candle the egg again. You will see that it has started to form–it will look kind of like loss veins spreading throughout the egg .
A prolific egg layed by a hen that is not incubated is absolutely safe to eat, and unless you are paying super close attention, you will never know the dispute. Once you collect the eggs and put them in the electric refrigerator, the exploitation wholly stops .
I hope that helps, and if you do get some baby chicks, send some pictures !
~Mavis
Read more: Microwave Scrambled Eggs
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