A chicken question

[Smiles Jr.]

As some of you know I have full responsibility of our chicken population here at PlayStation nowadays. This is kind of new to me as my wife and daughter always took care of the poultry here.

About 10 days ago my neighbor came by with a whole bag of 5 month old roosters. I think there were 6 in there. As a joke he tossed one out in my yard (because I said I didn't want a rooster) and a little later we could not catch it. After we chased it for 15 or 20 minutes it ran off into the woods. As we sat down on my neighbor's tailgate gasping for air and laughing we decided to let it go for a few days to see if it would return. Sure enough he's back and he has sort of adopted my flock of 10 or 12 hens. He is quite handsome with bright white feathers and black tips. He seems to be healthy and somewhat friendly. I'm sure by now that he has "serviced" just about every hen in my flock.

My question is . . . do we candle eggs to see if the eggs are fertilized to keep them out of the refrigerator and off the dinner table? Or do we candle eggs to set them aside for the incubator? Maybe a better way to ask my question would be, do we eat/sell fertilized eggs as long as they're fresh? Or do we have to toss out the fertilized ones? I just can't remember this stuff. If we have to toss them out I'll chop ole Mr. Roo's head off and eat him. Otherwise I'll build a small coop just for him and fence him in away from the girls.

 

[thistlebloom]

Eat those eggs Smiles! If you collect them and keep them refrigerated you wont have any chicks developing inside them. Someone else that actually hatches eggs can give you better details. Fertile eggs are an expensive commodity in health food stores... at least they used to be, I can't say I've noticed any being sold in recent years. But I don't actually shop in health food stores of late.

 

[journey11]

If you're collecting them daily, you can be sure there is nothing developing inside. When they are first fertilized, it's just a teeny-tiny speck. You can't really tell by looking. Nothing gross to it, so go ahead and serve them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Smiles, practically every pioneer that settled our country ate fertilized eggs. Practically everyone that lived on a small farm for most of our country's history ate fertilized eggs. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them.

If you want to know if the eggs are fertilized you can look at this thread. It has photos of the bull's eye you would look for. You can't tell if an egg is fertilized by candling it unless it has been in an incubator or under a broody hen for for a week or so.

Fertile Egg Photos
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008&p=6

There is nothing wrong with eating a rooster either. You need to take care in cooking him otherwise he will be tough but we have our ways to tenderize him. If you need some help with that, just ask. I put four roosters in the freezer last Tuesday and have a hen in the crock pot right now.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Ridgerunner - I just spent 40 minutes reading the posts in that thread you linked. Thanks. There was one post in there that reminded me of me. An older guy said he had been around chickens all his life but never learned about fertile and non-fertile eggs. That's me too.

If I could find the time, I would like to get an incubator, build a candler, and see if I can hatch some chicks. It is quite fascinating to me.

 

[Mickey328]

It'd be less time consuming if you just get a broody, LOL. Let her do all the work of hatching for you

 

[desertlady]

I was told fertilized eggs stay fresh longer ! its really hard to candled the egg to find the spot. My friend bought fertilized eggs from a health food store for I think it was $ 5.00 doz. when she cracked the eggs, half of them was unfertilized !!

 

[Nyboy]

As a return favor you should drop off a litter of kittens in your neighbors yard.

 

[so lucky]

Maybe one of your chickens will go broody and she can do all the work. What kind of chickens are they? Some kinds are more apt to go broody than others.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

if you want to check to see if the eggs are getting fertilized is to crack one open and look for the little white dot. it it looks like a bulls eye target they are getting fertilized. if its a white dot and no halo then they are not fertilized. momma hen has to 'set' the eggs for a few days for them to start developing. hens may 'squat' over the eggs to keep them warm but don't fully sit on top of them till they are ready to start incubating them. i always gave eggs in an incubator longer than the 21 days they suggest in the directions. my hens tend to take up to 25 days and the chicks tend to hatch over the course of a few days, almost 1 at a time each day. not every egg being fertilized will develop. some will start and stop developing before they hit their 21-23 days of incubation. some may develop till the end but never make it out of the shell from taking too long, not turning around in the shell to hatch in the right direction, or just get too tired from all the effort. remember the saying 'don't count your chickens till they hatched!'

btw, i have bantam cochins, bantam and LF faveolles so most of my girls have the experience of being little mommas at least once so far in their lives! but those cochins really take their chick raising and broodiness seriously! so watch your hands is someone has that 'pancake' look and start growling when you reach for them!