A Question About Chicken Eggs

[arwalden]

Are the eggs from the grocery store fertilized? Or will hens lay eggs without the benefit of having been romancing with the barnyard rooster? Could you incubate those eggs and get chicks?

If they aren't fertilized... what's that little white dangly thing attached to the yoke? Is that normal? Should I remove it before I cook them?

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. from what i remember

no, they are not fertilized, hens lay an egg a day i think

[Maple]

2. No they aren't fertilized

Yes, hens can. No you can't.

It's called a normal part of the egg.

[liontamer]

3. they are not fertilized

hens lay eggs until they are sitting on a clutch of about five. If you take away the eggs they lay, they just keep laying them. Roosters are in no way involved in the egg laying process. If you incubate those eggs you'd just get rotten eggs.
The little white dangly thing is part of the yolk sac. it's normal. leave it be.

[Canuckistanian]

4. No, not fertilized

You can buy fertilized eggs but usually through health food or organic grocery stores. And you pay a lot more.

[Liberal Veteran]

5. Here ya go....

And I never remove anything from the egg except a blood spot or piece of shell if it got in there.

[Solly Mack]

6. Eggs for sale have not been fertilized.

The lay regardless of mating....the mating just means a chick will form.

Yes, you can fertilize by hand...rather, by mouth..since the procedure requires a person to literally blow rooster sperm into the egg. I've seen the process in action at a hatchery.

As to that "white dangly thing" lol

It's called the germinal disc.

It's perfectly safe.

[Streetdoc270]

7. I just want to know who

was the first person to point out a chicken and dare his buddy to eat the next thing that comes from its butt!

[arwalden]

8. Thanks All!

[Rowdyboy]

9. God as my witness, until I left home for college, my mother made me

cut off that little white dangly thing. She continued to do it as long as she lived. I hate to imagine what she thought it was!

[supernova]

11. The penis?

:ducks and runs:

[arwalden]

13. Well... It Looks Like

semen.

[Rowdyboy]

15. Rooster "stuff"

[Solly Mack]

16. It's not. I promise you :)

There is no semen left once an egg is fertilized and the shell hardens(which then passes down the oviduct) and is laid for the hatching of a chick...besides, the eggs we eat have not been fertilized...honest!

[Flaxbee]

10. try to buy eggs that state that the hens are not caged

... free to roam around, and if possible, are vegetarian fed. Hens often are not treated well, cooped up in tiny cages just to lay eggs. You can easily find eggs from hens that are treated humanely, usually in the grocery store next to all the other eggs.

[AlCzervik]

12. We call them Happy eggs, right in the natural food section

"Cage Free"

[arwalden]

14. Are Brown Eggs Better Than White Eggs?

[AlCzervik]

17. Cage Free come in brown and white

i buy which ever ones, i don't think there is a difference except for pigment on the shell.

[arwalden]

18. I Love Your Avatar!!

[AlCzervik]

19. Thanks, seems appropriate now more than ever

i wish i could make it a tad bigger because most people don't read the print.