How to Tell if Eggs are Fertilized
Your thinking about incubating some of the eggs that you have collected from your chickens but are they fertilized? This is something you really want to know before you set up your incubator and your hopes. Here are a couple of ways to tell if your eggs are fertilized.
This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.
You have decided that you want to incubate some eggs, once you have an incubator, it's time to pick some eggs to incubate. How do you pick eggs?
In order to have fertilized eggs, you first need to have a rooster in with your hens. Very important if you want fertilized eggs. Your hens will lay eggs without having a rooster with them.
Get updates & freebies delivered to your inbox!
How to Tell if Eggs are Fertilized
If you are eating your freshly laid chicken or quail eggs, you can look at the yolks of the eggs you are eating. This is our most accurate method for testing our eggs.
Once you crack your egg, look at the yolk. You will see a white dot. If your egg is fertilized you will see a white circle around that white dot. A target.
Another way to tell if your eggs are fertilized without cracking the egg is to candle them.
The oldest and easiest way to tell if an egg is fertilized is called candling the egg. It is holding the egg up to a very bright small flashlight.
If the egg appears opaque, it is probably a fertilized egg. By opaque, I mean, you can’t really see through the egg or it is much cloudier than all of the others. I don't like this method, because I can't always tell.
Just because an egg is fertile, does not mean it will become a chick, it must be properly incubated by the hen or under an incubator in order to develop into a chick.
Incubation Fertilization Check
After 7 days of incubation, you can candle the egg again. You will see that it has started to form–it will look kind of like red veins spreading throughout the egg.
You don't want to candle the eggs too often as it may interfere with development.
How do Chicken Eggs get Fertilized?
You need a rooster, and at least a hen, though I definitely recommend more because she will become over-mated. He is going to bite/pull on the feathers on her head and back. She will get bald spots, and it can't be comfortable.
A rooster inseminates a hen with his sperm by jumping on her back, lowering his tail, and touching her cloaca with his. This is called the “cloacal kiss”. Inside his cloaca, is a small raised point called the papilla. The papilla is what passes the sperm. This is how are chicken eggs fertilized.
This is the same for quail as well.
How Many Hens Should You Have With A Rooster?
You should have at least four hens per rooster. I recommend more. Last summer my four hens had bald backs and I had to get them aprons.
Now. He was a big, aggressive rooster. He attacked us a lot, so at the end of summer, we got rid of him. I now have five hens, and a sweet rooster. So far, no missing feathers.
My daughter has a silkie with four hens and she has never had a chicken with bald spots.
I believe it can be dependent on the temperament of the rooster, and the size as well.
How to Tell if Quail Eggs Are Fertile
Quail eggs might be smaller than chickens, but the similarities are great between the two.
Quail eggs are thicker-shelled and their dark pigment makes it hard to see through the shell. Even when candling for chicken development it can be really hard to see through the shell. Meaning…
The best way to check fertility is to check eggs as you use them in cooking. Look for the same target you see in chicken eggs. The yolk might be small, but the target will be there.
The is one surefire way to check fertility, and that is to incubate those eggs and candle them.
7 Reasons to Have Backyard Chickens
5 Tips to Homesteading with Kids
5+ Books on Getting Started with Your Homestead
