I was cracking eggs for breakfast the other day, admiring the blastoderms, and how clearly they show the 'fertile-ness' of the egg. Then it hit me! Maybe I should show YOU GUYS so you can easily see the difference between a fertile egg and an infertile egg!
Which egg is fertile? Which is infertile? Can you tell?
The answer is: BOTH are fertile. The green-circled areas are are called BLASTODERMS. They look like little, whitish bulls-eyes. They can vary in size depending one how old the egg is. The one on the right has been left on the counter longer in the warm temps, (south Georgia here, it's pretty warm!), so it has started to develop slightly.
Now, there is nothing wrong with eating fertile eggs. They don't taste any different, or look any different once cooked. These were quite delicious.
Okay, you may be wondering, what does an infertile egg look like?!
Never fear, Ill show you. I have this hen. She is a fancy, Danish Leghorn that is the ONLY female that hatched out of some mail-order eggs I purchased a while back. She is a PRUDE.
Just kidding! She is small of stature compared to my barnyard mix, hefty hens. We have a large, heavy rooster, and she is just not interested in being squashed by him. Which is unfortunate, because she is a fantastic layer, and I would love to hatch some of her babies and get those genetics in my flock. I'm hoping to hatch out a smaller rooster in the future that she will be willing to mate with.
He's so handsome, what's not to love?!
Anyway, I found one of her eggs, and yep, still infertile. Here you go, for comparison:
Green=fertile, Red=infertile. See the difference? The little white dot is called the BLASTODISC. (Sounds like a pokemon move....) A blastodisc would become a blastoderm if it were fertilized.
She is obviously still holding out on me, so no chicks from her yet. I have hope though; she is young and we have lots of time!
That about sums it up guys!!
Hopefully now you can see quite clearly if your eggs are fertilized or not. If you have questions, feel free to ask!
Thanks for reading and as always, have a lovely day!! ♥
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