[amc]

as reported by the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/6643407.stm

amc

[Little Miss Muffet]

I  :?  :?  :?  :?
not really sure what to make of that

[Aunt Sally]

I expect they run some cocks with free range hens to keep then together.

[ziggywigs]

Sorry but if that happened to me it would put me off for eggs for life.....i'm bad enough if i find a fertilised egg i can't eat it.

But then again that's prob why i don't eat a lot of eggs.

[Aunt Sally]

How would you know it's fertilised if it's not been incubated ziggywigs  :?:

[xx bluey xx]

i actualy bought ablout 70 quail eggs from tesco and put about 40 in the incubator and 9 hatched.

[ziggywigs]

How would you know it's fertilised if it's not been incubated ziggywigs  :?:

I've often cracked open eggs and they are fertilised you can see the beginnings of the embryo...they don't usually develop as you say without being incubated, but it's enough for me to not eat it.

I'm just a bit squeamish like that.....if i opened an egg that had been incubated and a chick came out it would put me off...mind you just my ducks laying eggs put me off eggs for a good while.....couldn't face them for a while.

[slowef]

Is this the blood spots that you can see.

I was saying about this to a farmer at market and he said that the blood is just that and not a sign of fertilisation, that is just a misbelief among the less knowledgeable !! put me in my place but glad to know about it

[Aunt Sally]

That is what I was wondering if ziggywigs was referring to slowef.  Bllod spots and meat spots are nothing to do with fertilisation.  I have a look for some information for you ZW

[Aunt Sally]

I've found an excellent egg quality document from DEFRA

Go to page 9 for blood and meat spots

http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodrin/poultry/pdfs/eggqual.pdf

[ziggywigs]

I know about the blood spots...can't touch them either.  These are eggs that have a what looks like an ?umbilicus formed to a sac as though the egg had started to form...yuk.

[GrannieAnnie]

I know what you mean ziggy, but that little thing is in nearly every egg I've ever seen.  Its not fertilised.  I don't have any cockerels, but my eggs have them.  

Unless of course its chook immaculate conception???    

[Aunt Sally]

I know about the blood spots...can't touch them either.  These are eggs that have a what looks like an ?umbilicus formed to a sac as though the egg had started to form...yuk.

That is called the Chalaza, and it's what keeps the yolk centralised in the egg.  Without it the yolk would fall with gravity and rest on the shell membrane with the disastrous likelihood of adhering to it.  In some eggs it is more obvious than others.  Nothing to do with chicks or fertilisation though.  Look on page 4 of that link I gave you above.

[GrannieAnnie]

You must admit though, that if you look at it, (the chalaza did you say Aunty?)  It does look like a little embryo!!!

[Aunt Sally]

I just cook'em and eat'em grannie.  As Munty would say "luvley grub"