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Do hens need roosters to make eggs?


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Okay, so this is probably a super dumb question....but is a rooster required to be involved at any point for a hen to lay an egg? I mean, I get it's probably not something a rooster would be involved in every night, with every hen, otherwise he'd be quite the busy guy, lol.....but at any point of the hen's life, does she have to mate to become a egg layer?

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Okay, showing my city girl ignorance here maybe, but I'll be brave, LOL.

 

Don't you only need a rooster to get fertilized eggs that will hatch into chicks? Otherwise, without a rooster, the hens just lay unfertilized eggs; the kind you eat?

 

Please don't laugh too hard at me if I'm wrong... :tongue_smilie:

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Okay, showing my city girl ignorance here maybe, but I'll be brave, LOL.

 

Don't you only need a rooster to get fertilized eggs that will hatch into chicks? Otherwise, without a rooster, the hens just lay unfertilized eggs; the kind you eat?

 

Please don't laugh too hard at me if I'm wrong... :tongue_smilie:

 

You're right!

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Okay, showing my city girl ignorance here maybe, but I'll be brave, LOL.

 

Don't you only need a rooster to get fertilized eggs that will hatch into chicks? Otherwise, without a rooster, the hens just lay unfertilized eggs; the kind you eat?

 

Please don't laugh too hard at me if I'm wrong... :tongue_smilie:

 

You can eat fertilized eggs too. We do all the time (since our rooster is quite busy during the day). No difference in appearance or taste.

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Okay, showing my city girl ignorance here maybe, but I'll be brave, LOL.

 

Don't you only need a rooster to get fertilized eggs that will hatch into chicks? Otherwise, without a rooster, the hens just lay unfertilized eggs; the kind you eat?

 

Please don't laugh too hard at me if I'm wrong... :tongue_smilie:

 

This exactly. I had a vegan coworker at a summer camp who always referred to scrambled eggs as "chicken periods." :ack2: That's basically what's happening, though.

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This exactly. I had a vegan coworker at a summer camp who always referred to scrambled eggs as "chicken periods." :ack2: That's basically what's happening, though.

 

That is both gross and hilarious. :D

 

You can eat fertilized eggs too. We do all the time (since our rooster is quite busy during the day). No difference in appearance or taste.

 

Waaaaaait a second. 'Splain that one, would you? So the fertilized eggs we eat didn't turn into a chicken *why* exactly? Is it because they weren't kept warm, and that somehow disrupts the formation of the chick? Or something else?

 

I told you I'm a city girl. :tongue_smilie:

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That is both gross and hilarious. :D

 

 

 

Waaaaaait a second. 'Splain that one, would you? So the fertilized eggs we eat didn't turn into a chicken *why* exactly? Is it because they weren't kept warm, and that somehow disrupts the formation of the chick? Or something else?

 

I told you I'm a city girl. :tongue_smilie:

 

They need a certain temp and humidity to develop.

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I know your original question was answered - that's a nope.

 

Now, my funny story.

I was buying something from a women who lived further out/countryish from the city-metro area. she has chickens and sells her extra eggs. (she gave me some, they were great. loved the grass seeds in the eggs . . free range ya know.) I grew up in an area where several people I knew kept chickens. (and I live on a street IN the city where one family had sheep with lambs every spring. then they got the ram fixed.)

 

She had a co-worker (from the city) to her home with her children. she gave them some eggs. several weeks later, the co-worker asked her when the eggs would hatch. :001_huh: she responded "I don't have a rooster". ;) co-worker said, "but you have eggs". she had to give a birds and the bees (or the chicken and the rooster) story to her co-worker to explain why buying an incubator wasn't going to get coworker baby chicks with her eggs. co-worker was very disappointed and I hope took her advice to go down to the grange and buy some of chicks they were supposed to be getting in.

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You can eat fertilized eggs too. We do all the time (since our rooster is quite busy during the day). No difference in appearance or taste.

 

When you say that, I immediately think of the most revolting thing I ever saw on TV. It was the one and only time I saw part of the show "Fear Factor." The contestants (or whatever they're called) had to eat an unhatched chicken fetus. (Is that what you'd call it?) :ack2::ack2::ack2: It revolted me forever on the thought that a given hen's egg *could* be fertilized.

 

 

Okay and here's my "city girl" question, which I have forever wondered. How are bird's eggs actually fertilized? Does rooster sperm penetrate the egg before it's lain? Is the egg penatrable before it's lain? I've always been baffled by that. :tongue_smilie:

Edited by Quill
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When you say that, I immediately think of the most revolting thing I ever saw on TV. It was the one and only time I saw part of the show "Fear Factor." The contestants (or whatever they're called) had to eat an unhatched chicken fetus. (Is that what you'd call it?) :ack2::ack2::ack2: It revolted me forever on the thought that a given hen's egg *could* be fertilized.

 

 

Okay and here's my "city girl" question, which I have forever wondered. How are bird's eggs actually fertilized? Does rooster sperm penetrate the egg before it's lain? Is the egg penatrable before it's lain? I've always been baffled by that. :tongue_smilie:

 

When a rooster mates with a hen, the hen is then fertile for several days, and her body will lay fertilized eggs for that duration.

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When a rooster mates with a hen, the hen is then fertile for several days, and her body will lay fertilized eggs for that duration.

 

 

Oooooohhhh! Okay. :001_smile: Eww, though.

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I don't know if it's been mentioned, but many folks who keep kosher can't eat fertilized eggs. Tiny blood spots in yolks can *sometimes* be a sign of fertilization, but I have seen many eggs without blood spots from hens who have been very frienly with roos, and I have seem tiny dots of blood in eggs from hens who have never met a roo.

 

I think there might be some question out there about such things. :)

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Funny, I just watched a special on backyard hens. Did you know that some cities will let you have chickens in the backyard. You can't have a rooster though.

 

So, no, they don't need a rooster.

 

I also learned that hen laying slows down in the fall and winter months. Chickens are very social. They need a good amount of space inside and out, but you don't have to have a nest box for each one. They will share a nest.

 

OK, I have a head cold and SCTV (PBS) was the bomb last night with Downton Abbey on too!

 

ETA: Don't wash your eggs when you bring them inside to refrigerate. Wait until you will use. I learned that there is a special coating on them. It keeps them fresher, and keeps them from getting the refrig-odors too.

 

Yes, I am done. :P

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ETA: Don't wash your eggs when you bring them inside to refrigerate. Wait until you will use. I learned that there is a special coating on them. It keeps them fresher, and keeps them from getting the refrig-odors too.

 

Yes, I am done. :P

 

My SIL was puzzled when she moved to the UK because the eggs weren't kept in the fridge at the shop. In the UK they are not washed at the packing factory because water on the egg shell acts as a conduit allowing bacteria to penetrate the egg. I never refrigerate eggs and it's never been an issue.

 

Laura

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My SIL was puzzled when she moved to the UK because the eggs weren't kept in the fridge at the shop. In the UK they are not washed at the packing factory because water on the egg shell acts as a conduit allowing bacteria to penetrate the egg. I never refrigerate eggs and it's never been an issue.

 

Laura

 

We also never refrigerate. We gather the eggs from our hens' nesting boxes, write the date in pencil on the shell, and place in a metal basket on the kitchen counter.

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That is both gross and hilarious. :D

 

 

 

Waaaaaait a second. 'Splain that one, would you? So the fertilized eggs we eat didn't turn into a chicken *why* exactly? Is it because they weren't kept warm, and that somehow disrupts the formation of the chick? Or something else?

 

I told you I'm a city girl. :tongue_smilie:

 

They don't develop into chickens cause they got taken out of the nest and you ate them before there was the chance!

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When a rooster mates with a hen, the hen is then fertile for several days, and her body will lay fertilized eggs for that duration.

 

Wow, I have chickens, and I didn't know that. I just assumed the one egg that was furthest along but without a shell was fertilized.

 

I also learned that hen laying slows down in the fall and winter months. Chickens are very social. They need a good amount of space inside and out, but you don't have to have a nest box for each one. They will share a nest.

 

Dh built a very nice home for our chickens, complete with four nesting boxes, but they all line up and take turns using just one of them. :glare:

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We keep backyard hens without a roo and have plenty of eggs. That said, I have an acquaintance who runs a big chicken farm and he says that they keep a few roosters in each of their runs because it increases their egg production... He also claims that after a period of time the hens get bored with their rooster and egg production drops. So they rotate the roosters from barn to barn every few months to keep the hens interested.

 

Not sure if all that would check out biologically, but he seems very convinced.

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When you say that, I immediately think of the most revolting thing I ever saw on TV. It was the one and only time I saw part of the show "Fear Factor." The contestants (or whatever they're called) had to eat an unhatched chicken fetus. (Is that what you'd call it?) :ack2::ack2::ack2: It revolted me forever on the thought that a given hen's egg *could* be fertilized.

 

 

It's called balut and is a delicacy in the Philippines. (Don't Google images!--although now many will just because I said that :lol: ) I think I'd literally have to be starving in order to eat that.

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My SIL was puzzled when she moved to the UK because the eggs weren't kept in the fridge at the shop. In the UK they are not washed at the packing factory because water on the egg shell acts as a conduit allowing bacteria to penetrate the egg. I never refrigerate eggs and it's never been an issue.

 

Laura

 

 

That's absolutely true. When I collect eggs, I gently wipe them with a soft cloth. There is a protective coating on them that water washes away. Still, few people want to buy eggs that have any dirt or a little poop on them. Hens are not all that fussy where they lay. I have some who prefer a particular nest box, and I have some who just drop them in my garden beds and move on. They are not that particular, in my experience. lol I've seen hens la de da walking , walking, having a grand old time pecking all around. I've seen them stop for a bit, lay an egg, and keep on moving. lol Unless a you've got a broody girl who wants to sit & sit, hens don't care about those eggs. A broody hen is a lovely thing, and they will hatch any eggs you might add to their clutch. :)

Edited by LibraryLover
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I don't know if it's been mentioned, but many folks who keep kosher can't eat fertilized eggs. Tiny blood spots in yolks can *sometimes* be a sign of fertilization, but I have seen many eggs without blood spots from hens who have been very frienly with roos, and I have seem tiny dots of blood in eggs from hens who have never met a roo.

 

I think there might be some question out there about such things. :)

 

The tiny red spot in the yolk is from a burst blood vessel inside the hen and has nothing to do with whether or not the egg was fertilized.

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I have an acquaintance who runs a big chicken farm and he says that they keep a few roosters in each of their runs because it increases their egg production... He also claims that after a period of time the hens get bored with their rooster and egg production drops. So they rotate the roosters from barn to barn every few months to keep the hens interested.

 

:lol:

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So the fertilized eggs we eat didn't turn into a chicken *why* exactly? Is it because they weren't kept warm, and that somehow disrupts the formation of the chick? Or something else?

Yep. That's it. If I remember correctly the egg has to be at 85 degrees Farenheit for 3 days in order to begin developing.

 

Most people collect their eggs every day and keep them somewhere cooler... so no babies in there.

 

When I was a kid I saw some video about how chicks grow inside the shells and I got it in my mind (incorrectly) that the yolk *was* the pre-developed chick. I was young and both are yellow, you see. I wouldn't eat yolks for years! :lol: Now I know that the yolk is actually the food sac for the developing chick, which *would* begin as a series of vessels and cells (and an eye) alongside the yolk. I also learned that the white stringy/mucousy stuff connecting to the yolk is *not* a developing chick either. (I had imagined that it was.) Isn't it funny what we come up with in our heads when we don't understand something!?

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I wish I could have hens! I'm so jealous. LOL The city that I live in has an ordinance that you have to have an acre a chicken. Now, I don't know much about chickens, but surely each one does not need its own acre. :001_huh:

 

I lived in a town with a requirement like that. Friends on the town commission told me that they just wanted to make sure you had a lot of land so you didn't bother your neighbors with the animals' smell/noise. It is rather random, though.

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I wish I could have hens! I'm so jealous. LOL The city that I live in has an ordinance that you have to have an acre a chicken. Now, I don't know much about chickens, but surely each one does not need its own acre. :001_huh:

 

That's crazy. I could see an acre to have chickens at all, if you live in a residential area, but an acre per chicken is pretty excessive!

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We also never refrigerate. We gather the eggs from our hens' nesting boxes, write the date in pencil on the shell, and place in a metal basket on the kitchen counter.

 

How long will the eggs last before they have to be eaten or discarded?

 

We have quail (hatched from eggs) so I'm assuming I could do the same?

 

ETA: How many days can an egg lay in the nesting boxes/hen houses before you won't use them? If you go three or four days before gathering the eggs, are they still good to use? Or is it a necessity to gather daily?

Edited by Caledonia Academy
added another question!
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How long will the eggs last before they have to be eaten or discarded?

 

We have quail (hatched from eggs) so I'm assuming I could do the same?

 

ETA: How many days can an egg lay in the nesting boxes/hen houses before you won't use them? If you go three or four days before gathering the eggs, are they still good to use? Or is it a necessity to gather daily?

 

The hens would eat them before three or four days were up, but if there were any left, they'd still be fine to eat. We don't usually have eggs that are more than 2 weeks old around, but I know they're good even after that.

 

When in doubt, place the egg in water. If it floats, toss it. If it sinks, eat it!

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