[Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles and fertilized chicken eggs

[Saint Phlip]

On 3/24/07, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> I'm also not sure how to take this description of straining out the
> chicken embryos. Basically yuck, I think. And wasteful. Does using
> fertilized chicken eggs affect the consistency or the taste of the
> white/yolk that remains?
>
> I was also, at first, wondering why they were using fertilized
> chicken eggs at all. Today you avoid that by simply not having
> roosters around. Perhaps this is evidence that the hens were not
> penned but were allowed to run around free, with the roosters, and
> finding what they could to eat.
>
> Stefan
> --------

Stefan-

Until modern times, chickens were essentially free range. Roosters and
elderly hens were generally eaten as chicken- the eggs were used as
eggs. However, since often eggs got laid wherever the hen was when she
had the urge, it wasn't always possible to determine how old they
were, and whether or not they'd been set on.

My eggs are fertile too, but it's very unlikely you'll ever have to
strain the embryos out of them, simply because the eggs get collected
every day, unless I'm letting them be set (and I mark any eggs for
that purpose). And, while I let my girls free range, weather
permitting, they have nesting boxes where they lay most of their eggs.
Got 9 yesterday ;-)

If you look at an egg, the yolk is essentially food for the developing
chicks, and the white is essentially shock absorption. The reason that
babies can be shipped all over the US right after birth, is that as
long as you keep them reasonably warm (and requiring certain numbers
of chicks/ducklings/goslings/poults to be shipped at one time helps
this) they don't need to eat for a couple of days, because they're
still reabsorbing the yolks into their bodies- in essence, feeding
themselves.

One thing the hens will do is lay the eggs in a safe place, and leave
them alone until they have a full clutch. Then they come back and set
them, and all of them start developing at once, soi they all hatch
about the same time. My hens will continue to set until about 48 hours
after the first egg hatches- after that, they give it up as a bad job.

This has implications today, for my chickens. One thing you do is try
to save the largest eggs because they're likely to be the most healthy
(understanding breed differences- last summer I let the girls set the
banty eggs). If you save those eggs, and keep them above freezing, and
below setting temp, you can pick and choose which eggs you want to
save. Johann told me that you can actually keep them in the fridge for
a few days. Had a dozen I was going to put out- 6 to the Tag Team
banties, 3 to Princess Layer, and 3 to the black hen, but then worked
out a deal with a neighbor, where we'll swap eggs, to increase both
our flocks, and give each of us a wider gene pool.

But, all my girls lay fertile eggs, and no, I don't strain embryos out of them.

-- 
Saint Phlip

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