How to check if a chicken egg is fertilised

Checking if a chicken egg is fertilised can be a bit tricky without specialised equipment, but there are a few simple methods you can try. Keep in mind that these methods might not provide a definitive answer, but they can give you a general idea. Remember that the most accurate way to determine if an egg is fertilised is through egg candling, which involves shining a light through the egg to observe its contents.

(See our blog post about eggs and incubation for more details)

Egg Candling: While not as simple as the other methods, egg candling is the most accurate way to determine if an egg is fertilised. You can do this by holding a bright light or candle against the egg in a dark room. A fertilised egg will show some development, such as veins, a dark spot (the embryo), and a shadowy mass. ( I tend to use my Iphone light in a very dark room. This seems to do the trick!)

Egg Development: If you crack open an egg and see a small dot-like structure on the yolk (called the blastodisc), it indicates that the egg was not fertilised. If there's a small white ring around the dot (the blastoderm), it suggests that the egg might be fertilised.

Egg Behaviour in an Incubator: If you're incubating eggs, you might notice that some eggs start to develop over time while others remain unchanged. Eggs that are being incubated without a rooster's contribution will not develop into embryos. If an egg has been fertilised and it is developing into a chick, the weight of the egg will change. The development of a chick will use the water content in the shell. The weight of the egg will get lighter during the incubation process.

These are just a few tips that might help you determine if your eggs are fertile or not!

How To Break A Broody Hen

You’ll find every so often that your hens will go broody when you don’t want them too! There’s a few things you can do to break the broody hen cycle.

Signs of a broody hen

Before a hen goes into a their full on ‘broody mode’ there are a few signs that you might notice. A hen might staying closer to the coop more than normal. They might go off their food and stay away from other hens. The biggest tell-tale sign is when a normally calm hen becomes aggressive to her fellow hens. She might peck or hiss at other females or fluff themselves up to threaten other hens.

If this behaviour starts, ensure that you collect the eggs as often as you can, if there’s no eggs to sit on you may be able to break the cycle before it begins!

What to do

For most hens removing the eggs will break the cycle after a few days. If this doesn’t work, try removing the bedding too. Hens want to make a nice comfortable area to brood, taking the bedding away makes a more uncomfortable environment. If both of these techniques don’t work and your hen is super committed to brooding, then just fake it. We use fake eggs, but a golf ball will work just as well.

Beware

When a hen is broody they aren’t the friendliest of things., some of them can be nasty. Most of the aggression comes across in their posture. If you have a hen that’s extremely aggressive you will need to take extra precautions to keep yourself safe.

• Wear a long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt

• Use heavy leather gloves to protect your hands

• If you can, have someone help you by grabbing the eggs while you hold the hen.

• Always reach under the hen from the back.

Even if your broody hen is aggressive, you’ll need to remove the eggs at least every other day, otherwise you’ll end up with chicks or a down right mess in your coop.

How To Tell If Your Eggs Are Fertile

We have a few local chicken keepers who keep trying to hatch their own eggs, but are having no success. The first thing to do is check if the eggs are fertile. You can do that a few ways. The simplest way of checking fertility is to crack open an egg from the hens and cockerel you’re planning on breeding from. You’ll only need to open 1 or 2 in the few days running up to your incubation.

When you crack open the egg, if it’s fertile, you’ll notice a small white spot on the top of the yolk about 4mm in width. This is called the germinal disc. This is what tells you if the egg has been fertilised. This disc is formed with a single cell from the female and a single sperm from the male. The female cell contains half the number of chromosomes and the male, the other half. After fertilisation of the two halves the resultant cell divides into two and these two cells grow and divide again until by the time the egg is laid, the mass of cells is visible as the germinal disc. During incubation, this mass of cells will further grow, divide and specialise to form the resultant chick, using the remainder of the egg contents as food. Below is an image of one of our Araucana eggs, you can clearly see the white spot in the top of the yolk, indicating that this egg was fertile.

You can also check the fertility of the egg during incubation. This is called candling the eggs. This step normally takes place during the 9th day of incubation. We use a Brinsea machine to candle the eggs.

This allows you to pop the egg on the stand, cover it over with the lid and look through the eye piece to see if there is any fertilisation and development of the egg. Below is a chart of what sort of development you are looking for at the different stages.

Hatching Chicks With A Broody Hen

You’d presume it would be a natural instinct for a hen to want to hatch her own chicks, but that’s definitely not always the case. At Higher Oak farm, because we breed rare breed hens, it’s really hard to get them to hatch and rear their own chicks. We’ve only been successful with 1 Araucana hen that’s naturally hatched and raised her own chicks. Having said that, we still hatch and rear hundreds of chicks by using special brooding hens. We use Silkie hens, as we’ve found these guys live for hatching their own chicks. We collect and choose which breed we want to hatch more of and swap the eggs from underneath a broody hen with the eggs we want to hatch (We do this at night to help keep the hen calm).

We try and utilise broody hens as often as we can. There are so many benefits to having the chicks being brought up by another hen. It takes away the issues of using incubators as the hen does everything naturally. The chicks will grow up understanding their environment a lot more as they’ve learnt everything from the mother hen. They are more wary of people to begin with, but soon understand that you’re the one that will feed them and they become a lot more friendly!

Common broody hen breeds

Some of the most common broody breeds are Cochins, Orpingtons, Brahmas, Silkies, Sussexes, and Marans. There are other common heritage breeds that will go broody (Cornish, Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, and Turkens, to name a few), but you may have more trouble keeping them on the nest. If you want to hatch eggs without an incubator, don’t take your chances on regular breeds. Instead, get broody breeds!

Signs of a good brooder

You may notice that the same hen has been sitting on the nest for quite a while. You might think, “she’s broody!” But that isn’t always the case. In fact, it’s often not the case. Sometimes hens just get tired and lay in the box to rest. Others abandon the nest after 24-hours. Here’s some signs of a good broody.

• She’s a permanent sitter - She sits on the nest all day and all night when you leave eggs in the nest. She’ll not get up to roost in the evening with the other chickens. She’ll sit on the nest longer than 24-hours, and she’ll return to the nest quickly after getting a drink and bite to eat.

• She screams at you - Broody hens can be vicious things, and rightfully so. They have the ultimate prize to protect! If you try to remove her from the nest, she’ll puff up and make a shrill noise while resisting all your efforts.

• Broody poop - If you’ve had a hen that’s been sitting on the nest all day, she’s been retaining her poop. When she finally gets off the nest, her manure will be larger than normal and stink. Don’t worry, you’ll know the difference when you smell it and see it

• She lays fairly flat - While laying hens will sit in the nesting box, brooders tend to lay flat, making sure they cover all of the eggs.

We always take the broody hen out from the flock and into a separate pen where she can brood in peace. We tried to let the hen brood and hatch in the run but unfortunately the other hens and cockerel did not take it well and killed the chicks. It’s safe to say, we'll never be doing that again! If you don’t have another separate coop you can use any of the below:

-An old doghouse as long as there is an enclosed area where the hen can go outside safely.

-An enclosed pet carrier or dog crate

-Rabbit Hutch

-Small portable chicken coop with run.

Hatching the eggs

1. Bedding - Make sure she has plenty of fresh straw in her nesting area, deep enough to protect the eggs from hard surfaces.

2. Food and Water - Give the hen plenty of food and water. Place the food and water near her nesting spot to encourage her to get up once or twice a day.

3. Make sure she gets back on the nest - If she gets off the nest for long enough for the eggs to start getting cold, just coax her back into the nest using treats or pop her back on the nest.

4. Hatching- It takes about 3 weeks for eggs to hatch. Make a note of the day she goes broody, about half way through you might want to look at candling the eggs to take out any that aren’t viable. Once the chicks start to pip (crack the shell) keep an eye on them. Most of them should hatch on their own but you’ll want to be on hand to help if there’s any hiccups.

Congratulations on your new arrivals!

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Incubator Vs Broody Hen

As we are entering the brooding/Hatching season, we wanted to post about the pro’s and con’s of hatching chicks with an incubator and hatching with a broody hen.

Pro’s to hatching chicks with broody hens

The really great thing about hens is that they go broody and then can hatch and look after their own chicks. Hens are completely self-sufficient with their chicks which makes it super easy for you.

One major bonus about using a broody hen is that they don't need a heat lamp. The hen generates her own heat to keep the chicks warm and they’ll cuddle right up inside her to keep warm.

Con’s to hatching chicks with broody hens

One big downfall about hatching with a broody is that it’s in natures hands and they are not always broody when you need them to be! They can also be quite vicious when it comes to handling. We’re currently putting together a new blog post on how to break a broody hen, watch this space for more information.
Broody hens are also not always reliable. They can get bored of sitting and just get off the nest and not come back, leaving the eggs to go cold. This is not to be confused for the bird getting off the nest for food and water.

Hens can also be destructive. Once in a while you can come across a hen that doesn’t know what they are doing. We had an instance where the hen sat until all the chicks hatched and then she unfortunately killed them all as she was a first time mum and didn’t quite know what she was doing. However, this is a rare occasion, but it does sometimes happen.

Pros to hatching with an incubator

In an incubator you have full control of how many eggs you can start to incubate. You also have control of when they will hatch. Hens can go broody at all sorts of times, and aren’t necessarily aware of the convenience for you.

When hatching chicks in an incubator you get to watch the process more closely. Chicks that are hatched in an incubator can generally be handled more easily because they don’t have a mother hen chasing them around. Some people argue that incubator chicks are more friendly as they are used to you being around and rely on you for food and water.

Cons to hatching with an incubator

Clearly hatching with an incubator means that you actually need an incubator and depending on the spec these can be quite pricey. You are also in control of the chicks. It’s up to you to decide when a hatch is finished and if you are to help a struggling chick (I always do, just because I’m a softie and can’t leave them to die) and these decisions are not always easy to make.

If you hatch chicks from an incubator your situation will be exactly like if you’d purchased the chicks. They will need heat, water and food. Your chicks will need to be kept separate from the rest of your flock until they are old enough that they would not be picked on.

Which way is best?

There are pros and cons to both hatching methods, but it’s entirely up to you and your set up and what you want to deal with.