Old Dogs - New Tricks

They say you can’t teach an old dog a new trick, well maybe that’s true but you can teach and ol’ lady something new.

In one of our local 'chicken groups’ a question was posted about that weird looking white blob next to the egg yolk. The poster had mentioned that her friend had never had fresh eggs and it kinda freaked her out a bit because she thought it meant the egg was fertile and that it was the beginning of a little one.

Quite honestly I hadn’t really ever thought about it. Our chicken eggs could go either way because with 12 hens and 1 rooster, ya just never know who’s gonna lay what.

So back to the question: what IS that little white stringy looking stuff next to the yolk? That little white glob is called Chalaz. The Chalaz may hang out next to the yolk and in some instances it may travel across the yolk itself. Kinda strange that in all the years of having chickens and fresh eggs I never really even thought about it.

So here’s the scoop; This is called the chalazae. It is a ropey strand of egg white which anchors the yolk in place in the center of the thick white. They are neither imperfections nor beginning embryos. The more prominent the chalazae, the fresher the egg

So there you have it. Next time you crack an egg, check out it’s Chalaz and see how fresh it is.

Are you fertile?

Now, let’s chat about fertilized vs unfertilized; again I never really paid attention to whether it’s fertile or not.

I collect the eggs every day so even if they’re fertile they don’t have a chance to start the process because they’re not being sat on or put in an incubator. I just crack the egg and cook that sucker up.

Turns out the little white spec on the egg yolk looks like a bullseye if it’s not fertilized and looks more like a cluster if it is. I cracked open 3 eggs hoping to find an un-fertilized egg.

Well my little guy must be one happy camper because all 3 were fertilized :)