Our readers pretty much enjoyed one of our previous articles about the egg yolk color and this made us – the typesofchicken.com team to do a lot of research aimed strongly towards eggs, the color, the ingredients and such. Going through many pages of information we acquired we found a very interesting question, what is the difference between a fertile and infertile egg?

It took some time but we finally got to do this article, so without any further ado here are all the important differences and similarities between fertile and infertile eggs brought to you by the typesofchicken.com team.

1. For an egg to be fertile it needs to contain the genetic materials both of a hen and a rooster, if an egg contains only the genetic materials of a hen – then it is infertile.

2. Both fertile and infertile eggs can be eaten but almost every store bought egg is infertile because fertile eggs have the possibility to hatch. In most countries every egg that is in stores for sale has been inspected.

3. In fertile eggs the blastoderm is in bullseye form and develops into an embryo while in infertile eggs the blastodisc is in an irregular shape. When the egg is fertile the blastodisk becomes known as the blastoderm. It is the blastoderm that later develops into a chick.

4. There is no scientific evidence that fertile eggs contain more nutritious materials that infertile eggs. What makes an egg be more nutritious is how you feed your chickens.

5. There is no taste difference between fertile and infertile eggs. The taste is also dependant on the food you give to your chickens.

6. Contrary to popular belief a blood spot in an egg does not mean that it is fertile. Blood spots in eggs can appear for many different reasons such as a broken blood vessel in a hens stomach during the process of reproduction or Vitamin A deficiency.

7. Although many people agree that candling an egg can tell you if it is fertile or not, the typesofchicken.com team couldn`t find any conclusive evidence that this process always works.

Candling an egg can tell you if it is fertile only in incubated eggs after a minimum of 4 days which could still be inconclusive. The only 100% sure way to check if an egg fertile is to break the egg and identify the blastodisc or the blastoderm we mentioned above. Or wait it out.

8. Both fertile and infertile eggs can give you egg-related diseases, the only way to make sure that your eggs are safe to eat is to keep them at a safe temperature and make sure the chicken they came from is healthy.

These are the most important differences and similarities between fertile and infertile eggs, if you agree or disagree with some of these, feel free to share your experience in comments bellow. Or you can contact us via email: support@typesofchicken.com