Are store brought chicken eggs fertile?

Answer 1

Yes, but eggs purchased from grocery stores are almost never fertile unless they are farm fresh organic eggs. The eggs you buy from local farm stands are most often fertilized eggs since most farmers keep a rooster with the flock. Fertilized eggs are not distinguishable from non-fertilized eggs either visually or by taste. Unless incubation has occurred the regular consumer would never know one from the other.

Answer 2

At most egg farms, the hens aren't in contact with a rooster, so the eggs aren't fertile. However, in some smaller establishments, the hens are sometimes kept with roosters, in a more natural setting, so their eggs are quite often fertile. Fertile eggs are just fine to eat, as long as they are kept cool and you don't allow them to grow. You can even try to hatch the eggs, although they may have been kept in a refrigerator sometime before you bought them, making them un-hatchable. You can tell if an egg is fertile by cracking one open. On the yolk, there is a small white dot. In infertile eggs, it's just a tiny point, like a pinhead. However, in fertile eggs, the spot is bigger and looks slightly like a bullseye. If one or two of the eggs in a clutch are fertile, you can assume that the others are too, and try to hatch them.

Answer 3

The eggs in the store come from processing plants where the chickens are caged and all female. There is no rooster or any way for him to get to them if there was one. The rare exception could possible be free range eggs. Once in a while there might be a fertile one, but very rarely.