An unfertilized egg WILL NEVER develop a chick even if the mother hen incubates it. A fertilized egg COULD develop into a chick under the right circumstances. Even if you have a rooster, as long as you are collecting eggs every day you will not crack open an egg to find a developing chick.
Parthenogenesis is the development of embryos from a single unfertilized egg. In nature, it occurs in aphids, fish, reptiles, scorpions, mites and some bees—but not in mammals.
This is all fine and dandy if your chicken does have eggs to hatch, but sometimes, a chicken will sit on unfertilized eggs or even imaginary eggs. Hens raised without roosters can't lay fertile eggs, but they can still go broody and attempt to sit on a clutch of eggs.
NOT KILLING A LIFE: Much to contrary belief, neither fertilized nor unfertilized eggs contain chicks that are meant to be born. To make a chick, a hen has to mate with a rooster. Farms which breed hens for edible eggs keep roosters away from them so that this fertilization process is not completed.
A broody hen may sit on unfertilized eggs for six or seven weeks before she gives up. Between the minimal diet and the increased body temperature, that's not good for her health. A broody won't lay eggs.
Clearly, if there is no rooster involved, then the eggs won't be fertile, and she can sit on top of the eggs for the rest of her life, but they still won't hatch! There is no exact science to exactly what makes a hen go broody – it's a combination of its hormones, instinct, and maturity.
If her eggs are unfertilized or sitting on 'invisible' eggs, she needs to be broken. She will sit until something hatches- which clearly isn't going to happen! This prolonged period of brooding takes a lot out of the hen.
An egg only survives 12 to 24 hours after ovulation. If sperm doesn't' fertilize the egg, your body reabsorbs it. Unlike your egg, sperm can survive for several days in your body.
If the egg is not fertilized, the lining of the uterus, which has thickened to prepare for fertilization, sheds through menstruation. The first day of heavy flow marks the first day of your next cycle, and the process begins again.
Calcium deficiency causes a chicken to seek out a supplemental diet of egg shell. Chickens may also eat their eggs due to accidental discovery. If a chicken coop is crowded, a chicken can very easily break an egg. Once the egg is broken, the chicken may begin to eat the yolk and develop a taste for eggs.
Did you know you can determine if an egg is fertile or not by looking at the germ spot? The germ spot is the white spot on the yolk. The non-fertile germ spot contains only the female's cells and looks like a solid white spot. In a fertile egg the germ spot contains both the female and male cells.
The next question is perhaps, "Why do chickens lay unfertilized eggs at all?" The reason is that the egg is mostly developed before being fertilized. The chicken cannot know in advance whether the egg will end up fertilized or not, so it just has to go ahead and grow the egg in the hopes that it will be fertilized.
After an egg is cracked, the way to tell if it is fertilized is to look at the yolk. Unfertilized eggs may have a white dot, but fertilized eggs will have a concentric circle around the white dot. In other words, the white dot will have a bullseye appearance.
Freezing eggs is more common and doesn't require a woman to have a partner or sperm donor yet. “There's certainly a lot of eggs and embryos out there that are frozen and may never be used,” she said. “For embryos, some people may have more ethical considerations and may be more comfortable with unfertilized eggs.”
During the average woman's menstrual cycle there are six days when intercourse can result in pregnancy; this “fertile window” comprises the five days before ovulation and the day of ovulation itself.
An unfertilized egg slowly stops producing hormones and dissolves as the body prepares for menstruation.
Each cycle, maybe 15–20 follicles are activated, but when they don't mature, they get “reabsorbed” (AKA, they die). This process is called “atresia.”
How The Chicken Incubates Eggs Naturally. In nature, the female bird selects the nest site and lays a clutch of eggs (usually 8 to 13 eggs), one egg per day. Once she has a clutch of eggs, she begins sitting on the eggs full time, leaving only for food and water.
An egg candler is a small handheld device that shines a bright light through the eggshell, allowing you to see the inside of the egg. If the embryo is still alive, you should be able to see blood vessels and movement inside the egg. However, if the embryo has died, you may see no movement or blood vessels.
If the egg is fertile, then you should see a dark spot around the middle of the egg, with some spider-like veins beginning to form around it. If its not, you should just be able to see the shape of the yellow yolk inside the egg, without any signs of an embryo or veins.
Day 22 or 23: It's Housekeeping Time
Once the chicks have hatched, remove any shells or unhatched eggs from the nest and replace the bedding with fresh litter. If you are worried some chicks are yet to hatch, you can put the egg to your ear and listen for pipping, or you can candle them and look for movement.
Some abandon the eggs after a number of days or weeks, or worse- they kill the chicks that hatch. Unfortunately, the only way to know whether a hen will be a good mother is by being a good mother.