diifference between fertile and unfertile eggs

[LePatron7]

Hi everyone.

I'm curious as to the difference between fertile and unfertile eggs.

Thanks.

[TylerDurden]

Fertile eggs have a much lower load of avidin in them, which is an antinutrient. Plus, I suspect that, like with spouts and seeds, fertilised eggs have a higher level of nutrients in them than unfertilised eggs.

[Joy2012]

Do they taste different?

I have never seen fertile eggs in grocers, not even in Whole Foods. Do small farmers sell fertile eggs?

[goodsamaritan]

Hi everyone.

I'm curious as to the difference between fertile and unfertile eggs.

Thanks.

Fertilized eggs are ALIVE.
Fertilized eggs can mature into real live birds!

[jessica]

they dont taste different, sometimes there can be a little bit more growth in the egg, like little spots in the yolk, but usually nothing too large or gross.... there are a few larger companies that produce fertile eggs but for the most part large factories dont have roosters because they arent necessary to create eggs, hens will lay regardless and roosters would just be another mouth to feed, and require more quality control so that over developed eggs didnt make it to the store and also i think roosters make hens competitive.  if you have a local farmer just ask him if he has a rooster, thats not to say all of the eggs will be fertilized but some may be

[LePatron7]

Well, a food club I'm a part of has fertilized eggs.

If they're more nutrient dense and less anti-nutrients I'd love some.

[Dorothy]

If you have the choice between eggs from chickens fed exactly the same way either fertilized or unfertilized - then definitely go for the fertilized because that's what you would find in nature but............... chickens are really insectivores/carnivores and then eat some seeds (mostly sprouted in the wild) and have extreme protein and mineral needs to pump out those perfect proteins almost every day for you. The problem is that even the very best chicken feed is far from ideal.

Let's analyze the very best non-soy (soy bad for chickens) organic feed I was able to find for my chickens. It's only 3 grains and the grains are ground up already so that the nutrients are compromised over time - especially the fats. The protein is a low-percentage (never over 30%) and it comes from fish but those fish are processed at very high heat and dehydrated. There is dried alfalfa for greens, a little kelp and synthetic vitamins.

My chickens on the other hand I let out in the morning and don't feed them so that they will forage for food in the yard. They find bugs, snakes, mice etc. and eat lots of native greenery and grasses. In the afternoon I feed them bugs I raise and feed well myself and slankers pet food (whole grass-fed ground up cow - which they go nuts for) and organic whole grains (human grade from the store I shop at for myself) that I sprout for them in purified water. I give them supplements of my home-made grass-fed fermented whey with wide-array of greens/veggies and 8 different ground seaweeds. My chickens are out all day farting around and enjoying life in the sunshine.

The problem is that there is no chicken feed that really supports a chicken - that's why they usually stop laying at 2 or 3 years old. 3 of mine are going on 6 and they laid the same amount as they did when a year old - just bigger - and it's almost impossible to let a chicken forage to find all its own food - you'd have to have a very big area for each chicken. No farmer could afford to feed their chickens ideally - but some farmers AT LEAST don't feed gmo or soy (real bad) and let the chickens go about and eat some greenery (real good) and catch a bug at least once in a while - which is better than nothing! The feeds just don't have enough protein or minerals so to get even enough to survive on you need a farmer that lets their chickens forage.

That's why I'd rather eat my chickens' eggs than anyone else's eggs whether fertilized or not. First order of business - find a farmer that lets their chickens forage, feeds the best food and THEN worry whether or not the eggs are fertilized.

[LePatron7]

The chickens are 100% pastured. So no feed, right?

[Dorothy]

I'm can't be 100% positive what 100% means. That usually means that they live out in the open, but does not necessarily mean that they are not fed chicken food as well. But.......... that is GREAT news. That means that they do get to scratch around for bugs and get to eat greens. You might want to ask the farmer how much space the chickens get to roam in. The more the better because then the more bugs and greens. Some say pastured but the "pasture" is so small that there is not one leaf of grass left in it and not one bug could survive. But....... really ........... sounds promising! Ask the farmer if they supplement feed and what kind.

[reyyzl]

... and require more quality control so that over developed eggs didnt make it to the store and also i think roosters make hens competitive.  if you have a local farmer just ask him if he has a rooster, thats not to say all of the eggs will be fertilized but some may be

At a small farm like where I get eggs, the eggs the farmer gathers are from that same day's laying. Once the eggs are away from the warmth of the mother hen's bottom, the eggs don't develop any farther.  It's a small farm and I have not seen competitiveness, but perhaps they would be more docile with no roosters.  Most of the eggs that they check are fertilized at this one.  It's hard to get the non-fertilized ones.

[Joy2012]

Let's analyze the very best non-soy (soy bad for chickens) organic feed I was able to find for my chickens. It's only 3 grains and the grains are ground up already so that the nutrients are compromised over time - especially the fats. The protein is a low-percentage (never over 30%) and it comes from fish but those fish are processed at very high heat and dehydrated. There is dried alfalfa for greens, a little kelp and synthetic vitamins.

So how nutritious are the "organic eggs" sold at grocers?  How does an "organic egg" compare with 100% grass fed beef nutritionally?

After all, an egg contains a whole chicken...

[jessica]

i am sure most organic eggs are more nutritious then regular eggs, but its a mater of relativity because regular eggs arent that nutritious at all

pastured eggs, and as dorothy said, you have to make sure you know your farmer and your pasture because that is a relative term as well, are definitely more nutrient dense, you can see and taste it in the yolk and white, the yolk will be dense and almost orange, my farmer calls it "cheddar cheese" and the white will be very firm.  you can clearly taste the nutrition and they are definitely more filling.  usually if i get a good yolk one is almost satisfying on its own for a meal, they are delicious.........

[goodsamaritan]

My wife just brought home fertilized duck eggs from the pristine island of Palawan... our last frontier in the Philippines.  These fertilized duck eggs are always super duper yummy compared to our other more commercial sources.

I can just imagine how much more delicious primitive paleo life was.

Of course the eggs they got back then were in various stages of development.

[Joy2012]

jissica, thank you for your reply....So modern eggs are not that nutritious    ... I grew up hearing always that eggs are most nutritious...

GS, is Paradise in Phillipines or is it just that you are very resourceful in finding out the best primitive food items in Phillipines?    You are always reporting your wonderful Paleo diet food choices that make the rest of us envious...

[goodsamaritan]

jissica, thank you for your reply....So modern eggs are not that nutritious    ... I grew up hearing always that eggs are most nutritious...

GS, is Paradise in Phillipines or is it just that you are very resourceful in finding out the best primitive food items in Phillipines?    You are always reporting your wonderful Paleo diet food choices that make the rest of us envious...

With Palawan, it's just luck.  My wife's work takes her back and forth to Palawan. 

[Dorothy]

Joy - organic eggs can mean that the chickens are kept in a dark horrible place in small cages fed nothing but organic chicken feed (maybe even not as good as I described above). Organic does not mean pastured and pastured can mean that there is just one small hole that only a few chickens can get out of for a few minutes a day.

It makes all the difference if you know your farmer - even if they just tell you what the conditions are!

Some farmers have these things called chicken tractors. They are basically bottomless coops that they pull behind their tractor from place to place on their land. These actually can be pretty good eggs because if the tractor is moved daily there is a daily supply of new bugs and greens for the chickens to eat. The farmer gets her land cleared of weeds and bugs, tilled by the chickens scratching and fertilized by the chicken poop. It's a win/win situation. But there is nothing really as good as chicken eggs that are from hens allowed complete freedom (and the joy the hen experiences with this) AND supplemented with extremely nutritious foods. Chickens that are given high meat, maggots, extra bugs fed superfoods, fermented raw whey, seaweed etc. I have learned make an egg like no other I've ever tasted. Most chickens are running on empty  nutritionally even if allowed to fully forage because they have been engineered to lay more eggs than should ever be possible. A wild chicken would never lay 200 - 300 legs a year! To do such a feat a chicken needs mega nutrition to stay really healthy.

That being said though --- Joy --- the egg is a superior food to just about anything you can find in a regular supermarket - even the inferior eggs they have there.

If you can get a farmer who feeds organic and no soy and who lets their chickens out on good pasture you've hit the jackpot. If you find someone who will then not wash those eggs and not refrigerate those eggs for you - you've won the lottery. If you can raise your own chickens then you are in heaven. I adore my chickens. They add so much to my life not only with the eggs, but with their sweet, delightful little selves. They make me smile and laugh out loud with their antics every day.

As far as roosters go - it's usually the rooster that will stress out some of their hens and sometimes their favorite one or two get extremely stressed. The hens I don't think get more aggressive. I know lots of people that have roosters with their cuddly and gentle pet hens. Roosters will protect the chickens, but without predators we have little use for a rooster. Some roosters can be quite aggressive towards humans and the hens are usually a lot happier without them actually. There's really nothing for a rooster to be protecting or warning about here and it's not like they are going across long distances looking for food like they would be in the wild where a rooster would bring the hens to food sources he finds. I have no need for new chicks so his sperm isn't needed for that. Unfertilized eggs stay fresh longer. The only thing a rooster would do is maybe make the whites perhaps better to eat - but I hate the taste of raw egg whites anyway. I dehydrate the whites and feed them to the bugs which I then feed to the hens. I also feed the hens back their eggshells. I try to get back into the hens as much of the nutrition that I take from them when eating those yummy yolks as I can. It's truly amazing to me how much extreme nutrient dense food hens will eat if given to them and how much they seem to need it. My twelve hens would gladly eating a few pounds of slankers pet food a day if I could afford to feed that to them. They will steal it from the cats or dogs and attack them to get at it. The bugs I raise are second place in the running - and those are free so they get lots of those. The other nutrient dense foods like superfood greens, whey, seaweeds etc. are third and sprouted seeds are last on the list and their least favorite food -- it's their backup food -- yet hens in captivity eat probably 80% seeds - and unsprouted at that. 

[PaleoPhil]

My wife just brought home fertilized duck eggs from the pristine island of Palawan... our last frontier in the Philippines.  These fertilized duck eggs are always super duper yummy compared to our other more commercial sources.

I can just imagine how much more delicious primitive paleo life was.

Of course the eggs they got back then were in various stages of development.

Duck eggs, my favorite! Do you eat balut at all, GS?

[goodsamaritan]

I think almost all Filipinos eat cooked balut eggs.
I tried eating a live balut egg once but I'm not primal enough.

[Dorothy]

Had to google balut - oh my - you would have to be pretty primal! Probably pretty good for you though.

I know much less about ducks than chickens - but do plan on getting ducks as well.  I'm all set up and ready to go.  My understanding is that their diet is pretty much 100% bugs, grass, water creatures and water plants.  Makes me wonder about raising ducks without a pond that has a healthy ecosystem -- most duck eggs are from ducks that are fed duck feeds just like chickens. I haven't gotten to analyze any duck feeds yet. The drakes (male ducks) are quiet and not aggressive like roosters so the upside of ducks is that I could have fertilized eggs too.

[Joy2012]

Dorothy, you are an active energetic woman! You are running a zoo of small animals (including bugs).

Maybe one day you will write a book, to educate people about super nutrition and also to share your fun expereince of supplying your own foods from your pet animals and garden.

That being said though --- Joy --- the egg is a superior food to just about anything you can find in a regular supermarket - even the inferior eggs they have there.

Do you mean you think even supermarket organic eggs are superior in nutrition?

[PaleoPhil]

<<Warning to the squeamish, graphic talk in this post.>>

I think almost all Filipinos eat cooked balut eggs.
I tried eating a live balut egg once but I'm not primal enough.

Wow, I did not know that balut are alive and are thus boiled alive. That strikes even a meatatarian like me as rad, but of course, in the wild, animals are commonly eaten alive, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

[Dorothy]

Dorothy, you are an active energetic woman! You are running a zoo of small animals (including bugs).

Maybe one day you will write a book, to educate people about super nutrition and also to share your fun expereince of supplying your own foods from your pet animals and garden.

Do you mean you think even supermarket organic eggs are superior in nutrition?

My husband tells me Joy that I am taking this sustainability thing too far. I get some chickens so then I have to get the bugs and then I have to produce the food for the bugs in a garden then get worms to make fertilizer for the garden on and on. I decided that I want another whole animal protein source for the chickens besides the slankers (has to be ordered and kind of expensive) so I now am looking into raising fish for the chickens, but the fish need little shrimp and to raise tiny shrimp you need to farm algae. Oy! Where will it end?! I really do enjoy it though. It's my strange hobby. Thanks for saying that I'm active because I've been feeling kind of sluggish - but I think that's just a relative thing. I guess I still do more than the SAD dieter would be able to do.

As far as store-bought eggs - look at their competition in the regular supermarket. The isles and isles of package toxins. At least you know that the egg at least came out of animal! The chicken might not have been fed great or treated well, but in the chicken industry they only keep chickens a year so those chickens are working off of their stores. Eggs as of yet aren't cooked or pasteurized. The worst part of eating a store-bought egg is the nasty stuff they put on the egg to preserve it - so I definitely wouldn't eat the egg whites of store-bought eggs as that is a protective layer that would absorb the toxins before the yolk. Unlike the meat section of your regular store the egg comes in a protective shell and is not sliced and exposed to as much potentially real nasty stuff. There are ways to test eggs to see if they are fresh. They are a complete protein with amazing fat content and as close to a complete food as one can imagine. Chickens aren't usually fed as many antibiotics and hormones and other nonsense as cows are and at least chickens CAN eat grains
whereas a cow eating grains plays pure havoc on them. Again organic farm or home raised is completely different but if stuck in a lousy supermarket eggs beat just about anything else in there.

I would say that just about any whole raw food raised the right way on an organic farm is pretty much better than anything at all you can find in your regular old supermarket - but in terms of what you can find in a supermarket - eggs rule the roost.

[goodsamaritan]

<<Warning to the squeamish, graphic talk in this post.>>Wow, I did not know that balut are alive and are thus boiled alive. That strikes even a meatatarian like me as rad, but of course, in the wild, animals are commonly eaten alive, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

My 8 year old boy's next personal project is to buy balut eggs and pay an incubator to hatch them.
(We didn't succeed with a light bulb in our first batch).

[PaleoPhil]

Talk of duck eggs and meat reminds me of this video:

Dan Barber: A surprising parable of foie gras
Dan Barber: A surprising parable of foie gras

[goodsamaritan]

This guy came to the same conclusions I did as a raw paleo dieter and marketer and chief cook in the home.  Our home cooked meals are the best because I pick the freshest, most organic, or wild meats / veggies / fruits available.

The video you posted is awesome!
Healthy foie gras.
This is fantastic.
I'll bet this foie gras is medicinal.
Where do we buy such a product?
Need to look for it.