Originally posted by 2kitties
interesting. So, if there is no rooster, the hens will lay the eggs, but they would never hatch? And the eggs we eat are unfertilized?
Yep. I do believe some of the free range ones are fertilized though, but the ones from the main egg farms that you get in any store are unfertilized and won't hatch. I had no idea birds can lay eggs without a mate, until I got the cockatiels, and read so much about them. The book I got had a FAQ section, and one of the question was related to females and eggs...........why some female birds would lay when there was no male. Anyway, after that, I asked my mom about chicken eggs.............if it was the same with them, and she said most of the chicken eggs we buy are *not* fertilized. Just eggs laid by females who don't have a mate. Explains why some of the free range egg cartons say *fertilized* on them........because most eggs are not.