checking egg fertility

Hi again folks.

Lucy C was wondering how to check eggs for fertility before they start developing.

Well, this is how:

Crack the egg into a shallow dish. Wiggle it around a little bit and under some good light, look at the yolk until you see a little raised opaque dot/blob. It usually rises to the top of the yolk with a bit of a gentle wiggle. Do not confuse this little blobby bit with the taily bits at either end of the yolk that hold the yolk suspended evenly inside the egg. The little blobby bit you are looking for is actually the tiny fertilised bit of the egg - the zygote? It is attached to the yolk because the yolk becomes the food source for the little chick or duckling when it hatches.

Anyway, in a fertilised egg, this tiny little blobby bit looks a bit like a text book picture of Saturn - a tiny dot with fine whitish concentric circles around it. In an unfertilised egg, this little blobby bit is cloudy and unorganised. The difference is unmistakable once you have seen a fertilised egg.

Regardless of whether the egg is fertilised or not, it is probably time to pop the thing into a heated pan with a blob of butter, or into some muffin mix 'cause there is nothing you can do with it now except eat it!

Lucy C you could try this on one or two of your duck eggs - seems the little buggers are wasting them!

Let me know how you go.