Ask a Question
or
Create a Poll
  1. Home /
  2. Questions /
  3. Science
  4. / Biology
  5. / Animals & Wildlife
  6. / Birds
  7. / Fowl

by anonymous on October 16th, 2006

anonymous

Question

Help answer this question below.

Is an egg basically a chicken's period?

  • Like
  • Report
Share:
Other

Answers. 6 helpful answers below.

  • by singwell-is off researching a lot on July 2nd, 2007

    singwell-is off researching a lot

    Like humans, chickens regulary ovulate. Like humans, chickens expel non fertilised eggs. The difference between chickens and humans is that humans will keep a fertilised egg in their body until birth. Chickens will expel both fertilised and unfertilised eggs, and only sit on the fertilised ones.
    I don't know if, when a hen expels an unfertilised egg, if there is fluid accompanying the expulsion. If so, then THAT would be the chicken's "period". I would guess though, that since they have no uterus, neither would they have a period, since a period is the expulsion of the unfertilised egg and the lining of the uterus prepared for fertilisation.

    • Like
    • Report

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by iwnit on July 2nd, 2007

    iwnit

    1) A very troubling question for animal friends!
    If the hen are running free with some rooster around, many eggs will be fertilized. So this would be an ovulation leading to a potential chicken, if good taken care of.
    If the hen do not have any rooster around, and either are running free or are in cages, no eggs will be fertilized. So this would be a period.

    2) "Actually, most everyone who buys organic eggs from pastured hens are buying fertilized eggs. This includes every egg sold at our area natural food stores, and the eggs coming from my farm. There's a big difference between fertilized eggs and eggs containing a fetal bird!
    Hens kept with roosters are happier, less stressed hens, and happier hens produce healthier, more nutritious eggs. Such eggs that are collected and refrigerated the day they are laid will look the same as sterile eggs. One egg myth claims that if you find a red dot on the yolk, that's the embryo, but really that's produced from a broken capillary during the egg production, and even sterile eggs can have those."
    "Back in the days prior to WWII, when poultry production in the South was really ramping up, eggs were shipped to the northern city in regular railroad cars. The shipping system was inefficient enough that boxcars of chirping chicks were a regular occurrence. Refrigerated boxcars came along just in time to save the industry."
    "Fertilized eggs at room temperature are in a sort of suspended animation. For a while (days, or a couple weeks), the egg is still viable without any development. Once the temps rise to the mid-nineties, development starts. Hens use this "feature" to make a pile of eggs all hatch at the same time, even though they may have been laid over a period of days. THe American practice of chilling the eggs makes them non-viable."
    Source:
    http://www.metafilter.com/47576/The-incredible-inedible-egg

    3) "how far along is the chick at the time it's laid?"
    http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/avianemb.htm
    "Cell division begins soon after fertilization, even while the rest of the egg is being formed. Cell division will continue if the egg is kept warmer than 67oF. The first cell division is completed about the time the egg enters the isthmus. Additional cell divisions take place about every 20 minutes; so, by the time of lay, several thousand cells form two layers of cells called a "gastrula."
    At this time the egg is laid, it cools, and embryonic development usually stops until proper environmental conditions are established for incubation. After incubation begins, the cellular growth resumes. At first, all the cells are alike, but as the embryo develops, cell differences are observed. Some cells may become vital organs; others become a wing or leg."
    "I can imagine how fertilized eggs might be more delicious although it might sound disgusiting. It would be like eating tender chicken meat wrapped inside egg shells."
    Source:
    http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-114741.html

    4) "Fertilized eggs would turn into chickens if properly cared for, unless they've been killed like from being refrigerated"
    Source:
    http://www.vegsource.com/animal/concerns/messages/22079.html

    5) So just because they refrigerate the eggs of happy hens, the embryos are killed and cannot develop.
    And the eggs of unhappy hens would not develop, anyway, because they were not fertilized.
    Except if the free running hens without a rooster were homosexual...

    6) here a description of what happens to all the roosters which they do not need:
    http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07158/791986-34.stm

    • Like
    • Report

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by AntigoneRising on October 16th, 2006

    AntigoneRising

    No, because an egg that has been laid by a chicken has already been fertilized.

    Edit:
    If you REMOVE the rooster, they won't. Ever had a "birds and the bees" discussion explaining sexual reproduction? :)

    • Like
    • Report

    2 comments | Post one | Permalink

  • by morganshotel on July 7th, 2009

    morganshotel

    i agree with you lots who think it is a chicken period. but there are some right weirdos out there who disagree" Justine ETC"

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by Anonymous on July 2nd, 2007

    Anonymous

    Yes. "Period" is generally defined as a periodic ovulation. No, the eggs we eat are not fertilized.

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by benthere on November 10th, 2006

    benthere

    the egg is the chickens baby

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

Want to attach an image to your answer? Click here.

Did this answer your question? If not, then ask a new question or create a poll.

More Questions. Additional questions in this category.

You're reading Is an egg basically a chicken's period?

Follow us on Facebook!

Related Ads

Related Questions

Professionally Researched

ANSWERBAG BUZZ

Egg white caused by chickens period
Chicken periods
Are eggs like a chickens period
Chicken period
How does a chicken know the egg is fertilised

Answerbag

a Demand Media company