Mythbusting Monday: There’s A Chicken in my Egg!

So I’m sure that everyone knows someone who at one time claimed they bought a carton of eggs from the grocery store and one of them had a chick in it. The truth behind this myth, it is absolutely impossible. (well unless you are buying farm eggs from places that are not large farms that produce only eggs for eating,  most, if not all eggs sold at grocery stores are from large egg producing farms)

from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/


Although there are some breeds of chickens that are both good for meat and egg production most farms specialize in a breed that is good for one or the other. A large commercial farm that produces eggs for consumers buys their chickens from hatcheries; they buy only female chickens because roosters are not needed for chickens to produce eggs. The only way that an egg can have a chick in it is if it is first fertilized by a male. Since there are no male chickens on the premises of commercial egg producing farms finding a chick in your egg is impossible.

But this all being said, obviously if someone is to claim they found a chick in an egg bought from the super market they had to have seen something. What they most likely mistake for chicks are actually just deformities that happen when the egg is being produced. There is no way you can get a chick out of an egg produced on a commercial farm!