You know the magic of nature. The hen lays an egg and, a few days later… well, the shell cracks and out comes a small, living chick! We don’t teach you anything. But what about the egg you buy in stores?
The question has probably already crossed your mind while pushing your shopping cart through the shelves of a supermarket. Can these eggs, lined up militarily in the box of six or twelve that you are about to buy, also give birth to little chicks? We warn you, this explanation is not going to make you want to start making an omelette.
Precedents, but…
You may not believe it, but many people have already experienced this. In 2017, a Swiss YouTuber, for example, managed to hatch two organic chicken eggs purchased in a supermarket! In 2020, it is the turn of a British woman to give birth to three ducklings from duck eggs also purchased in supermarkets.
Well, let’s say it right away, their supermarket eggs were not just left there on a shelf until the day a chick or ducklings came out: the YouTuber, then the young British woman, had both followed a precise protocol for the miracle to happen. They had, among other things, placed them in an incubator, at a stable temperature of around 37.5°C, with a controlled humidity level, without forgetting to regularly turn the eggs. After a lot of patience, the magic happened.
The real question is: are the eggs you buy at the supermarket fertilized? In reality, it depends on the breeding method.
Is that all? We set the temperature, we adjust two or three parameters and bam, we get a chick straight out of our box of twelve? Not so fast, the matter is far from being so easy. It is still necessary that the conservation conditions and the quality of incubation are indeed respected. And above all that the egg is… fertilized!
No seed, no chick
Everything is in fact based on one essential element: fertilization. Yes, an egg can only hatch if it has been fertilized by a male before laying! Because contrary to popular belief, a hen (or a quail) lays eggs, even in the absence of a male. But these eggs will never produce chicks. No little seed, no little chick.
So the real question is: are the eggs you buy at the supermarket fertilized? In reality, it depends on the breeding method. For battery rearing, females are never in contact with males. No bad surprise then, the eggs are never fertilized.
For free-range or small farms, it’s a little different. Roosters may sometimes also be present and so some eggs could theoretically be fertilized. But this remains very rare for supermarket eggs.
For quail eggs, however, it’s a completely different story. Their breeding, often more artisanal, better respects the natural needs of the animals, in particular the presence of males. As a result, a large proportion of quail eggs can be fertilized! But once again, the outbreak is far from guaranteed. Storage conditions, but also transport, greatly reduce the chances.
Can you keep your chicken?
You will have understood that turning a supermarket egg into a little chick that will become a hen is far from easy. But let’s put pessimistic probabilities aside for a moment and look forward to a future filled with gallinaceous species. What if your supermarket egg really became a chicken, what would happen? Let’s put it this way: could you keep this little chick at home, in your apartment, to domesticate it?
The answer is… yes! Well, it’s a little more complicated. Most of the time, chickens are prohibited in apartments by co-ownership regulations. However, the rural code authorizes, in theory, the keeping of animals, at least if certain safety, hygiene and neighborhood rules are respected.
Chickens need space and suitable conditions, with at least two individuals, several square meters per animal and an outdoor enclosure (in Paris, this will cost you dearly). On a balcony or in a small space, chickens risk becoming stressed, not laying eggs and causing inconvenience, not to mention their well-being. Let’s keep it simple: in an apartment, it is therefore strongly discouraged to keep chickens.
In a house or on an allotment, keeping chickens is generally authorized outside of intensive breeding, subject, again, to respecting certain rules. Distances from homes, health regulations and administrative procedures, ranging from declaration to the town hall to the need to have a permit depending on the size of the henhouse. And it goes quickly, especially if you start with a box of twelve eggs.
