Hens Are Broody

You see those roosters? Well, they are fertilizing the hen's eggs and the hens are going broody. They enter an altered state where they sit on a clutch of eggs and stay there until they are hatched. I don't know how they survive it, but nature has provided them with the resources to go the distance. It's an amazing thing, but I am having a terrible time getting together enough eggs to eat. My friend at work, Katie, wants a dozen eggs and I am afraid of giving her some beasty eggs. I call them that because if you open a partially gestated egg, what you find is positively beasty. Two big eyes in a gelatinous, fiendish looking goo. I have to get the girls off the eggs and do the floating test. The eggs that float are not fertilized, the eggs that are fertilized sink down. They will be returned to the hen and counted, the others discarded. Now I know what eggs are freshly laid and ready for distribution to friends. I don't want to give anyone a shock when they drop a prehatched chick-like substance in the frying pan!