# Natural method for dying chicken eggs while still in the chicken

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-method-for-dying-chicken-eggs-while-still-in-the-chicken/652323>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 7, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-method-for-dying-chicken-eggs-while-still-in-the-chicken/652323 "2013-03-07T21:34:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-method-for-dying-chicken-eggs-while-still-in-the-chicken/652323/21 "2013-03-08T14:35:10Z")

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> [@WarmNPrickly](#):
>
> Babies are their favorite treat.

Chickens who feed on human babies?:eek::eek:😃

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-method-for-dying-chicken-eggs-while-still-in-the-chicken/652323/22 "2013-03-08T23:40:14Z")

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> [@Michael63129](#):
>
> Commercial chicken eggs _are_ stillborn in a sense - they are [unfertilized](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_%28food%29#Farming_issues), so the embryo never developed.

Might not be a problem - apparently parthenogenesis is not unheard of in poultry.

> [@](#):
>
> Even fertilized eggs are the same way; refrigeration kills the embryo (which is not really any different, unless you make balut).

Before the embryo starts to develop (during incubation), eggs can be quite unaffected by low temperature - it’s not uncommon for birds to lay a clutch of eggs, one or two per day and leave them completely exposed (at springtime temperatures), then begin incubating them all at once - and they all hatch at the same time.

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