Comments on: Photos of chicken forming in egg

By: pmrowley

pmrowley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Actually, the little white strings are suspensory structures called chalazae that hold the yolk in the middle of the albumen. The thing that becomes a chick will be a little white dot on the surface of the yolk called the germinal disc. Of course, unless you’ve specifically bought fertilized eggs, there’s nothing in a chicken egg that will become a chicken. So it’s not really murder, more like a chicken “period.”

By: nick mun

nick mun — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

good thing i already had my breakfast (of 2 eggs incidentally).

By: ellkaiesse5

ellkaiesse5 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@#31 – I work in a research lab that uses developing chicken embryos – there’s a certain cluster of neurons that’s a really good place to study how neurotransmitter receptors get to the developing synapses. We don’t do vaccine production, but we do cut a window in the shells at an early stage to inject a virus that manipulates the receptors. You can infect different parts of the embryo depending on the stage – the first, second, and 3rd pictures look like the stages we use. After injecting, we put a piece of packing tape over the window and keep them in an incubator until they’re developed enough to use. (Our animal-use protocols don’t let us hatch them.) Not all of them survive, but that’s more because of the stress of the injection than the loss of the small circle of the shell.

It’s really interesting to see something like this posted in a more public forum! I hope I haven’t offended anyone who’s against the use of animals in research by posting details; if I did, I absolutely apologize.

By: devophill

devophill — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

#9 Marshall - How are you gonna freak anybody out without an informative link?

By: Antiglobalism

Antiglobalism — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s simply admit it: life is amazing.

By: Marisa

Marisa — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is an important distinction between unfertilized eggs and murdered fertilized eggs. The unfertilized egg (which is what is sold in stores, but is hard to verify in case one of the chickens somehow met a rooster along the way) has no murdered chicken inside of it because it never was able to start growing without the male’s fertilization.

There is a little part on the fertilized yolk that is the origin of the chicken (called the germinal disk). The germinal disk is not visible if the egg has not been fertilized. As the It is not the white vein junk, that stuff is called Chalaza and acts as suspension for the yolk in the egg.

The yolk is pure nutrition for the developing chick, think of it like the placenta (not sure if that helps make it less disgusting, but it is just a sack of nutrients).

By: Marshall

Marshall — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This makes me all hungry for balut. Mmm. Delicious avian fetus.

By: Marisa

Marisa — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

b10 by pmrowly! nice work.

By: cloren

cloren — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I say this without wanting to sound sarcastic- but that chick fetus is adorable.

By: Church

Church — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That’s not the birth of anything. All those chickens were killed, albeit at instructive times in their development.

Seeing that last one alive was a bit disconcerting.

By: Agent 86

Agent 86 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The best part was the link at the top of the article, that had a Moth’s life in pictures.

By: mgfarrelly

mgfarrelly — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That was really beautiful. The simple, messy elegance of life.

By: moshakirby

moshakirby — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

lol @ 4

An egg that you eat (supermarket egg) is just a Chicken’s Period, excpet instead of absorbing it with a bit of cotton like human periods, you’re eating it.

By: jtegnell

jtegnell — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

duh

By: Argon

Argon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Flu vaccines are prepared in fertilized chicken eggs (about 100 million per year to supply the US). The influenza virus is injected into eggs, and some time later, the infected embryos are harvested. (The technical term for “getting pureed”, I assume. I’m all for vaccination, but talk about offended vegetarian sensibilities…) I haven’t found much in a quick web search, what would the corresponding development stage be here?

@jakea: Sounds like “blood spots”, hemorrhages of a small blood vessel when the egg is formed. http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/bloodspots.html

By: 20 Minute Jan

20 Minute Jan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Unless I’m gravely mistaken, my fourth grade teacher did a science unit like this with our class. We had an incubator and a lot of eggs in our room. Everyday, she would break open another egg so we could see how the chicks were developing, and I think we each drew a picture in our science journals. The funny thing is that I don’t remember being upset by the idea that the revealed chicks were being killed as a result; I don’t even remember being aware of that thought. We were just terribly excited about the day when the chicks would finally hatch!

By: arkizzle

arkizzle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What I've learnt today, is that baby parrots are FUGLY! But pandas are not. (He lookins like a moomin in the first pic, aww)

By: arkizzle

arkizzle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Agent, the moth one is incredible! The colours!

By: Nur

Nur — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was always aware that the yolk was a food source to a potential chick (a benefit of country livin’). I’m honestly surprised how much the idea that the yolk (that you EAT!) turning into a living chicken repulses me.

The eggs that you buy from the supermarket are unfertilised and can never have a chick inside. It’s not just a lucky coincidence that you’ve never cracked an egg and found a chick – the chickens that laid it are not exposed to any males.

By: Antinous

Antinous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pandas freak me out. They’re like some horrible, stuffed-animal-come-to-life nightmare.

By: arkizzle

arkizzle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Norm&Al

You know, I wondered what would prevent an egg with the shell removed from developing properly. Apart from the extreme dexterousness of getting the shell off wilst leaving the inners intact, and maybe the possibility of the chick bursting it’s membrane accidently..
in any case, you could probably do the shell-getting-off with a bit of practice, and maybe cover the unshelled membrane with some sort of clear, protective coating..

Jakea

Vegetarians eating eggs always seemed pretty funny to me. Especially when they eat fish too. (not that I’m disparaging, just observing)

By: merreborn

merreborn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

IIRC, last time I was at the Exploritorium in SF, they had an exhibit with live chicken embryos demonstrating the same thing.

I’m actually a little surprised the Exploritorium doesn’t get more love here — it’s all about hands on, DIY scientific exploration.

By: greebo

greebo — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone one of these photos (except the last) involved breaking a developing egg and killing the fetus.

Gandalf: “He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom”

By: Argon

Argon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@arkizzle: Approximately 80% of the calcium for the chick skeleton comes from reabsorption of the egg shell.

By: historyman68

historyman68 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, the Exploratorium is awesome… haven’t been there in years, but in my early teens it was a must-see every time I visited my relatives in San Francisco.

By: Norm & Al

Norm & Al — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is no context or other information. Is this a series of different eggs, as seems inevitable, or some miraculous process whereby a chicken embryo could be hatched sans eggshell? Some metadata would be most welcome.

Because if it is just a series of pictures of cracked shells, the live chick at the end is a cruel joke.

By: Argon

Argon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@arkizzle: Ah I see, by “an egg with the shell removed” you didn’t mean all of it, as in, removing the shell and squeezing the remainder into a test tube to look at it. I’ve no idea how much of the shell must remain for proper development.

@drewstarr: see link in post #31, an egg with a spot doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fertilized

@ellkaiesse5: I’d never do animal research myself, but I won’t blame the rest of the world for not following my own ethics, at least in this case. Glad to hear you limit it to the earlier stages though. Yes, I’d be freaked out if I’d be working on something that was developing eyes. :) Not offended at all, for my part. More importantly – if one wants to get a fair debate from everyone, even at the risk of alienating some people, the last thing one should do is to be ashamed of providing details.

By: Agent 86

Agent 86 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

To be fair, they saved the chicks from a fate worse than death (have you seen a docu on their lives from conception to tasty snack?)

By: arkizzle

arkizzle — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Argon:
No, i actually did mean remove the whole shell, but more like keeping the membrane intact and holding it in suspension or some safe construct, than “squeezing the remainder into a test tube”.

I didn’t know about the calcium benefits of the shell though, so I amended the suggestion. But I do wonder what percentage of the shell goes toward the chicken’s calcium needs, and therefore, how much surface area you could remove without disturbing it’s development.

By: Antinous

Antinous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Repeat after me:

Menstruation has nothing to do with eggs. Ovulation produces eggs. Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining, the endometrium. Menstruation occurs only in some mammals. Chickens are not mammals. I will not sleep through high school biology again. I will not sleep through high school biology again. I will not sleep through high school biology again.