Time-Lag in Identification of Fertility in Broad Breasted Bronze Eggs and Its Relation to Hatchability and, Possibly, Parthenogenesis ,

OLSEN and Marsden (1954) observed the rate of early embryonic development in turkeys to be related to hatchability: those eggs hatched best in which the condition of fertility could be identified by candling within 24 hours of setting. Furthermore, no eggs hatched which took more than 72 hours to reach a stage at which they could be classified, by candling, as “fertiles.” The accuracy of identifying fertility in turkey hatching eggs, by candling, following a period of incubation, can range all the way down to nearly 80% (Kosin et al., 1951, and unpublished data). It has been postulated that some of these underdeveloped or retarded embryos represent cases of early death or of moribund blastoderms, being, in any event, the product of essentially normal fertilization (Kosin, 1951). On the other hand, Olsen and Marsden (1954) have suggested that at least some of these in reality are instances of parthenogenetic development. . . .