Fertile Eggs, no roosters?

[gardenrue7]

Hello, everyone. We have four hens, all who have laid an egg. They are kept in an enclosed run, and if they’re out in our backyard we are out with them. No other chickens in the neighborhood.

A friend told me this egg was fertilized, but I’m confused as to how that’s possible given our circumstances. Is this fertilized?

 

[Tookie]

Your friend is likely looking at the "bullseye", and determining its fertile by that. The bullseye can indicate a fertile egg, but its not a guarantee. The only way to know for certain an egg is fertile is to incubate. Also, the bullseye is the ring around the circle in the middle. If there was no ring, its less likely its fertile.
Its possible it is fertile, but since you know there are no chickens in the neighborhood I think not, and that's just the way the egg looks.

 

[saysfaa]

I assume your friend thinks so because of the white spot in the yolk? That is called the germinal disk or blastoderm. It is where the nucleus of the egg is, where the sperm would go if there was any sperm, and where the embryo would start to develop is there was an embryo. But the spot is there anyway.

Without a rooster, there is no fertilization.