Cover image via @18337623 (Douyin)
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A woman from Qingdao, China, went on a quick two-day holiday and came home to an unexpected surprise: about 70 fluffy chicks had hatched right in her kitchen
Here's what went down — Jiang's family had bought 90 fertilised eggs, called huozhuzi, meant for eating. But she left three cartons unrefrigerated, and thanks to Qingdao's hot weather, her kitchen basically turned into an accidental incubator.
Her son kept two of the chicks as pets, while the rest were sent to her parents' home. Later, a hatchery owner told Jimu News that the eggs likely hatched because they were exposed to warm, steady temperatures without being chilled, the perfect recipe for fertilised eggs to develop into chicks.
So, how do market eggs hatch at all?
Normally, eggs you grab from the supermarket are unfertilised — meaning no rooster, no embryo, no chance of hatching. But fertilised eggs are different.
These come from hens that have mated with roosters and can potentially develop into baby chicks, but only under the right conditions, such as steady warmth around 37°C (the same as a hen's body temperature), the right humidity, and no refrigeration.
In Jiang's case, leaving fertilised eggs out in the heat for a couple of days essentially created a natural incubator, allowing embryos to grow and hatch.
So no, the eggs in your fridge aren't going to sprout feathers — unless they're fertilised, left out, and your kitchen turns into a sauna.
