By: MICHELLE PARK
Staff Writer
Last weekend my family made egg sandwiches. As my family was eating sandwiches, my sister asked if the yolk is a chick, so I explained that the yolk is not a chick.
A chick is born from an egg, but neither the yolk nor the white part is a chick. The yolk is the part that supplies the necessary nutrients in the process of growing the embryo into a chick, and the white part protects the yolk. Therefore, the white part and the yolk are only the environment and nutrients for the embryo to grow.
The part that actually becomes a chick is a tiny dot on the yolk called the ‘blastoderm’. However, not all of these blastoderms become chicks. This is because most of the eggs we eat are unfertilized because hens can lay eggs without a male. An egg made without a rooster cannot become a chick.