do you cock and hen have intercourse or does the rooster lay on the infertile egg then somehow makes it fertile ..?
They mate and rub their sexual organs together and sperm is released by the male, this travels up the oviduct to meet the egg when its first released by the ovary. After fertilisation the layers are added, finally the shell and then its laid. It will only go on to develop and hatch if its warmed for 21 days either by a broody hen or in an incubator.
Fertile eggs are no different to eat than infertile ones. I have 13 hens and 2 cockerels and all the eggs I eat have the potential to become a chick and hatch but I take them away every day so they never develop into a chick and hatch unless I want them to.
During the process of the intercourse the sperm from the cock fertilizes the eggs inside the hen.
Birds are very special in that they are the only animals which have intercourse but the the embryo develops outside of the mother's body.
the egg is fertilized between the time the chicken ovulates and the shell is formed.
