Question: What do eggs need to hatch?

Georgia Lambert answered on 15 Feb 2024:

Firstly, the eggs need to be fertilised with sperm otherwise there won’t be a live offspring to hatch from the egg! Assuming the egg is fertilised, it then depends on what animal laid the egg. For example, bird eggs require lots of attention and effort from parents since they need to be incubated which is when parents control the temperature using their body temperature (pretty much by sitting on the egg). But the majority of insect eggs need much less/no attention, most of the time they will be laid near a food source (if possible) and then the parents will leave before the eggs have even hatched.