Currently one of the blockade problems in ostrich egg production industry is the impossibility of egg candling prior to hatching for fertility determination. Therefore, a fraction of the hatchers always occupies by infertile eggs. Moreover, the infertile eggs within the machine soon fall to decay without any economical use. In this study some physical properties of ostrich egg including eggshell porosity, dimensional and gravimetric properties were nondestructively measured to find any probable correlation between these properties and egg fertility. The experiments performed in a farm located between Mashhad and Nayshabour cities in Khorasan province. Totally 301 eggs were sampled during three consecutive weeks in May and June. The results showed that on the whole about 63% of the eggs were fertile and among these eggs 7% were not hatched successfully and had a dead embryo. Furthermore, for any reasons, (perhaps mainly due to climatic conditions) the egg fertility varied from week to week. No significant correlation observed between physical properties of eggs and fertility; however the data analysis on frequency of fertile and infertile eggs of different categorized properties indicated that some groups of eggs may have a higher fertile eggs frequency than infertile eggs. In general, the groups of eggs with aspect ratio of either about 1.2, weight of 1500g, density of 1.15g cm -3, and average shell pore diameter of less than 750m had a higher fertile egg frequency than infertile egg frequency. Hence these groups of eggs may be preferred for hatching purpose. On the other hand, egg volume and dielectric properties had least impact on egg fertility.

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