Trader Joes & Other Grocery Store Egg Hatching Club - Are you a Member - Page 15

You can hatch eggs that have been carefully washed and dried just fine. You can also hatch refrigerated eggs. Before I heard all the hype about hatching eggs, I used to hatch mine right out of the fridge, ha, ha, washed and all. Since then I have had great hatch rates with eggs that are either not dirty to start with or have been washed clean, when they go in dirty (like some people send hatching eggs) they never hatch in my experience. So I am starting to think the whole "not washing them and stroring them at room temperature" thing is an old wives tale maybe, based on little scientific evidence. I think I might want to do further research on this.

I am currently incubating 11 eggs from G & G market (local supermarket). It looks like maybe 10 of them are developing, and it is day 18. We'll see what happens

Would ne1  in Chicago b interested in taking some tj roosters? Don't hav ne but want to kno if I do get any they would hav a home, I would prefer they b pets, but meat works to if u r humane.....

I dunno...To each their own. Seems to me that if you read the thread pretty much all that gets answered. Going by what I read here, haveing never used an incubator, a hatch rate of 75% ain't bad.

I didn't know Trader Joes sold Fertile eggs... How do the embryos survive? Aren't the refrigerated there?

I might have to give this a go.  I have two banties that go broody like mad.  My BR rooster and sex-link hen have been keeping company quite a little bit.  Haven't seen any behavior I can hang my hat on, though she has been laying.  BBs (broody banties) adopted her eggs.  Great!  I marked them (one per banty), and took any extras. 

Three weeks later, nothing (except very warm eggs). 

Trouble is, you get what you get, eh?  I'd probably end up with a whole lot of baby boys!     

Fascinating! Just a neat idea, why not try it! I agree w. the lack of vigor issue - but life is life and why not try hatching "fertile" (Runs With Roosters) store eggs? Every hatch is a learning experience. And some make for GREAT stories! And the images are awesome. Thanks so much for sharing!

Just by way of information: in the UK it is illegal to sell eggs as food if they are potentially fertile. Well, that's the theory anyway so we don't have a TJ equivalent. Having said that, it isn't unusual to find cocks (roosters) amongst hens when they empty out the battery sheds. I have heard that up to 3% of "eating eggs" could turn out to be fertile. But that's not much is it?

By way of opinion on refrigerating fertile eggs before hatching: I don't think this matters. If you think about it, chickens go broody very early in the year when the weather is still very cold. Chances are that the eggs which have been laid and sit around in the nestbox get very cold indeed, and the vitamins in the egg which a chick needs for development are more likely to survive if the egg isn't allowed to get stale. I put our fertile eggs in a cooler last year to save them up - this is a sort of beer chilling fridge which doesn't get as cold as a proper fridge - and I had 100% hatch rate from most of my batches of eggs.

Why all the cynicism?  I think there's something neat about giving a wonderful life to a peep that originated from parents kept in horrible factory farm conditions.  I also beg to differ on your statement that there is nothing special about the Trader Joe's Leghorns.  They make wonderful rangers on the pasture, where their flighty disposition is actually a plus, as opposed to say, a Production Red or Barred Rock that's constantly underfoot and squawking for a handout.

For what it's worth, I contacted Trader Joes corporate office and they told me that only a limited amount of their stores sell what might be fertile eggs.

I live in the eastern part of the US and have a TJ store near me.  It is one that doesn't sell fertile eggs.