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

Btw I'm not trying to dig anyone out or start a fight.

I hatched 2 chicks from a farmers market last week! I have no idea what they are but they have some silkie blood in them because they have 10 toes each!

Hate problem with your experiment is that your incubation technique could be to blame if you have a low hatch rate. In the last couple months I have hatched over 300 grocery store eggs witht an average of 75% hatch rate. These were from a local farmer that brought them into the store in town. Some I have gotten were refridgerated and handled in every way you should not handle a hatching egg, and the rate was still 75%. There is not a lot of room for error in incubation and with a homemade bator you should hatch eggs that you know are fertile and viable (yes the two are different, just because an egg is fertile doesn't mean it is viable) before trying grocery store eggs.

And don't get me wrong I love seeing how people incubate eggs with their own ideas.

I got 24 eggs, cracked 6 open and 5 were fertile. I think your hatch rates depends on

1.) How far away their farm is from you.

2.) How they've been handled,

3.) How old they are

4.) your incubator.

Mine seem to have pretty good fertility, but I guess I'll see tomorrow when I hit day three. I SHOULD be seeing spiders !!

All very true. Eggs can stay viable for a long time. I have hatched some of my own that were 16 days old with about 2/3 of them hatching. The rate does decline but it still isn't terrible. Handling is by far one of the most important factors. Good luck!

Do you have pics of your bator?

I do in the link in my signature if you care to check it out. And everything else... But that would be in the last few posts. My first attempt was horrible and I didn't have a hygrometer and I had a poop thermometer and - yeah. I don't even know if they were giving me the right temperature .

Well, I think my husband and I are going to join the club My home made incubator seems to be stable and working within 1 degrees with a bit of a drop at the early morning hours... so to give it a test run, we figured we'd see if we could get success with TJ eggs before buying expensive bantam eggs ;P (not that expensive, but I'd care more about the hatch) I also want to practice vent sexing on the TJ chicks (don't worry, I have a soft hand) Sooooooo sometime today, he's supposed to buy some eggs for me ;P

We shall see...... ;P
I'm reading through this thread but it's really long... So I don't know if thid s has been posted before, but interesting info here: "All the most popular sex-link crosses produced for small flocks lay brown-shelled eggs. There is one sex-link cross that you can purchase for production of white-shelled eggs, the California White. It is the cross between a White Leghorn hen with a California Gray rooster. It is basically a commercial leghorn breed to be able to handle the conditions of small flocks, including those in areas with colder temperatures." Quoted from the University of Kentucky of course, if the eggs we hatch are calif white hens and roos, then it may not work? Or am I just confused? LOL

Quote: And you forgot #5, how fertile they are! as is seen by your cracking 6 open and only 5 were fertile. From big opperations that supply the stores, I bet a lot of hens stay out of the roo's way and have their eggs in the mix ;P

I just hope I can get a few to hatch....

Belated congratulations on your little cotton balls, cotton! LOL. There are several breeds with 5 toes, not just Silkies, just so you know and won't be disappointed
hubby came home with the eggs and they are 8 days old. Hope this works!

Ok so.... I'm talking to myself here , but I want to announce that I set the eggs tonight. The were room temperature for a while, so instead of waiting 12 - 24 hours, I just stuck 'em in. Is the reason for waiting just so that they don't end up with condensation all over them? If that's the case, I'm sure mine will be fine. That is if they are viable.

Anyway, I candled them first thing and found 3 with air bubbles that moved and one with what looked like something dark floating around (broken yolk?) So I only set 8 eggs that looked good. The others I'll eat , and when I crack them open, I'll tally up how many of the 4 had a bulls-eye and get an idea of what the fertility rate was???

Well, it'll give me practice for when i get me pretties


And yes, I've learned how to insert smilies