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

Hi I'd like to join in this experiment. I just bought 3 dozen fertile eggs from Whole Foods. I candled a couple. I saw a detached air cell and others were very porous. The Julian date is 243 so August 31st I think. I am not too optimistic. I am thinking I should treat as shipped eggs and I've got them in the carton pointy end down. I should leave them in the carton and not turn for 3 days? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
Hi I'd like to join in this experiment. I just bought 3 dozen fertile eggs from Whole Foods. I candled a couple. I saw a detached air cell and others were very porous. The Julian date is 243 so August 31st I think. I am not too optimistic. I am thinking I should treat as shipped eggs and I've got them in the carton pointy end down. I should leave them in the carton and not turn for 3 days? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Welcome to the fun!
I would say start to incubate. If you got them at a store they were already sitting, and you do not have time to waste.
Set them into the incubator and turn them normally. gimmie birdies is correct--time is a factor and the sooner they are incubating the better they will be.

Detached air cells only hatch at about 25% now matter what you do with them.
 
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Ok thanks. I just set them on their sides in the incubator. So should I wait a few days to turn them or just start turning tomorrow? I have to turn manually.
 
I heard diff things, on my hand turn eggs, I turn as little as poss. first 3 days then 3 times a day turn. candle on day 7,14,18 stop turning/candling on day 18, when they pip a hole it will take up to 24 for full hatch- I try not to help at all. my current batch below- I have six, waiting on one egg, still hear it tapping.
 
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I heard diff things, on my hand turn eggs, I turn as little as poss. first 3 days then 3 times a day turn. candle on day 7,14,18 stop turning/candling on day 18, when they pip a hole it will take up to 24 for full hatch- I try not to help at all. my current batch below- I have six, waiting on one egg, still hear it tapping.
Cute! Those are store bought? I'm still surprised it works even reading through this thread.
 
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Here are my 3 trader joe girls. Hatched 6 and 3 were boys. They were hatched by a broodie hen so they are a bit wild but im sure will be great layers!
 
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So true!  I set two dozen TJs eggs and got 14 fertile eggs, then set another two dozen and only one developed!  The rooster must have taken time off. :idunno

I think it has more to do with how long the eggs are refrigerated. In those cage-free fertilized egg houses there are probably 20,000 hens and 1,000 roosters (just guessing at the actual numbers) so even if one rooster isn't doing his job the others are more than willing.
 
I heard diff things, on my hand turn eggs, I turn as little as poss. first 3 days then 3 times a day turn. candle on day 7,14,18 stop turning/candling on day 18, when they pip a hole it will take up to 24 for full hatch- I try not to help at all. my current batch below- I have six, waiting on one egg, still hear it tapping.
Since you aren't hatching other eggs (I usually have two separate hatches timed a week apart in my incubator and another week in the hatcher) then you can be more specific with how you treat them. I don't think there is any advantage to turning the eggs the first few days and it isn't necessary the last week. I'd leave any with detached air cells upright (fat end up) for the first few days of incubation without turning to try and regain the air cells. I also wouldn't bother turning them the last week and I'd also keep them upright for hatching. I didn't follow this advice and had several chicks go all the way to internal pip and drown from shipped eggs. I also mis-times a hatch once and they were all pipping on the turner. I leveled it out and let them hatch upright and it went fairly well. If all your chicks have hatched and one seems stuck it might just be the humidity and it needs to be released. Sometimes they do great and sometimes they aren't ready but probably weren't going to make it anyway. Stop if you see blood...it could still make it. Leaving them in the egg too long has negative outcomes as well (messed up legs or necks).
 

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