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

[ronott1]

me too. My TJ chicks were all white and grew to be very leghorn-y. I wish mine came out looking like that.

The cockerels were big enough to be dual purpose too--I baked one last night for dinner.

 

[Hatching]

Big enough to eat ? I would have never imagined. I went to whole foods and mine in LA carries brown fertile eggs so maybe those chicks will produce something close to a dual purpose bird. They also had a 6 pack of duck eggs, they didn't say if they were fertile or not but I might try anyways. Does anyone have any experience with duck eggs from the grocery store?

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

Trader Joe's eggs have a lot working against them as far as hatching eggs go. They are intended to be eaten so several things happen to them that makes them difficult...but they are cheap and hatch good birds! First off, they get washed which removes the protective outer coating and probably starts their rough handling. Second they get refrigerated...a bit too cold and too long. Third they get rough handling. They are only supposed to get to their destination without cracked shells and I'm sure you've all seen plenty of store egg cartons with cracked eggs so the air cells on the others in those cases are likely not the best. One really good thing is that those fertile Trader Joe's eggs are put on the cartons pointy end down (the RIGHT) way! The first time I got TJ's eggs my hatch rate was low, I had a lot of eggs with blood rings and there were some weak chicks and dead-in-shell chicks. The second time I got a much better hatch rate with hardier chicks. Both times the eggs were a week old. This time I got eggs that were only three days old (which makes a big difference when they are refrigerated) but unfortunately I couldn't put them right into the incubator because of an upcoming vacation that I had forgotten about so the eggs were a full 12 days old by the time I was able to stick them in the incubator. That wouldn't be a big deal if I was storing them at 55F and turning them regularly but I really don't have that set up. I did store the eggs in a relatively cool basement so we'll just have to see how they do.

 

[SpringPeeper]

The cockerels were big enough to be dual purpose too--I baked one last night for dinner.

I used mine to make cock-a-leekie soup for new years. Four birds to make two big pots,definitely not big enough to make nice roasters. You picked the right carton of eggs!

 

[Hatching]

Ya I'm feeling like there's a lot of factors and even if this fails I think I now won't attempt any hatches until I buy a fan and another thermometer/hydrometer. I think hatching with sketchy eggs and incubator results in almost zero hatches. Tons of good eggs and a bad incubator leaves me with lots of chicks. I just hatched 18 chicks (from 3 dozen eggs). It's good practice. I for sure see embryos with development and movement but very few. I'll keep you posted. They are due September 29th

Have you candled them again before lockdown ?

 

[chickadoodles]

Good morning everyone. I do have a question about hatching grocery store eggs.
How would you know if someone sold eggs to the grocery store that had some disease in their flock like CRD or something?
I know a lot of people that have it are tested and are NPIP so how could you keep from getting it?

 

[ronott1]

Good morning everyone. I do have a question about hatching grocery store eggs.
How would you know if someone sold eggs to the grocery store that had some disease in their flock like CRD or something?
I know a lot of people that have it are tested and are NPIP so how could you keep from getting it?

The eggs are sold by a commercial flock--There is still a chance of problems with health, but there are not that many that pass through the egg. MG does but I do not think CRD does. Most of them say that the embryos will not hatch--like new castle disease.

MG says:

Quote:
Chances are very low that you will infect your flock from hatching any eggs. You are safer from a commercial flock than most back yard flocks.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Not passing disease to the flock is one of the reasons I hatch eggs instead of buy birds and of course because hatching is fun!

 

[Joplus]

Update. Today is lockdown and I have only 2 eggs out of 3 dozen. I don't even think these will hatch. They seem to be less developed then day 18 but it's hard to tell since the shell is dark. This was a disaster and the worst thing to happen would be a lone chick. Then I need to buy a friend, costing me money. I may use store bought eggs again to fill space in my incubator but not a whole wasted hatch.

 

[ronott1]

Update. Today is lockdown and I have only 2 eggs out of 3 dozen. I don't even think these will hatch. They seem to be less developed then day 18 but it's hard to tell since the shell is dark. This was a disaster and the worst thing to happen would be a lone chick. Then I need to buy a friend, costing me money. I may use store bought eggs again to fill space in my incubator but not a whole wasted hatch.

I hope they hatch for you!

On the plus side, they are not too expensive compared to purchasing from a breeder.

 

[chickadoodles]

Thanks Ron. I am hoping some of my hens will go broody again next year but some are getting a bit older and not laying as much. So we will need some pullets to raise up next year.
I still hope some of my Buffs will hatch but if not I still have a homemade bator/hatcher I will fire up. lol