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

[hennypenney]

Oh good to hear! Headed to Trader Joes tomorrow. I was reading a lot of the posts but they were from 2010 so wasn't sure if people were still having successes. So excited as was trying to find local fertile eggs and they want so much for them. So will try this. Thank you!

 

[Sill]

Is there any current Trader Joes hatching members? I have a white cochin banty who is currently broody, and no fertile eggs ...so was thinking of letting her sit on a few. Then maybe incubate the rest. I live in California and have seen the fertile eggs at Trader Joes. Feeling excited!

Yep, I got some incubating right now. Two dozen on day four and two dozen on day one.

 

[hennypenney]

Oh good luck to you! Let me know!

 

[hennypenney]

I am obviously new to this forum. Lol
I see there is a lot of you Trader Joes egg hatchers! Feeling like an old chick! Heehee

 

[Sill]

I candled a few eggs last night. There were some clears, blood rings and detached air cells. One thing I noticed is the embryos seem smaller than the ones in my own flock's eggs that were set at the same time. I did let the TJ eggs come to room temperature before putting them into the incubator.

TJ egg


RSL egg

 

[hennypenney]

That's pretty interesting. Thank you for sharing!

 

[ronott1]

I candled a few eggs last night. There were some clears, blood rings and detached air cells. One thing I noticed is the embryos seem smaller than the ones in my own flock's eggs that were set at the same time. I did let the TJ eggs come to room temperature before putting them into the incubator.

TJ egg


RSL egg

The Trader joes eggs are usually a leghorn hen crossed with a brown chicken--a Hyline brown. They are smaller chickens so they will have smaller embryos. The cockerels grow fairly fast though and do have a good amount of meat on them by 17 weeks old.

 

[luckysaysgo]

So I know the TJ eggs are a white or pale brown due to the leghorn, but what in the world is Winco using for its fertile layers. I posted pics a few days ago of what my friend is getting and they are as dark as some marans. I actually told her it wasnt that hen but the hen I gave her has actually been caught in the act of laying the dark brown egg. I bought the fertile eggs at Winco and hatched them with my tj eggs and the chicks all hatched out yellow or yellow with orange or black and we're virtually indistinguishable from one another at hatch. Even now her hen looks nearly exact to my tj hen. The eggs from Winco were a brown egg, but not nearly as dark as she is getting.

 

[ronott1]

So I know the TJ eggs are a white or pale brown due to the leghorn, but what in the world is Winco using for its fertile layers. I posted pics a few days ago of what my friend is getting and they are as dark as some marans. I actually told her it wasnt that hen but the hen I gave her has actually been caught in the act of laying the dark brown egg. I bought the fertile eggs at Winco and hatched them with my tj eggs and the chicks all hatched out yellow or yellow with orange or black and we're virtually indistinguishable from one another at hatch. Even now her hen looks nearly exact to my tj hen. The eggs from Winco were a brown egg, but not nearly as dark as she is getting.

Red stars or another sexlink that lays brown eggs.

You will have a lot of pretty chickens from them as the sexlinks break down to the parent stock genetics.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

Well, I've joined the club! My chickens had taken a bit of a break so I had extra room in m incubator and decided to go ahead and try to hatch some Trader Joe's fertile eggs. I bought 6 dozen (72) for $18 at a Trader Joe's in Sacramento, California and then took them all the way home with me to Chattanooga, TN.

When I candled them slightly more than half (38) were either clear or had blood rings. By far, most of them had blood rings. One interesting thing to note is that when I candled them the first half that I candled were almost all bad and the second half appeared good. I had picked out three dozen that were on the part of the cooler exposed to the outside and had to get three dozen that were way in the back where it was probably colder...so that might have affected hatchability.
I haven't checked the eggs that didn't hatch yet to see exactly what happened with the ones that didn't hatch but I ended up with 17 chicks. If only I had hatched out one more I would have had exactly 25% and they would have cost $1 each! Not bad! (The dark egg shell in the photo had been stuck to one of the other chicks that hatched out at the same time. For those who don't know, these are white egg layers).

So on final analysis of the unhatched eggs that had candled as "good" 9 were fully formed but had about a day or two's worth of yolk but never pipped and 6 had died fairly early on. If I ever see Trader Joe's fertile eggs that have only been in the cooler for a day or so I'll probably try it again (especially if they are brown eggs). Of these five dozen had been packed 7 days earlier and one dozen had been packed 6 days earlier. I let them settle in my basement for a few days to let the eggs recover any loose or lost air cells.