Experienced Trader Joe hatchers

[joselleceline]

Astonishing thread and beautiful chicks!

 

[ellandeeranch]

yep, my hopes for these guys are

hurt

Irine, I'm just up the 5 about 30 miles above you in Neenach. We were at the TJ's on Bouquet Sunday. I put in 24. My first time incubating. The hovabator is holding right around 100.5 or so. Guess I'm going to learn a lot. My NH rooster has been abusing the RIR and NH hens for a couple weeks now, but none of them are laying yet. They look like they're really close. I hope that the TJ experiment will help me iron out kinks by the time I'm getting fertile eggs here.

I also have a couple Red Stars that are really pumping out the eggs now. What do you think about putting that NH rooster in their coop for a few weeks? I think I'd get some nice layers out of that cross.

Richard in Neenach

 

[Pele]

Just thought I'd add my two cents here! I'm currently incubating 4 Whole Foods brown eggs. They came from this carton:




If I were to guess on their breed, I'd say SLs. They look the exact same as my girls' eggs.

 

[Manningjw]

After reading through this thread, I want to join in on the fun.

I am looking in the Washington State area for fertile eggs either at Trader Joes or any other whole foods stores.

Anyone know if the free range/organic eggs from TJ's are indeed fertile eggs? Or anyone know if any of the TJ's stores sell fertile eggs for that matter?

 

[crosbygroup]

I just set 48 Trader Joes eggs today. This will be my third hatch with them. I'll keep you all posted.

 

[crosbygroup]

Well, I locked down my eggs, but I don't have much hope for them. I tried candling them, but did not see any that looked good. They all seemed like they did not start. I'm wondering if this batch was fertile. The cartons were all labeled fertile. We will see.

I'm thinking of taking them all back for a refund if none hatch. Every time I've done this in the past I've had 50% or better hatch. 0/48 seems like they were mislabeled.

 

[cluck-cluck]

Did you check the dates? Not the "enjoy by" date, but the Julian calendar date? That would be the 3 digit date on the side of the carton. It's just the day number of the year, like today is 077 (77th day of the year). If the eggs were over 10 days old, they probably won't grow, especially since refrigeration is already tough on them :/. I hope you try again? Good luck, maybe something will still happen?

 

[crosbygroup]

They were less then 10 days. I usually get about 50% hatch rate from them, but this time 0/48

 

[aart]

How fascinating.... you Cali people <shakes head> get fertile eggs at the store, Lucky Chicks!

So the idea is just the novelty? Low cost chicks? Wonder if anyone has put a watt meter on their incubator for 21 days to see what the cost of incubation is? Cali elec is high isn't it?

Still, pretty cool!

 

[Manningjw]

How fascinating.... you Cali people <shakes head> get fertile eggs at the store, Lucky Chicks!

So the idea is just the novelty? Low cost chicks? Wonder if anyone has put a watt meter on their incubator for 21 days to see what the cost of incubation is? Cali elec is high isn't it?

Still, pretty cool!

The one that I ordered is roughly 40 watt heater when it is on, but it will be turning on and off frequently so I would bet it is about 15-20 watt usage factoring in the "off" time.

I wish I had some trader joe's chicks i could hatch! Washington state doesn't seem to have any fertile eggs in grocery stores.