Hatching grocery store eggs experiment?

[nao57]

Hey there people!

Thanks for looking at my post.

I wasn't sure if there's a topic on this.

My question is what is a typical hatch success rate for grocery store bought eggs?

These are the normal ones in the fridge section.

People say its a common and fun experiment to hatch them. And it supposedly is a lower rate than normal because they weren't supposed to be fertile after all. But people say they've done it both for chickens and quail.

So that made me wonder, what kind of success rate to expect?

Thanks

 

[ShannonR]

I think your hatch rate would be less than 20%, if you did get some to hatch. I have been told that the Trader Joe's brand eggs sometimes produce live chicks. I think I would try to buy "free range" eggs, maybe some of the more expensive eggs from a smaller farm. Obviously hens kept in cages in buildings with thousands of others aren't going to be producing fertile eggs. If you are going to hatch store eggs, at least try to set yourself up for success.

 

[Ruthster55]

I can see the idea of putting some grocery store eggs in with your flock's eggs if you have an incubator that is a lot larger than your flock's egg numbers over a reasonable time. Say you want to incubate 7 of your flock's eggs but the incubator holds 40. Then you could put grocery store eggs in. Wouldn't expect more than around 5% to be fertile, though. Agree on setting free-range rather than caged eggs.

 

[nao57]

I can see the idea of putting some grocery store eggs in with your flock's eggs if you have an incubator that is a lot larger than your flock's egg numbers over a reasonable time. Say you want to incubate 7 of your flock's eggs but the incubator holds 40. Then you could put grocery store eggs in. Wouldn't expect more than around 5% to be fertile, though. Agree on setting free-range rather than caged eggs.

Thanks for your comment. Yeah it seems interesting. When I saw this experiment on YouTube I thought hey let's try that.

I will probably give some of them away.

But there's actually some practicality to it.

If I try to do incubating runner duck eggs again it will cost me about 30 dollars to get the eggs. And that's kind of a lot.

And I just tried that and ALL of them failed. So I want to find out if its the incubator or the mail/sender that caused the problem last time before I risk that much money again. (I do want to transition to runner ducks however, because they are quieter than my normal ducks.)

The brown eggs in my store only cost about $2.60 a dozen. So I can take some time to figure out if it will work on those without risking 10 times that amount. And this is why I think others might have also tried it? Shrug.

Thanks to both of you for your comments and help.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

This sounds cool ! Are you going to try it ? I'm following!

 

[JadeFarms]

I would love to see the results if you do it!! I’m going to watch this thread.

 

[Ruthster55]

What kind of incubator do you have?

 

[Devyn Nagy]

Probably your hatch rate will be very low, but you could try it! Keep us updated!

 

[ShannonR]

Thanks for your comment. Yeah it seems interesting. When I saw this experiment on YouTube I thought hey let's try that.

I will probably give some of them away.

But there's actually some practicality to it.

If I try to do incubating runner duck eggs again it will cost me about 30 dollars to get the eggs. And that's kind of a lot.

And I just tried that and ALL of them failed. So I want to find out if its the incubator or the mail/sender that caused the problem last time before I risk that much money again. (I do want to transition to runner ducks however, because they are quieter than my normal ducks.)

The brown eggs in my store only cost about $2.60 a dozen. So I can take some time to figure out if it will work on those without risking 10 times that amount. And this is why I think others might have also tried it? Shrug.

Thanks to both of you for your comments and help.

Store eggs won't improve your hatch rate or incubation technique. Why not hop on Craigslist or somewhere and buy eggs from backyard chickens?
You can incubate store eggs, but then you'll be disappointed again when they don't hatch. Also, because you won't be getting anything to speak of to hatch, you won't know if you are doing the right or wrong things during the incubation process. This isnt going to help you learn, and serves no purpose besides entertainment.

Another note: the color of the eggs means nothing if the hens who laid them are kept in cages with thousands of other birds in a building somewhere. Brown eggs are in no way superior to white eggs.

 

[1stGradeTeach]

I agree with Shannon. You can often find farm eggs for next to nothing on Craigslist, and you'll have a much better chance with these.