I just set 42 TJs Fertile Eggs! >>>>>Final Count 32!!!!

[mener6896]

I just found this thread (skipped pgs 3-6) but curious why you would hatch TJ eggs instead of your own that would be free? I'm assuming that you already have chickens? Sorry if this is a dumb question...

I understand why people buy a specific breed that they want, but if that isn't the case, why not hatch free eggs?

 

[BellLisamo]

hmmmm. i wonder if Sprouts carrys fertile eggs.... anyone know?

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

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I'm not sure about the OP, but lots of people have chickens with no roosters - no fertile eggs. I'm one of those - we are not allowed to have roosters in our city, so I had to purchase eggs when we got the bug to incubate. I spent $20 for 8 eggs from someone on BYC, but they were scrambled in transit - 0 chicks). I spent another $20 for eggs on e-bay - got a 50% hatch rate. The Trader Joes' route is much more inexpensive and a fun experiment.

 

[slickchik]

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Well, one sex-link JUST started laying a few days ago. My other girls are still taking it easy. I have never had a rooster until recently and he is not sexually mature yet plus he is a Modern Game Bantam and is pretty little... he's about 15 weeks old and just started crowing a few days ago.

So to make a long story short, I have no fertile eggs to hatch.

My husband hasn't allowed me to keep a rooster because of the noise but he puts up with the modern because it is a pet and sleeps in the house so the crowing doesn't bother the neighbors.

 

[mener6896]

interesting.... so, how do you get rid of your roosters? freezer camp or craigslist? just wondering, I already have 3 boys and don't want any more!!! I think I'll constantly have my bator going now that my first hatch worked!!

 

[greathorse]

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I know very little about breeding, but I am sure you will get something that looks very much like a leghorn. The hybrid in this case indicates that the breeders keep a female line and a male line and the cross that they sell as the acutal egg layers are considered a terminal cross. Commercially they do not re breed them. I am sure for example that they cross a fast feathering and slow feathering, so that they can feather sex them when they are hatched. I would submit that yours will likely not feather sex when hatched. I am sure there are many other traits that are too subtle for a backyard bird person to know or care about. I would guess that they will look a lot like all other white leghorns though.

Still amazed at your fertility rate. I think your roosters will not have a lot of meat on their bones they really grow these leghorns to produce a lot of eggs on a very small frame. Good luck

 

[quailbrain]

The Oregon Trader Joe's don't carry fertile.... I'm bumbed out. I casually "brought it up" to my Dh and he about killed us all trying to get the the Trader joes he was so excited (ok so not kill us but drove like a nut) It's hard to get him eggcited about these things!

 

[slickchik]

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Well there is a feed store by us that will take any unwanted chickens. He sells the roosters to lots of people with avocado groves for some reason. Or I can give them to my neighbor... he makes soup out of most every chicken he breeds. So my neighbor wouldn't care about the small frame. He'd eat them pretty quickly anyway.

 

[greathorse]

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the one's here in Colorado do not. I am guessing no but of course dont know. A phone call to the dairy manager would answer your question

 

[greathorse]

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Try the Whole Foods stores there. Portland and Eugene I beleive.