Incubating Trader Joe's eggs

[Birdinhand]

Yes they have some at some stores so I'm gonna try and hatch them

go for it, you might just find that having low expectations results in a pleasant surprise. keep in mind that if you are dealing with a cross as parents, what you will end up with may or may not be all that similar or dependable as the production egg layers that produced the egg. it is kind of a crap shoot but certainly worth it if you are willing to be adventurous.

 

[staceyj]

If you do a search on here for Trader Joe's you'll find lots of previous threads reaching back several years about this subject.

 

[kaylaob]

go for it, you might just find that having low expectations results in a pleasant surprise. keep in mind that if you are dealing with a cross as parents, what you will end up with may or may not be all that similar or dependable as the production egg layers that produced the egg. it is kind of a crap shoot but certainly worth it if you are willing to be adventurous.

Thank you we are ready to try !

 

[Birdinhand]

Thank you we are ready to try !

let us know how it goes, feel free to make this thread a "hatch along", i'm pretty sure a bunch of us will be watching and taking note. with the increasing spread of codes against roosters making it more and more difficult to find fertile eggs, this could become a really nice option. perhaps we could start keeping tabs on what brands tend to have the highest fertility rates.

 

[alexa009]

A lot of people have incubated trader joe eggs before and got a pretty good hatch rate!

 

[Deryk]

How do you know they are 7 days old? I have never seen eggs with the "laid date", only the best used by date.

 

[lazy gardener]

with travel and age, the fertility rate tends to go down, on the other hand, for the price and ease, their's no harm in trying. it's not unheard of for store bought eggs to be fertile, but it's pretty hit or miss. candling after a week will reveal a lot and if you don't get any to survive, try another brand.

The carton will be labeled if there is a possibility of the eggs being fertile. Some TJ customers consider it to be "trendy" if they consume fertile eggs, so... in some areas, "fertile eggs" are sold. The carton will be so labeled. However, the eggs are allowed to be called fertile if there is a remote possibility that an egg will be fertile: for example: a single very happy rooster in a flock of 200 or more hens.

How do you know they are 7 days old? I have never seen eggs with the "laid date", only the best used by date.

Almost all products, including eggs are marked with a code which is the Julian date. This is the packing date. It's usually near the "sell or best by" date.

I've been tempted to try some TJ eggs, simply for the novelty of it, not to mention the sheer joy of candling a white egg, and watching the chick dancing inside that white shell. I swear I can see the down on a chick in a white egg!

However, if one simply wants to hatch some barn yard mix chicks, better to go to a local farm stand or farmer's market to get your eggs.

 

[lazy gardener]

Not true. Many folks have successfully hatched refrigerated eggs. Viability will be somewhat decreased, but there will be a reasonable hatch.

 

[staceyj]

The Julian calendar(also called the perpetual calendar) is simple to understand. Graphs are readily available online to download or refer too. It is always a 3 digit number.
Here's how it works.
January 1=001
January 2=002
December 31(non leap year)
=365

So today's Julian date= 011

 

[Beer can]

After 7-8 days candle them and see what you got.

We use the Julian dates at work (dairy plant), some calenders actually have the days labeled makes it easier.