Kids Trader Joe's eggs hatched! - Update on Joey on post #147

[AHappychick]

too cute! I think what you guys did was great!

 

[GardeNerd]

Thanks!

 

[vfem]

This is a wonderful story!!!! I have to say it is by far a great experiment to have done... it seems there has been a lot to learn, and you recieved a WONDERFUL chicken and an even more WONDERFUL story for your family to have over the years.

My daughter has several more years until awesome experiments like that though. I will keep this in mind.

 

[GardeNerd]

Well, here are Joey's most recent pics. She is now 12 weeks old as of tomorrow. My son's project is finally due, on Friday, and he is putting the board together to turn in so we took some updated pics of her.

I am hoping she will start laying by mid to late June? If she IS a Hyline, the production stats said 50% are laying at 21.5 weeks. Still no more comb or waddle growth yet, but her face is getting pink.

 

[OCchickens]

Joey is beautiful!

I have 4/8 of my TJ's eggs pipped right now -- waiting for the chickies! Wish us luck!

 

[CarlaRiggs]

She's become a beautiful pullet. I'm so glad this has worked out for you and your son. I'm sure there will be quite a bit of talk about this project!

Thanks for the update.

Carla

 

[mom2chicksandpups]

Wow! I just read this thread for the first time and I am amazed that you guys hatched an egg from the grocery store! It sounds like you have some very intelligent children! Congrats on Joey, who has turned out to be such a pretty girl.

Ok... This may seem like a dumb question, but I am honestly asking this because I am clueless. I knew that stores sold organic farm-raised eggs and understand the benefits of eating these. Why would some people prefer to eat fertile eggs? Do they have a different taste or some other difference? I just wondered because I had never heard of this.

We had actually planned to keep our egg layers separate from any roosters that we keep so our eating eggs would NOT be fertile. We didn't want to have to deal with blood in the eggs, etc. This is why I wondered why some prefer to eat fertile eggs.

I learn something every day!

 

[GardeNerd]

mom2chicksandpups wrote:

We had actually planned to keep our egg layers separate from any roosters that we keep so our eating eggs would NOT be fertile. We didn't want to have to deal with blood in the eggs, etc.

None of the fertile eggs we cracked open had any kind of blood spot. If you didn't know they were fertile, you probably couldn't tell the difference. We really had to look for the fertile dots and the only difference was is the size, a period in a sentence vs. a dot the size of eraser head.

From what I understand there are a few different groups that buy them regularly. I have been told some Asian customers like them to develop just a day or two on the counter ( I don't know if this is accurate or not, but none of my Asian friends do it.) Older customers that grew up with only fertile eggs and feel they are more healthful. And folks that care about the chickens' living conditions-if they have enough room to breed, they may be more happy chickens.

They taste and look exactly the same as the infertile eggs to me. We ate a lot eggs over the last few months in our investigations.​

 

[in2chickens]

Amazing! Your story is the best I have read on this site.

 

[GardeNerd]

Quote:
That is so sweet to say. Thank you very much. I wish everyone could meet Joey. It is amazing how nice she is. All my future chickens will be measured against her. I am very curious if it is the breed/ mix she is or if it was her upbringing, Nature vs. Nurture.

If OCChickens get to have pullets from the batch she is hatching, I hope they are just like Joey.