May Try Hatching Store Bought Eggs

[Nathan]

Believe me, I do not think that locating local fertile eggs should be as hard as it has been.

Farmer's market: seasonal. I realize that I am out of season, but in June, I would rather be *collecting* eggs, not setting them.

Craigslist: I've placed my wanted ad on Craigslist, and I'm emailing all those that advertise farm fresh eggs. Some are not fertile, and some don't know. I may as yet get a response from someone. The breed would likely be uncertain, but not as uncertain as in store bought eggs.

Small health food stores - yes, there are some.
Local corner grocers - yes, there are some.

PDXBackYard Chickens mailing list - noone responded there either.

I'll look for more roadside signs. One of them lost their chickens to a coyote.

It has also been two weeks of rare snowy weather here. One farm I've managed to contact would normally have them, but the production is really low right now.

 

[Nathan]

Quote:
Good work! Do you have any guess as to what breed they were? I guess part of the fun would be posting here to find out.

Nathan

 

[swtangel321]

There is no one on here in your area that has any ?? Did you post under BST-hatching eggs ? Seems odd no one on here is in WA and has eggs !!! What breed would you want ?

 

[Nathan]

Quote:
Yes, I did post - no response.
Yes, it does seem odd.

My more stretchy goal would be to breed sex linked with Rhode Island Red Rooster, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Whites, Delaware, Silver Laced Wyndonettes.

But there are many breeds I would accept. Good egg layers with good temperament.

And I have got offers for chicks - I just still have the hatching bug.

 

[Fudgie]

Quote:
My mom set up the Farmer's market for her town. You should contact the chamber of commerce in your town. The farmer's market folks that sell, must pay a fee to set up in the market and the commerce people might have a name of someone that you can contact "OFF season" for eggs. They don't have the farmer's market off season because production is way down but not shut off for eggs.

Good luck

 

[swtangel321]

Quote:
Yes, I did post - no response.
Yes, it does seem odd.

My more stretchy goal would be to breed sex linked with Rhode Island Red Rooster, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Whites, Delaware, Silver Laced Wyndonettes.

But there are many breeds I would accept. Good egg layers with good temperament.

And I have got offers for chicks - I just still have the hatching bug.

How cold is it over there ??

 

[glowworm]

The yellow ones are the ones that came from the store bought eggs. I think someone on here said that the rock island (brown) eggs are a cross between RIR and leghorn. I listed them on craigslist for $2 each and they sold QUICK. My email got congested LOL.

 

[Nathan]

I wanted to post the results of my research for the benefit of others, regardless of what I put in my incubator.

Safeway, at least my local ones, are a dead end. They had about three brands of cage-free eggs, including Horizon Organics. Nothing is marked as fertile. The web sites indicated thay did not have roosters.

A local corner shop and Whole Foods both had Stiebrs farm cage free eggs. A representative said they had Rhode Island Reds but no roosters.

Whole Foods had two brands that were marked as fertile, their own store brand, and NutriFresh from Chino Valley Ranchers.

http://www.chinovalleyranchers.com/nutrifresh.htm
Dave said this about his eggs:

They are most likely hi line an offshoot of the Rhode Island Red or Isa.

Hy Line breeds white and brown egg layers for production:
http://www.hyline.com/aspx/products/products.aspx?navid=3

The packaging date as well as the sell by date are marked on the end of the package:

#15 How do I read label dates?

Label format: XXX Month YY

Definition:
XXX = Julian day that the eggs are packed on. Jan 01 is 001, Dec 31 is 365 in a non leap year.
YY = the sell by day, not a year.

Example: 004 Feb 03 means that the eggs are packed on Jan 4th and must be sold by February 3rd.

I'm still pursuing some other options.

In conclusion, the Chino Valley eggs would likely not breed true, but would likely produce a red feathered productive brown egg layer. They are an adequate choice if your incubator holds 48 and you can't bear to leave any spots empty.​

 

[swtangel321]

Nathan - Did you get my PM ???


ETA: Has the temp been above freezing there ??

 

[Nathan]

Quote:
I did get the PM, thanks. A note on that website says they are out of stock now, but I may be checking there later for at least one of those breeds.

It did thaw this week. Now the state is flooding! Southwest Washington is now isolated from much of the rest of the state with the Interstate and state highways underwater. Maybe it's time to get the kayak out.

I may get mail/packages if its routed through Portland, but not if it's routed through Seattle!