Supermarket Experiment UK

[Oldhallchicks]

So, I’m doing a “nothing to lose” incubation experiment. (AKA How Covid 19 Turned me Into a Crazy Chicken Lady, a memoir)

We had a bad batch of eggs from an eBay seller and he’s graciously offered to send us another 6 for free. so they’ll be going in the incubator tomorrow.

While I was making scrambled eggs with some of Tesco finest eggs, I noticed that some were fertilised. When I googled it, I found out that Tesco let’s roosters in with their free range finest eggs to give them a more natural experience/quality of life, and that people have sometimes hatched a chick from them.

I checked them and found in tact air cells, and clearly defined yolks, so I stuck 9 auraCana and 3 Maran eggs in the incubator. I’ll check them for fertility/development with my other eBay eggs at day 7.

I realise they are very unlikely to develop or hatch, but thought it would be a fun experiment.

 

[AgnesGray]

I'm following along! Great experiment!

 

[MGG]

Me too! Sounds fun! Good luck!

 

[AgnesGray]

This just popped up in my news feed! Some encouragement that this is very possible! https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52838747

 

[Perris]

I realise they are very unlikely to develop or hatch, but thought it would be a fun experiment.

they are 10 days old (working back from bb date), so they might, but it's a bit longer than most would bother with. They shouldn't have been refrigerated either (unless you put them in the fridge).
They are not pure Araucana or Marans, but hybrids, to get the blue or dark brown colour but larger size, and more frequently, so if they do hatch they may not look like the photos you find of these breeds online.
Good luck!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

It amazes me how different European eggs are from the US. You'd never find supermarket eggs here labeled with the breed of the chicken. Were these eggs un-refrigerated? Good luck! It would be very cool if you got something from them! How much did these eggs cost? Just curious.

 

[Perris]

it's only the premium ranges that are labelled like this, they cost x2 what standard eggs do; typically £2.50 for 6. They have to be unrefrigerated on UK / EU regulations.

 

[Oldhallchicks]

It amazes me how different European eggs are from the US. You'd never find supermarket eggs here labeled with the breed of the chicken. Were these eggs un-refrigerated? Good luck! It would be very cool if you got something from them! How much did these eggs cost? Just curious.

they may have been refrigerated during transport, but eggs in the supermarkets here are not kept in the fridge. The eggs were £1.90/6 eggs I think....and like others said they won’t properly be that breed, but we shall see if anything develops

 

[Oldhallchicks]

they are 10 days old (working back from bb date), so they might, but it's a bit longer than most would bother with. They shouldn't have been refrigerated either (unless you put them in the fridge).
They are not pure Araucana or Marans, but hybrids, to get the blue or dark brown colour but larger size, and more frequently, so if they do hatch they may not look like the photos you find of these breeds online.
Good luck!

thanks! Yeah we will see.... like I said...just throwing them in for the sake of experiment. The air cells look way better than the ones that came through the post, but like you said they’ll be 10+ days old so

 

[JaeG]

I've just hatched 2 little chicks out of 6 eggs that were stuck in the post for 10 days, and one of them had a terrible air cell, so I'll say good luck and that it's perfectly possible.