The Great Wal-Mart Organic Eggs Experiment (Pics)

[HenMaster]

dancingbear ,
I plan to do that when I finish this hatching. I will go to Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Winn-Dixie and Target (all local stores) and get 1 dozen of each type of organic, free range, and fertile eggs.

I will crack open 4, at random, and attempt to hatch the remaining 8 if they are fertile.

And for those of you that ask "Why?" - becosue I can!

HenMaster- Andre'

 

[Holly O]

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LOL
made me laugh, as I'm thinking the same BECAUSE I CAN, except I can get eggs from the farmers market, $1 for 12.

 

[dancingbear]

Sure, why not? I think it's a great, low cost way to get some laying hens, and hatching experience to boot. Beats the heck out a spending big bucks on shipped eggs, if you don't have any reason to be buying special or rare breeds. And I can't think of a better way to introduce kids to incubating. (if you don't already have hens with a roo, that is)

I just wanted to let folks know you can check for fertility without going through part of an incubation cycle. You can find out 10 days sooner, whether there's even a possibility of a hatch.

I say 10 days, because even with darker shelled eggs, with a good light, you should be able to clearly distinguish developing embryos. I can generally see clear veining and movement at day 10, even in my darker eggs. Even the green ones! Many people candle sooner, but I like to wait until day 10. Sometimes they're hard to tell for sure before that. Day 7 at earliest, for me.

 

[insiderart]

Now, those farmer's market eggs... that might be interesting!!

 

[backdoorchicken]

so these eggs being refrigerated for a few days(if not weeks) before being put into an incubator will not have any problems?

 

[bishopschickens]

For fun back in Feb. I bought a bunch of farm fresh eggs from a local Farm and feed. The chicks were beautiful but I knew they would be fertile. They were Butter Cup Roos on red sexlink, black sexlink, RIR and cochin hens. Mixed breeds can be so pretty.

 

[dancingbear]

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It may or may not. It depends on how cold, for how long, and probably to some extent, what breed(s) the eggs are from. Some are a lot hardier, and easier to hatch, than others. But as long as you see some 'bull's eyes', there's a possibility they may hatch. There's also still a possibility they won't, as with any eggs, from any source. My worst hatches have been from shipped eggs, even though they were not refrigerated. Some of those had low fertility, as well. I'd have probably done just as well, or better, with eggs from the grocery store.

They wouldn't have been the breeds I was looking for, but they might've hatched, at least!

 

[dancingbear]

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I'd love to see pics of those, got any posted? They sound beautiful!

 

[bishopschickens]

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I'd love to see pics of those, got any posted? They sound beautiful!

Yeah, give me a minute to upload on my website.

 

[bishopschickens]

Here are the chicks, I dont have any pictures of older birds as I sold them all but have seen some of them grown. Buttercup makes for interesting mix breeds.