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From what I read on BYC from folks who have done this, it doesn't seem to matter much. They've hatched eggs with all kinds of labeling.
The key, discussed earlier in this thread, is the age of the eggs. There are several comments that discuss reading the date codes on the cartons, so you can find the freshest eggs to try out. That takes care of the age question. For how cold they got, it's a crapshoot. If they didn't get too cold, or not for too long, they can still hatch.
As for how long they've been refrigerated, see the date code. If they were packed 3 days ago, that gives you a pretty good idea how long they've been refrigerated.
You can tell they haven't been frozen, because if they had been, (1) the shell would have a crack, probably lengthwise, and (2) the yolk will be gelled, not runny. When you crack open an egg that was frozen, and put it on a flat surface, like a skillet or a saucer, the yolk will remain round, it won't flatten out as much as a normal fresh yolk does. If you mash it with a fork, it's like mashing into a ball of clay. You could cut the raw yolk into slices. An egg that had been frozen would not develop.
Getting supermarket eggs that had been frozen would be an extremely rare occurrence, and would be due to an error somewhere along the line, and would warrant returning the eggs to the store for refund or exchange.
I wouldn't worry much about getting duds, because you're not talking about a major expenditure here. That's part of what makes this so attractive in the first place. If you buy eggs to eat anyway, and you buy some $4 per dozen eggs, or less, depending on where you get them and your local prices, and open a few and they're not fertile, so what? EAT THEM. Buy some others, somewhere else, and try again. If they aren't fertile, eat those, too. And so on. Eventually you'll find some fertile eggs.
You could, instead, spend anywhere from $15 to $40 (or more) for fertile eggs and the cost of shipping, and they may or may not hatch, either, depending on even more variables that if you got a few at the store.
I'm not saying you should or should not do either one. It's a choice that each of us can make for ourselves. I've done the shipped egg thing myself, and found it disappointing. I may still do it again, because some of the breeds I want are really hard to get, locally.
It's just another option available for those who want to give it a shot.
From what I read on BYC from folks who have done this, it doesn't seem to matter much. They've hatched eggs with all kinds of labeling.
The key, discussed earlier in this thread, is the age of the eggs. There are several comments that discuss reading the date codes on the cartons, so you can find the freshest eggs to try out. That takes care of the age question. For how cold they got, it's a crapshoot. If they didn't get too cold, or not for too long, they can still hatch.
As for how long they've been refrigerated, see the date code. If they were packed 3 days ago, that gives you a pretty good idea how long they've been refrigerated.
You can tell they haven't been frozen, because if they had been, (1) the shell would have a crack, probably lengthwise, and (2) the yolk will be gelled, not runny. When you crack open an egg that was frozen, and put it on a flat surface, like a skillet or a saucer, the yolk will remain round, it won't flatten out as much as a normal fresh yolk does. If you mash it with a fork, it's like mashing into a ball of clay. You could cut the raw yolk into slices. An egg that had been frozen would not develop.
Getting supermarket eggs that had been frozen would be an extremely rare occurrence, and would be due to an error somewhere along the line, and would warrant returning the eggs to the store for refund or exchange.
I wouldn't worry much about getting duds, because you're not talking about a major expenditure here. That's part of what makes this so attractive in the first place. If you buy eggs to eat anyway, and you buy some $4 per dozen eggs, or less, depending on where you get them and your local prices, and open a few and they're not fertile, so what? EAT THEM. Buy some others, somewhere else, and try again. If they aren't fertile, eat those, too. And so on. Eventually you'll find some fertile eggs.
You could, instead, spend anywhere from $15 to $40 (or more) for fertile eggs and the cost of shipping, and they may or may not hatch, either, depending on even more variables that if you got a few at the store.
I'm not saying you should or should not do either one. It's a choice that each of us can make for ourselves. I've done the shipped egg thing myself, and found it disappointing. I may still do it again, because some of the breeds I want are really hard to get, locally.
It's just another option available for those who want to give it a shot.
