Trader Joe or other commercial fertile eggs... Whad'ja get?

[budkingston]

I have read a few posts here about people putting eggs in the incubator that were derived from food sources. One post started from White eggs and produced a Leghorn or Leghorn variety chick.

My Mom gets her eggs from a whole foods place and they are dark, and obviously, there has to be more than one supplier nationwide...

So can people who have tried this experiment please chime in and say what color the eggs were, e.g., Lt Brown, Dark brown, creamy, white, etc, and what hatched out, e.g., Australorps, Sex links, RIR, et al?

I just started my first incubator hatch and I am learning as I go. It is certainly ONE THING to read about it, but entirely another to actually do it! So I am picking my next project and this seems like a cheap way to do it.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

It seems like most of the threads I have read on this have indicated leghorn types from white eggs, and second generation sex-link types from brown eggs.

I think it's a really fun project, BUT, as cool as hatching is, you then have a chicken to raise for the rest of it's life, which seems like the real expense to me.

I would find a local farmers market with free range or organic eggs, and just ask if they keep roosters. If they do, it's likely they have fertile eggs. One near me sells mixed color egg cartons, with green, blue, and dark brown eggs, in addition to brown and white. If I couldn't find specific breeds near me, I would go to them first for eggs, because at least the chances of getting an "interesting" chicken are better (no offense to the production hybrids. I keep a couple of those too!) They keep EE's and Welsumemers and all sorts of breeds, so even though the chicks will likely be mutts, they could be cool mutts!

 

[budkingston]

I am after chickens that produce eggs and was planning on ordering layers. I am also interested in egg layers that are pets and Leghorns don't really fit that bill.

2nd generation sex links might be a good deal, for the cost of 3 chicks, you can buy 2 dozen, plus you get the added bonus of anxiety and stress waiting for them to hatch or the humidity to rise/fall.

I realize that they will be around for life but I have a few sources that will take them from me. One has a petting zoo and another just lets chickens free range to keep the insects down around her horses.

Right now, I am hatching a few dozen eggs given to me by a fellow member. I am looking for blue and green egg layers but I doubt these will be a trader Joe's.

 

[muddstopper]

If you are buying eggs from a national chain store that sells hundreds of cartons a day, most likely your brown eggs are Golden Comets, Isa Browns or some other hybrid developed for efficient egg productions, no mutts there and most likely not fertile either. Now the country stores, small mom and pop stores and such, if they are buying local products, well, lets put it this way, theres no telling what kind of eggs you are getting or whether they will or will not hatch. The good part about dealing with the mom and pop stores is that they usually know the person providing their eggs for sale, because they deal with them directly. Therefore if they are willing, they usually can tell you something about the breed of eggs, plus if they are willing to buy local, these type stores also become a source for you to sell some of your own eggs. Now dont start getting giddy and think you can sell tons of eggs this way and stay under the gov regulations, but if you have a few extras to get rid of now and then, Mom&pops stores can usually help you out. Mom&Pop wont buy your eggs if they cant sell them, so dont expect to get premium prices.

 

[budkingston]

Well, I sure am not out to sell eggs! Why turn a fun hobby into a crappy job?

I am one of those guys that does this for fun and personal enlightenment/education. It is also bonding with my daughter. I told her that she can "sell" eggs to our neighbors, maybe a carton a week or something. Just so she can have soem spending money.

Anyway, today one of my friends talked me into going into an order from Previtts so I have 29 chicks on the way. Along with my incubating chicks, I will be in over my head with eggs anyway!

 

[evonne]

*tries to look innocent*
i am not an enabler... i had nothing to do with this addiction....
when are those chicks getting here???

rofl.....

i'm going to go check the neighbor hood whole foods and see what they have... i saw traders joe's actually sells a carton labeled fertile eggs... i haven't seen it myself, just the thread here on BYC... but i think they were a medium to light brown... at this point i want dark brown... but i think i don't have to worry about it now... just have to wait for chicks to grow and hope one of them crows... lol...

clicking the subscribe button just to see what everyone else chimes in with...

 

[GardeNerd]

The only chick we kept is a Leghorn looking chicken from Trader Joe's fertile eggs. I think she is from a Hyline W-36 due to her docile nature, not very leghorn like in personality. She came out of white eggs and lays eggs that look exactly the same size and color.

Our brown eggs we had success with (nurti-fresh brand by chino valley ranchers) hatched what look liked a mixed breed chick, and it probably had some kind of red sex-linked hen for a mother. As a baby chick, it was yellow with dark patches, and lightened to white while we had it for a few weeks. We gave it away when we realized it was developing into a male. I was told it grew to be whitish with brown patches, but not a recognized breed.

My kids are talking about wanting to redo the experiment this coming spring, so I would love to find out what others chicks might have looked like. I have one of my BYC pages with details from my son's project and pictures. For our experiment, we only had success with the cartons labeled "Fertile Eggs."

 

[Laney]

My local Whole Foods has cartons of eggs that are not labeled fertile. They come from clear across the country. (I'm in North Carolina). So I don't think I'd try to hatch those.

On the other hand, in the produce department they have loose eggs. These I have it on good authority are Java eggs. I have met the woman who supplies this particular Whole foods on the Raleigh "Tour De'Coop". I do not know if they are fertile, but in a few weeks I'm going to pick up a bunch with the intention of hatching them, if they have any in. Java's production can go down in the winter so I don't know how long she'll keep supplying them.

If I can't get any at the whole foods I'll contact her directly as through some pretty intense web research I recently was able to find out her farm name!

Laney

 

[Spinster_Sister]

I purchased my dozen fertile eggs from Whole Foods and had one blood ring but no chicks to hatch out. I blame my inexperience and homemade incubator which I had a heck of a time keeping constant temperature.The poultry people at Chino Valley farms told me my light brown large eggs were from Isa Brown hens. Whole Foods private labels their fertile eggs with Chino Valley Farms eggs. Isa Browns seem to be happy easy to handle hens with a tendency to get egg bound, wish I would've taken my time and purchased a proper incubator from the start though. I now have Jersey Giant eggs in my Hovabator.

~Vickie

 

[greathorse]

Why?