Trader Joes & Other Grocery Store Egg Hatching Club - Are you a Member

[EMantooth]

Well, my 22 eggs turned out to be a bust. I never saw any development except in one, and it quit very, very early on. I opened all the eggs to see what was going on -- nothing happened in any of them except that one. Oh well...was worth the try. My pheasants laid their first egg of the season yesterday, so it was perfect timing to give up on the others and clean out the incubator. I'm not saying I won't ever try this again, but I definitely would look for eggs that were much, much fresher and not shipped so far.

 

[ellandeeranch]

Well, my 22 eggs turned out to be a bust. I never saw any development except in one, and it quit very, very early on. I opened all the eggs to see what was going on -- nothing happened in any of them except that one. Oh well...was worth the try. My pheasants laid their first egg of the season yesterday, so it was perfect timing to give up on the others and clean out the incubator. I'm not saying I won't ever try this again, but I definitely would look for eggs that were much, much fresher and not shipped so far.

That was my experience with my first set of TJ's eggs. But struggle on! I got six out of the next batch I tried. The roos have a date with the bbq this week, and the hens will be joining the egglayers soon!

Don't give up. Get the freshest ones you can by checking the carton date, of course.

 

[Manningjw]

i only name the ones i will eat.

satay, kebab, adobo, sandwich, salad, potpie

it keeps it real

That is a good one.

Our chickens all have names and we are quite fond of them. I am thinking about processing chickens in the future when I start hatching my own (incubator should arrive this week) but who knows if I will.

 

[Peep_Show]

If I'm eating them, I try to have a group that all look the same....and they remain nameless. Dispatching a mob is so much easier than picking out Mr. Featherfeet for dinner. (And when they all have their heads off they look pretty much the same anyway....even more so when they're nekkid)

 

[chick4chix]

Well, my 22 eggs turned out to be a bust. I never saw any development except in one, and it quit very, very early on. I opened all the eggs to see what was going on -- nothing happened in any of them except that one. Oh well...was worth the try. My pheasants laid their first egg of the season yesterday, so it was perfect timing to give up on the others and clean out the incubator. I'm not saying I won't ever try this again, but I definitely would look for eggs that were much, much fresher and not shipped so far.

Sorry you had no development Emantooth! I guess I was lucky with my first dozen and ended up with 9 that went into lockdown and 5 that hatched. It might help to be at the store the day they deliver the eggs- I actually took the dozen off the shelf while they were still stocking the shelves- so they must have been very fresh.

That was my experience with my first set of TJ's eggs. But struggle on! I got six out of the next batch I tried. The roos have a date with the bbq this week, and the hens will be joining the egglayers soon!

Don't give up. Get the freshest ones you can by checking the carton date, of course.

Let us know how the roosters are ellandeeranch- I am so curious about how much meat are on leghorn males?

I just set 17 more eggs tonight- 6 of which are the eggs laid by my TJ leghorns. They have been with a gorgeous EE roo, so I'm hoping to get some incredible egg layers (my TJ leghorns lay every single day without fail) with the blue shell gene.
I'll keep you posted- 2nd generation hatch from the original TJ eggs- FUN!!!

 

[Manningjw]

Sorry you had no development Emantooth! I guess I was lucky with my first dozen and ended up with 9 that went into lockdown and 5 that hatched. It might help to be at the store the day they deliver the eggs- I actually took the dozen off the shelf while they were still stocking the shelves- so they must have been very fresh.
Let us know how the roosters are ellandeeranch- I am so curious about how much meat are on leghorn males?

I just set 17 more eggs tonight- 6 of which are the eggs laid by my TJ leghorns. They have been with a gorgeous EE roo, so I'm hoping to get some incredible egg layers (my TJ leghorns lay every single day without fail) with the blue shell gene.
I'll keep you posted- 2nd generation hatch from the original TJ eggs- FUN!!!

That is the exact type of cross I am going for. What I am planning to do in a later breeding project is breed a LeghornXAmeraucana Rooster back to White Leghorn hens and select based on the pea comb for the blue egg gene inheritance, obtaining a new Roo each year with progressively more leghorn but still possessing the blue gene. That is the theory anyhow, we'll see if it works in practice

. Eventually i would cross the Leghorn Roo with B/b gene to a hen that is B/b and select again for pea comb and blue egg color.

 

[chick4chix]

That is the exact type of cross I am going for. What I am planning to do in a later breeding project is breed a LeghornXAmeraucana Rooster back to White Leghorn hens and select based on the pea comb for the blue egg gene inheritance, obtaining a new Roo each year with progressively more leghorn but still possessing the blue gene. That is the theory anyhow, we'll see if it works in practice

. Eventually i would cross the Leghorn Roo with B/b gene to a hen that is B/b and select again for pea comb and blue egg color.

That sounds good- I hope you takes lots of photos!- and you get what you are aiming for

! I'll be at least 7 months from now before I know whether I end up with blue egg leghorn crosses. At this point, I'm just hoping they're not all roos!!

 

[Manningjw]

That sounds good- I hope you takes lots of photos!- and you get what you are aiming for

! I'll be at least 7 months from now before I know whether I end up with blue egg leghorn crosses. At this point, I'm just hoping they're not all roos!!

So long as they have Pea combs they should be light blue egg layers (having at least 1 blue egg gene). From what I have read, pea comb and blue egg genes are located closely together on a single chromosome, which means they typically are inherited together. Fortunately for us, they are both dominant genes as well.

 

[Deerling]

I just ordered an incubator today and can't wait to try hatching some store bought eggs! I have a six year old daughter who is homeschooled, so this will be really cool. We dropped by a few places today just to scope it out and our Trader Joe's (I'm in Sonoma County, CA) workers looked at me like I was insane when I asked if they sold fertile eggs (after checking the shelves and not seeing any). I know a few local stores that sell fertile brown eggs that are local, so we'll probably end up trying those. Yay!

 

[what did I do]

Thought I'd show you my second generation TJ mixes. Can you guess which ones didn't come from the TJ rooster?