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

[Nimby Chickens]

I set some local eggs that were refrigerated. I'm on a trip right now but when I get back it should be clear how many are going to make it.

I will let you guys know!

 

[ContessaKris]

I found this thread in a round about way on the internet. We have a Trader Joe's going in locally on Friday! Yay me! So, I had a few questions...

The fertile eggs people are using to incubate, are they organic?
Is there only one kind of chicken (Leghorn) used for the eggs? I'm wondering what we would get.
As with other eggs, should we let these come to room temperature before putting into the incubator?

I'm curious to try this out, sometime in the fall I think. What a fun project!

 

[HHandbasket]

At Trader Joe's, their fertile eggs are white and hatch out leghorns.

I have found brown fertile grocery store eggs at SaveMart, SOME Safeways, Whole Foods Market, and a few local mom-and-pop markets, as well as the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op.

We aren't doing anymore hatches until the fall, but if I don't have a full incubator, I'll probably go to SaveMart and pick up some fertile eggs just to fill the 'bator.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

What an interesting thread! We have an upmarket food store near us that sells tons of different kinds of free range eggs - everything from rhea eggs, turkey eggs, quail eggs, ostrich eggs, Legbar eggs, pheasant eggs and duck eggs. I might buy a few and do a crack and check to see if they are fertile. Does anybody know how to incubate a Rhea or Ostrich?

 

[Arielle]

I'm incubating for the first time and plan to add a dozen fertile white eggs.

FYI MuckyPuppy, free range means the girls get to be free of a cage BUT it actually doesn't mean a rooster is with them. I believe we are to look for "FERTILE" in the labeling and even then it only means a rooster is with the hens which doesn't guarantee that the eggs are actually fertilized. IT's all a bit tricky! LOL

 

[MrSoCal]

Quote:
Eggs are checked to make sure they are fertile (

).

Whether fertile eggs hatch or not depend on other factors, such as the age, condition, etc which you can research further.

 

[Jenlyn9483]

Hi I knew this thread was lurking here somewhere! i had a friend that told me she hatched some refrigerated eggs once and I read on byc that someone was hatching store bought eggs. Anyway long story short a friend of ours is always giving us 18 pack of eggs from his fridge when we go over for eating and if there are any in the nest box we get a few here and there and I hatch them. Well this time i got 18 refrigerated and 3 not refrigerated and I figured I would candle some refrigerated ones and find ones with correct air sacks and let them go room temp for a couple days and set them too just to see. These are from a healthy backyard layer flock comprised of brown egg layers, RIR and some EEs and they didnt come very far so Im hoping! This will be fun. im setting them with some swap eggs so it will soften the blow if my swap eggs get ruined in route.

 

[Nigellas]

I bought some eggs at Whole Foods almost 2 weeks ago - The "Fertile" ones were quite old, so I skipped those and got some labeled as local, small farm that had sell by date 6 weeks away, the freshest I saw- The one I cracked at home was definitely bullseyed, so fingers crossed... I only gave my broody 5, and one broke, so were down to 4. I have not candled, so I have no idea the status, but only 9ish days to go!

 

[vmdanielsen]

Are the personalities of hens from TJ's eggs, as aggressive as other leghorns? I would love to get some cheap, great layers, but the one leghorn I have pulls the other hens out of the nesting boxes, by their combs. Is this normal behavior for all leghorns?

 

[gryeyes]

My white leghorns are kinda flighty, but when I catch 'em they are calm enough in my arms after a minute or so. They are NOT mean at all.