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

[Pele]

Haha Gabrielle, that's how I felt too! Unfortunately that refrigeration and age will make them more prone to quitting in the middle of things, so you'll most likely lose a couple here or there along the way. But I personally was surprised how close to 50% I got on my hatch! Just as if I had had shipped eggs from a breeder. It was mind boggling.

Here's the development of my chicks so far:

Dot

Dot's Wing


One of the others - the rest look exactly the same

Their Wings



((edit: I'm having problems with getting the pictures to show, let me know if they don't come up))

 

[chick4chix]

Looks like we'll have seven total chicks going over to the brooder out of those 22 TJ's we started with. A couple of them look iffy, like possible broken wings or bent legs, but we'll see how it goes. Five look nice. Three are already over in the brooder and are thriving thus far. Sorta neat to take eggs from the store and really hatch them!

We had a Poultry Processing Party out at Neenach yesterday and did five chickens together. I had pre-readied one a few days before, and we cooked that one on the smoker for several hours, nice and slow. It was an older bird I had received as a donation, and was a bit chewy, but the breast meat was fantastic.

I think I'm learning that 16-20 weeks is about the best time to process these dual-purpose chickens.

Richard in Neenach

Richard-
I had one chick who looked like it had a broken wing, and one that was way behind the others in learning to walk and seemed unable to lift it's head. I assumed it was because I had to "assist" a couple of them at hatching due to sticking in their shells. The wing resolved itself, but it hung weird for the first few weeks. I gave the 'slow' one a little sugar water and she perked up then caught up to the others after a few days- I could barely tell the difference in activity.
I didn't have any bent legs, but you can fix that with tape- is it "spraddle leg"? There are some threads with photos on it.
Congrats on your poultry processing party! It's good to know 16-20 weeks is a good age - so I can schedule the time to do it. Did you separate your cockerel's at any point from the pullets? My TJ hatched cockerels were very aggressive at about 5 weeks old- I was surprised it started so early, but the EE cockerel that I ended up keeping was very docile- maybe it's a breed trait.
Good luck.

 

[kcaywood]

Hi there! I read up on the thread, got excited, and joined the club yesterday (1/12) with a dozen brown fertile Rock Island eggs from a natural foods co-op in Sacramento. My incubator is a forced air Little Giant with a turner. I've hatched many shipped eggs but never store eggs! I'm candling Wednesday night and will post updates.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Hi there! I read up on the thread, got excited, and joined the club yesterday (1/12) with a dozen brown fertile Rock Island eggs from a natural foods co-op in Sacramento. My incubator is a forced air Little Giant with a turner. I've hatched many shipped eggs but never store eggs! I'm candling Wednesday night and will post updates.

Welcome to the madness

 

[tazcat70]

I am a member. I bought some eggs from a store that gets them from a local farmer. Those were my New Years hatch chicks. On Thursday I went to 4 different stores and bought 8 dozen eggs. They are all marked cage free but none are marked fertile. They are all different brands and colors except that I bought 2 dozen from a local Mennonite/Amish meat market. The color is so pretty and uniform in color. They are just gorgeous, I can't wait to see what hatches from them.

I did not check fertility via bowl or pan. I will candle on Thursday.

 

[cluck-cluck]

CONGRATULATIONS on your first egg, CluckCluck!!

Sooooo worth waiting for!

Thank you! No eggs today but that's ok, it's mid winter, right?

So I candled my Rock Island eggs tonight and I was a bit in shock , now after Im done Im sitting here thinking I must have just been seeing things out of wishfullness , but one way or another I saw movement or viens in 9 Eggs and what could be blood rings in the other 3. HOw I ask you would it be possible for all 12 of these eggs to start growing? These are shipped , refridgerated and were like 17 days old when they went into the incubator

.

Totally cool!!!

Looks like we'll have seven total chicks going over to the brooder out of those 22 TJ's we started with. A couple of them look iffy, like possible broken wings or bent legs, but we'll see how it goes. Five look nice. Three are already over in the brooder and are thriving thus far. Sorta neat to take eggs from the store and really hatch them!

We had a Poultry Processing Party out at Neenach yesterday and did five chickens together. I had pre-readied one a few days before, and we cooked that one on the smoker for several hours, nice and slow. It was an older bird I had received as a donation, and was a bit chewy, but the breast meat was fantastic.

I think I'm learning that 16-20 weeks is about the best time to process these dual-purpose chickens.

Richard in Neenach

Wow, if ya'all are doing it again in February, my Crevecoeur cockerels will be the right age! I really should join you, though I might cry... If I had more birds and raised them for this purpose, I know I'd be fine, but I have so few and have spent so much time with these boys, but I can't keep boys... so ugh!

Haha Gabrielle, that's how I felt too! Unfortunately that refrigeration and age will make them more prone to quitting in the middle of things, so you'll most likely lose a couple here or there along the way. But I personally was surprised how close to 50% I got on my hatch! Just as if I had had shipped eggs from a breeder. It was mind boggling.

Here's the development of my chicks so far:

Dot

Dot's Wing


One of the others - the rest look exactly the same

Their Wings



((edit: I'm having problems with getting the pictures to show, let me know if they don't come up))

Weird, the pictures show up in replying! They're very cute! Looks like leghorn, so maybe a cross?

Hi there! I read up on the thread, got excited, and joined the club yesterday (1/12) with a dozen brown fertile Rock Island eggs from a natural foods co-op in Sacramento. My incubator is a forced air Little Giant with a turner. I've hatched many shipped eggs but never store eggs! I'm candling Wednesday night and will post updates.

LOL, I hope you have a great hatch!!

I am a member. I bought some eggs from a store that gets them from a local farmer. Those were my New Years hatch chicks. On Thursday I went to 4 different stores and bought 8 dozen eggs. They are all marked cage free but none are marked fertile. They are all different brands and colors except that I bought 2 dozen from a local Mennonite/Amish meat market. The color is so pretty and uniform in color. They are just gorgeous, I can't wait to see what hatches from them.

I did not check fertility via bowl or pan. I will candle on Thursday.

Well you better report back on which ones turned out to be fertile, great information to share! Hope you have lots of success!!!

 

[tazcat70]

I will, I took pictures of all the cartons and made notes of where I bought them.

 

[cluck-cluck]

Cool! Invaluable information for this thread!!! LOL

We just ate our first egg! I was hoping they would have the darker yolk and taste different, but I didn't really expect them to. So I was surprised because the yolk was a dark orangy yellow and when we fried it up scrambled, it tasted great! I can't exactly say what was so different though?? More flavor, but something else, richer? I don't know, but definitely different and better! We made it with only a little salt so we could really taste it. I can't wait to actually make a real egg dish out of them when there are enough around, LOL

I'm so happy, I think I almost squeezed Flutters to death today, LOL. Poor thing is suffering lots of hugs from me!

 

[gabrielle1976]

Lost one more of the Rock Island Eggs today. Down to 8 from 12 , Im hopeing I wont lose any more. How are everyones eggs?

 

[ellandeeranch]

No, chick4chix. I didn't have them separated, since I knew they'd be going before they really became big roos. The chickens we did this weekend came from people who brought or donated. They went into my "scraptor" (a chicken tractor I built outa stuff lying around the ranch) to wait for their trip to the cone.

Richard-
I had one chick who looked like it had a broken wing, and one that was way behind the others in learning to walk and seemed unable to lift it's head. I assumed it was because I had to "assist" a couple of them at hatching due to sticking in their shells. The wing resolved itself, but it hung weird for the first few weeks. I gave the 'slow' one a little sugar water and she perked up then caught up to the others after a few days- I could barely tell the difference in activity.
I didn't have any bent legs, but you can fix that with tape- is it "spraddle leg"? There are some threads with photos on it.
Congrats on your poultry processing party! It's good to know 16-20 weeks is a good age - so I can schedule the time to do it. Did you separate your cockerel's at any point from the pullets? My TJ hatched cockerels were very aggressive at about 5 weeks old- I was surprised it started so early, but the EE cockerel that I ended up keeping was very docile- maybe it's a breed trait.
Good luck.