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

Just got a dozen fertile eggs from TJs after finding this thread. My naked neck hen's been broody for a week so I figured I'd give in. I hope it works. After seeing all these success stories I'm hopeful.

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Hope this doesn't gross people out.

My 4 TJs would be 10 weeks this friday, but I had 2 cockerels and 2 hens, so I was planning on processing my roosters eventually (before they crow!). My gardener said he'd take them off my hands (to eat) and I was sick of waiting for him to grab these guys so I did the deed this morning. I was planning on processing both but after doing one (the slow one lol), I was too wiped out so the second roo has gotten a reprieve for now.

My boy hates me and I believe my daughter will too, once I pick her up from class (the boy will happily implicate me). Not like I'm that high on their popularity list anyway lol.

This was my first time so it was kinda traumatic :(

Here is what you get meat-wise with a 10 week old cockerel:



As you can see, I suck at plucking, and I skinned it after taking this pic. Wow, it looks way more plump in this pic than it really is. The body is about 7" long give or take. I didn't even try to pluck the wing feathers and just cut them off even though I saw some meat there.

The worst part was slicing his neck (I sharpened my knife so that it could slice paper but I still needed a few more slices after the first one.. almost panicked ugh.) One thing that worked out well, I used a cut off girls' tights leg to "hug" the bird so it wouldn't move around. I cut a small hole in the sock part for his head to pull through for the cut. When I walked him over to the processing area, I had his head covered so he was very calm.
 
Yeah, those little leghorns don't have a whole lot of meat. Great for the soup pot, though!

I had one little white roo that was the biggest terror in my yard and was really surprised at how, well, puny his little carcass was. He sure seemed a lot bigger when he was coming at you in fury attack mode. But all nekkid he hardly could be deemed a menace (or a meal). In fact, I felt kind of embarrassed.....


p.s.
Hot water swishing and a dunk in cold water makes plucking a whole lot easier. The feathers just rub off.
 
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Quote: Ahhh...I see. Were you able to find any? We are pretty close to the Egg Farms here in California and have several brands of fertile egg available. The ones I hatched were Rock Island, but they are from Califonia near Wine Country too. I supect the further away from California you get they less likely you are to find them, unless you are near another areas were the eggs are farmed.
 

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