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

[wsdareme]

I read this whole thread, got all excited about joining "the club" and ran to my local Safeway store! Boy, was I disappointed when I couldn't find any fertile eggs. They had free range, but nothing marked "FERTILE". I haven't tried Walmart -- has anyone ever found fertile eggs there? There is a Trader Joes about 25 miles from me, but I think I'll call and ask before I drive all the way in there. I mentioned what I was wanting to do to my husband -- he rolled his eyes and said, "Do we REALLY need more chickens?" I just want the challenge of trying to hatch store-bought eggs!

 

[blefky]

Didn't someone recently post about incubating an egg in her bra? Now, there would be a real challenge - hatching a Trader Joe's egg in your undies!

 

[wsdareme]

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Sorry, that's where I draw the line!

 

[gryeyes]

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Me too! I have called the closest Trader Joe's first, just to see if they have fertile eggs... and that TJ's does carry 'em. That's gonna be my next incubation experiment after my current batch hatches (or doesn't).

 

[Peep_Show]

re: Age of eggs....

The best hatch rate came from a batch of fertile eggs that were just put on the shelf that weekday, so refrigeration time was under a week. As the days and weeks go on, the dud rate goes up...although there have been hatches from eggs three weeks old, but not huge successes.

Rather than check the EXPIRE date on an egg carton, check the three-digit number usually right above it. That is the pack date for the eggs and it is numeric by days of the year. i.e., Jan 1 = 001, Aug 23 = 235, Sep 1 = 244. Try to get the three digit date as close to the actual date you're at....you may have to dig to the back of the egg shelf as they always try to sell the older ones by making them upfront and prominent (supermarket selling tactics).

Good luck!


(A little bit of refrigeration doesn't hurt an egg. I've had to put shipped eggs on ice for 5 days before waiting for other shipped eggs to arrive -- the perils of mail ordering from various sources. The chilled ones had a 85% hatch rate, which is really good considering they sat around in MO before shipping to NV and then were stored further)

 

[VioletandBodie]

just took out some eggs to warm to warm up....ponty end down or up for inbation?

 

[Peep_Show]

Pointy end down. The large round end is where the air sac is that the chick will eventually peck through to pop the top off the egg.

 

[VioletandBodie]

thanks

 

[Madcap621]

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Someone jump in here if I am wrong but: I think the 'best by' date is approximately 30 days after gather/pkgd. When I have hatched the 'store-bought' eggs, they were less than 5 days old. Eggs marked 'best by Sept 3' were probably layed around August 4 so are already nearly 3 weeks old, well past the 7 - 10 day age that is the outside limit for optimum fertility even with freshly gathered, never washed or refrigerated eggs.

That said, I have seen posts where people have had success with eggs more than a month old, frozen, etc. The egg is a miraculous thing!

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

how are u hatching these eggs if there all in the fridge ?