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

[CricketYang]

I think all of mine are duds

. They were about 14 days old.

 

[sequoiacyclist]

Guys, I really hate to point out the obvious

....but if a grocery store or any other licensed retailer is going to sell eggs that are fertile they must have the word FERTILE written on the carton. The chanced of hatching out regular commercially produced eggs that are not marked as FERTILE are slim to zero. That being said, there are a few commercial producers out there that do produce fertile eggs. (I have had unbelievable luck and fertility rates from Rock Island Eggs) If you are going to buy eggs from a grocery store look for the word FERTILE on the carton before trying to hatch them out. Also, the chances of finding eggs sold as FERTILE are much higher if you go to a health food type store such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. If you don't have such a store in the area I would think that the next place to look would be in a local farmers market or even from people listing ads for their "Farm Fresh Eggs" in newspapers or on Craigs List. Good luck and happy hatching!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

The word fertile is not required. Its on there or not according to the market there trying to sell to. Your odds are better if you find eggs that say it but many many people including me have hatched plenty of store eggs that did not say it. Egg lay rates are better with roosters around. Not much but enough for the big producers to notice so they usually keep a few around.

 

[Elphaba2140]

I have bought TJ's free range for eating and some of them had bullseyes! They did not have a label of fertile on the carton.

 

[ChickeeNewbie]

Ok, so after reading this thread a while back, I thought it might be neat to try hatching some grocery store eggs. I have never hatched baby chicks nor have I even held a baby chick in my hands. I aquired my hens about 1-1/2 years ago after they were already laying. My Wheaten Old English Game Banty was showing signs of starting to go broody, so when I was at my local Winco grocery store I checked and they had fertile eggs. They were only 7 days old and were from Rock Island Egg Farm in Peteluma, CA. I didn't give it much hope and figured I would just switch out the bum eggs with some day old chicks from the feed store and see if broody mama would notice the difference. On day 11 I candled them and was surprised to see that 6 of the 8 eggs I set under my broody were looking good. On day 15 I transferred mama and eggs into the house in a brooder box and all was well.

On day 22 I was sooooo excited to see a pip and hear some cheeping!! 3 hatched on day 22, 2 were healthy and perfect and one - the first one to pip- was having trouble, come to find out it was underdeveloped and had the blood sac still attached - poor little thing held on for about a day. On day 23, three more hatched out and were perfect!! So out of the 8 I set, 2 were not fertilized, 5 hatched healthy, and 1 didn't make it - pretty good for a first timer!! I am soooo happy to have my very first fuzzy butts!! They are about 3 days old now

Cell phone camera pics - sorry if the quality isn't that great

 

[gryeyes]

ChickeeNewbie, that is SO cool! It really gives me hope and encouragement to try the TJ eggs experiment.

And if you go to the blue line at the top of this page, you can see the "uploads" link. You browse on your computer for your photos (one at a time) and select one. Then upload it. After it cycles, you copy the code for the photo - not the thumbnail one - and then you paste that code into a post. (Use Control C to copy, and Control V to paste it.)

Try it - we'd LOVE to see those grocery store chicks!!!!

 

[ChickeeNewbie]

gryeyes - thank you for the pic uploading instructions - I edited my last post to include the photos

 

[sheila3935]

Ok I guess its my turn I just got 2 dozen fertile eggs from a farmer they are RIR's that I gonna put in the incubator Sunday. As I was coming home I stopped at a little Amish grocery picked up a dozen brown eggs there. So.. When I set the fertile eggs sunday I am going to add the eggs from the store. I will mark them so I know which is which. If they are fertile I think they will be from sexlink chickens cause down the road from the store I saw an Amish farm with about 50 or more Cinnamon Queens in a large run there.

 

[callducklover20]

Im so excited-they just announced yesterday that Trader Joes is finally coming to KC

since I love that store I can hardly wait! Dont know if ours will have fertilized eggs or not but Im just excited we finally are getting some stores here after all the years of waiting

 

[Madcap621]

Quote:
Congratulations! They are beautiful --- as is your hen!

Welcome to the "Club"