Could the eggs you buy at a grocery store hatch live chicks? One Bay Area teacher says you can.
Alice Bowie (@aliceintkland) took to TikTok to explain how she decided to include nine Trader Joe’s eggs in the batch she was incubating for her kindergarten students. She marked the store-bought eggs ‘TJ’ to minimize confusion.
“We waited 21 days to be exact. We checked in on them along the way until finally, they hatched. Three of our fluffy yellow chickies came from Trader Joe’s eggs,” Bowie states in a voiceover on top of the video showing the process.
She noted that only three of the nine eggs hatched but she considers the outcome a success considering she didn’t know anything about the egg’s history.
Many viewers expressed disbelief.
“This HAS to be a joke,” one person commented.
“Now I’ll never eat eggs again,” another chimed in.
One took a humorous approach stating, “From the majority of these comments, this video may have just solved the egg shortage crisis.”
Bowie shot back in a voiceover stating, “Appears that some of you think my life is a joke. So now you’re forcing me to come on here and defend myself. Yes, it did come from a Trader Joe’s egg”.
An article published by Michigan State University explains that, while it is possible to hatch a chick from a store-bought egg, it’s extremely rare because most grocery store eggs have not been fertilized.
“Most eggs sold commercially in the grocery store are from poultry farms and have not been fertilized. Laying hens at most commercial farms have never even seen a rooster,” the article states.
Bowie isn’t the only one who claims to have hatched a chick from a store-bought egg. Brittanie, the owner of the Homestead Trail account on YouTube, posted a video in February of 2022 stating that, after some trial and error, her Trader Joe’s egg also produced life.
“Yes, we did hatch a chick from a Trader’s Joe egg!” Brittanie wrote in a statement defending her video. “As the egg industry moves away from battery cages to more humane practices like pasture-raised and free-ranging on small family farms, it’s becoming increasingly possible for a rooster to be in the flock which could result in a fertilized egg ending up in the carton.”
She also pointed out that there’s a Facebook group called “Hatching Store-Bought Eggs” which is dedicated to hatching eggs from various egg brands.
“Happy Egg Co. is another brand that a lot of people have had success hatching from,” she stated.