In a viral TikTok video that has received more than 1.5 million views, a Bay Area, California, kindergarten teacher claims to have hatched baby chicks from eggs she bought at a Trader Joe’s grocery store.
“Did you know you can hatch Trader Joes eggs?” Alice Bowie asks viewers about her under the name @aliceintkland. “I bought these fertile eggs to prove it.”
In his video, Bowie noted that he was hatching eggs for his students and decided to include nine eggs he bought at Trader Joe’s with the other farm-fresh eggs.
He marked Trader Joe’s eggs “TJ” so he could tell the difference.
“We wait 21 days to be exact,” he said in a voiceover on TikTok. “We checked on them along the way until they finally hatched. Three of our fluffy yellow chicks came from Trader Joe’s.”
He reported that only a third of them hatched, but considered this a positive result as he did not know where they came from, how long they had been refrigerated, or how they were handled during transport.
Fox News Digital has contacted Bowie and Trader Joe’s for comment.
Bowie provides video coverage of the process, from the tagging and placement of the eggs in an incubator, to the hatching of the yellow chicks from what the video purports to be the eggs themselves.
“Can you believe these guys came out of a cardboard box?” she asked the audience of him.
Responses ranged from disgust to disbelief.
“This HAS to be a joke,” one person commented.
“Now I will never eat eggs again,” said another.
“I used to hide eggs from the grocery store under my grandmother’s bed, hoping they would hatch,” said another viewer.
“From most of these comments, this video may have solved the egg shortage crisis,” said another viewer.
In a follow-up video, Bowie responds to the commenters from the point of view of one of his calves.
“Some of you seem to think my life is a joke,” the voiceover says. “So now you’re forcing me to come here and defend myself. Yes, I really did come from Trader Joe’s egg.
It is possible but “generally not possible” to hatch an egg purchased from a grocery store, according to an article published by the Michigan State University (MSU) agricultural extension office.
“During their exploration of chick embryology, the youngsters learn that in order for a chick to develop from an egg, it must be fertilized,” the article states. “Most eggs sold commercially in the grocery store come from poultry farms and have not been fertilized. In fact, laying hens on most commercial farms have never even seen a rooster.”
In a YouTube video posted on February 20, 2022, the owner of The Homestead Trail account posted a video stating that after trial and error regarding the purchase of eggs, a chick hatched from an egg purchased from Trader. Joe’s.
“Well, we’re here to show you that it’s possible!” says the description of the video. “We hatched from a Trader Joe’s egg, despite all the odds against us! Join us in this fun experiment hatching a supermarket egg!”
In an emailed statement, Brittanie, owner of The Homestead Trail in Indiana, referred to the YouTube video that has been viewed more than 159,000 times.
“Yeah, we really hatched out of a Trader Joe’s egg!” she wrote to FOX Business. “As the egg industry moves away from battery cages towards more humane practices such as pasture-raised and free-range on small family farms, it is increasingly possible that there will be a rooster in the flock, which could result in fertilized eggs ending up in the carton. .”
Brittanie added that there is an active group on Facebook called “Hatching Store Bought Eggs,” which is dedicated to hatching various brands of eggs.
“Happy Egg Co. is another brand that a lot of people have had success with,” he said. “The odds are small, but it’s still a fun experiment to try.”