But I heard our flock numbers in that period were 10 times that. So I'm not sure what to think.
I do know it was easy to get chicks this year, so that confused me even more.
Perhaps the lack of grocery eggs was because they were incubated instead?
I don't know.
Grocery eggs aren't even fertilized.
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a63842548/what-are-fertile-...
You will find a number of people who have claimed to have hatched a number of types of birds from store eggs, including chickens.
New layers are bred away from the main flocks in relatively tiny volumes, under 1% of layers' eggs. Culls may drive a need for more layers to be raised, increasing that percentage but the cycle rate for these hens in intensive farms is pretty regular already (<18 months) so I doubt they'd invest in the additional hatchery facilities for a temporary population lull.
