{"id":61002,"date":"2016-04-28T00:09:51","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T07:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=61002"},"modified":"2016-04-28T00:09:51","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T07:09:51","slug":"hatching-albert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/61002","title":{"rendered":"Hatching Albert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re told time and again that supermarket eggs won\u2019t hatch.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Karen Arnold via PublicDomainPictures.net<\/p><\/div>\n

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This makes good sense, seeing as how the vast majority of commercial laying hens never come close to a rooster.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento do Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

(Basic biological fact: hens lay eggs without the help of roosters, period. However, in order to produce a chick, an egg must be fertilized by a rooster.)<\/p>\n

All that said, consider the curious case of Albert.<\/p>\n

Albert began as a twinkle in the eye of a man in the Netherlands named Alwyn Wils who decided to test the theory of infertile supermarket eggs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the Internet, it says everywhere that supermarket eggs are not fertilized, but I thought, \u2018Let\u2019s see if that\u2019s really the case,\u2019\u201d he told The Telegraph<\/u><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

He picked up a dozen quail eggs from a local supermarket and incubated them at home.<\/p>\n

Surprise!<\/p>\n

One egg hatched, and out came Albert.<\/p>\n

This story may inspire queasiness in the ovo vegetarian lot, but Alwyn Wils sees it differently. \u201cFriends and family think Albert is very cool,\u201d he said, \u201cand they think it\u2019s great way of thinking that not everything is impossible if you give it a try sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet Albert the unlikely quail \u2026<\/p>\n