I did a little reading,..it has to do with storing them properly.
What I've been hearing, the best is to freeze them until consumption.

The packaging, Golden Boy is a Canadian company from Burnaby BC. they got a letter from me.

I have 2 hazelnuts that have been in the ground for 3 years for me. They are starting their production this year. I found the same thing with mine near St Louis. I attributed it to young plants. Thanks for letting me know it wasn't just mine.

Konrad,

I can't speak much to the empty hazel nuts, but for the pecan and walnuts, it does sound like a storage issue.

Pecans and walnuts have a high oil content. As you mention, that oil will go rancid with time. Freezing will slow that process.

In the Midwest, they store nuts in cave storage. These are controlled temperature storage, but because the price of pecans has been low for the past couple years, the storage is pretty much full. The caves in Kansas City are all full (according to my wife's kin, who own a pecan orchard). I wonder if the nuts you purchased were stored w/o controlled temperature.

As far as the hazel nuts, I know with pecans they are run through a machine which blows a stream of air across the hopper as the pecans drop. The airstream blows out the empty (lighter) pecans, while the full (heavy pecans drop down). Of course the empty pecans are then discarded. I assume the same equipment is available to hazel nut growers.

Each truckload of pecans is sampled randomly by a probe which is shoved down into the pecans. If there are too many empty pecans, the grower is docked significantly. Based upon what I've been told, there is a strong incentive for the grower not to have very many empties.

It sounds like this Golden Boy brand you purchased has no quality control whatever.

I wonder if they were old nuts, carryover from previous years.

Thank you all!
Got a reply from the packing company and they have me to send more detail, store, code, photo etc. they will investigate my claim.
When buying, also bought a small bag of walnut only, opened tonight...they were better, only slightly rancid, my wife doesn't want to eat them but I will, ...have told them. Wife took only two hazels out of the bag tonight and both were empty!

Olpea..I was thinking the same thing about sorting them, a system where the light ones will be collected or blown off.
They surely are in the need of improvement.

Yes, might be some nuts from last year, they really should taste better at this time of the year, sometimes they have sale after Christmas or new year, then you could taste some bad ones.

I usually use walnuts and pecans for cooking, and buy them raw, and shelled, no empties! For eating it's pistachios or cashews. We use a lot of almonds too, again for cooking. One day I will grow hazelnuts, and I want to try some of the new hardy almonds (not peach-almond hybrids). Hardy to zone 6.
Sorry to hear about the problem. Hopefully you can get it taken care of. You know nuts are so nutritious I try to eat them weekly.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 15:19