Does USPS xrays boxes....YES....proof in thread.

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Well, then it's the shake and bake thing going on, or something else other than X-rays. That's such a small issue in the grand scheme of things. I stand a greater chance of getting the "clap" from a shipment of eggs from you, than I do getting an x-ray killed batch of eggs. It's just raw numbers, that can be crunched.

Nothing personal!

Do you work for the USPS? Or for anything related to shipping packages? I think not, so anything you say is speculation and opinions. I will continue to believe what I believe.

ETA: Even if the eggs were shaken badly there would still be some development. The ones I'd gotten were just as clear on day 10 as they were on day 1.

 

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

I'm playing around now with some different types of radiation and eggs. I am first trying ultraviolet lighting in a small incubator then I will move on to incubate a few while in the presence of about 100 lantern mantles. I know a few people in the medical field and I will be having some x-rayed on a machine to see what happens. What I expect to find from my fun days is that I wasted my time and will hatch some glowing baby chicks

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
Well, then it's the shake and bake thing going on, or something else other than X-rays. That's such a small issue in the grand scheme of things. I stand a greater chance of getting the "clap" from a shipment of eggs from you, than I do getting an x-ray killed batch of eggs. It's just raw numbers, that can be crunched.

Nothing personal!

Do you work for the USPS? Or for anything related to shipping packages? I think not, so anything you say is speculation and opinions. I will continue to believe what I believe.

ETA: Even if the eggs were shaken badly there would still be some development. The ones I'd gotten were just as clear on day 10 as they were on day 1.

Well I DID work for the PO for 18 yrs. So if folks don't believe me then they just well .......................

You can find video's of the processing process. Pkgs are processed in different places by different machines. Some run down conveyor belts, Up to turnstiles that read the bar codes and sort them out. Then they slide down a slide onto a belt like in the airport luggage return. They tumble and all that.

I can't say how they are handled by specific mail handling clerks. Some are nice other not.

This is my only shipment of eggs. Out of 26 only 6 hatched, but in all fairness I didn't candle and called it on day 21. Every egg was fine. I could kick myself, but it was only my third time hatching. I've since learned to candle and to not call it for a few days after day 21. My recent hatch started on a Monday and finished on Thursday. I've had hatches start 4 days early and finish a couple days late. I've had to make a quick grab to get chicks out so they weren't in the incu more than 3 days. Such is life.

 

[rancher hicks]

Oh and I forgot .

I took eggs to , and put them in my carry on. 1 doz. in carton wrapped in bubble wrap. They went through the Xray. Now I can't say how they were handled after I delivered them but I did try to make sure they received as little juggling as possible and kept them with me the whole time.

I do know only two hatched under a broody. I'm not sure if some were put in an incu or all were under a broody. The person didn't seems overly concerned, with hatching them so I don't really know. Even the best broody will not hatch all her eggs.

I did bring some back and had them hand checked as I stated previously. I manage to do acceptable hatches with my Genesis 1588. There are many things that can affect a hatch.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Yes there are, but when you set shipped eggs right along with 'home grown' eggs and all (or almost all) the 'home grown' eggs hatch while none of the shipped eggs even start developing, there's something else at work. Even if they'd gotten too hot or too cold or gotten shaken terribly, there should still be at least some development. I'm not saying they would hatch, but they should at least try to grow. The ones I got had 30+ arrive at my door with no visible damage. Of those 30+ only 3 developed almost to hatch but none of the 3 hatched. I don't think any amount of mishandling can do that other than x-raying.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Yes there are, but when you set shipped eggs right along with 'home grown' eggs and all (or almost all) the 'home grown' eggs hatch while none of the shipped eggs even start developing, there's something else at work. Even if they'd gotten too hot or too cold or gotten shaken terribly, there should still be at least some development. I'm not saying they would hatch, but they should at least try to grow. The ones I got had 30+ arrive at my door with no visible damage. Of those 30+ only 3 developed almost to hatch but none of the 3 hatched. I don't think any amount of mishandling can do that other than x-raying.

Well, before I poo poo your erroneous assumption that I haven't worked in the "Shipping packages" field, and I counter by questioning your experience with X-rays.

Are you talking about 1 or 2 shipments of eggs, out of the many you receive?

 

[k4eqh]

Appearing DUMB-er than the normal Possum..................Why couldnt the SHIPPER of the ordered eggs wrap them in aluminum foil. Then place them inside the tubular pipe wrap
that you can buy at any home store, then put the package togeather without the box, wrap the contents again with aluminum foil, package the thing with pleanty of "snap/crackel,pop
plastic wrap, box it and ship it.....seems the weak x-ray would not be able to penetrate and they would kick it out to the "manual visual check" area to be looked at. I believe "IF" they
open the package they have to put a ticket on it notifying you of their intentions........just saying..............

zip.......................

 

[jacksmith831]

Hello. I am new here and this my first post. I apologize for posting on such on an old thread but for people like me who are still asking this question and come across it for the first time like I just did, I thought I might be able to contribute to one more factor. I'm pretty sure I didn't see this mentioned in any of the previous replies on this thread... Anyways, I have a few different friends who work for both USPS and UPS. They have told me that one of the most common reasons fragile packages is get damaged (besides poor packaging by sender, which I'm NOT accusing anyone on here of that!) is the drop off from the conveyer belts that ALL of the packages go through. USPS has I believe a 4 foot drop and UPS has a 6 foot drop! Four feet seem maybe tolerable but six feet is really pushing it to me. And yes that does include all fragile packages that drop off of those conveyer belts too.

I have to say that I've always been very curious about the frequency of how many and how often shipped packages are subjected to an xray. Even more so, what that can cause to live organisms and embryos... At first I thought I was maybe getting a little bit paranoid like some overly curious conspiracy theorist, Lol! I was glad to find this thread and have it basically confirm to me that it is most certainly plausible and worth further research on this xray issue on lIving organisms.

Finding a solution to this issue will only make it better for all three parties involved;
1). THE CONSUMER - will have more assurance and guarantee for safe handling of their order including free of x-ray radiation, and most importantly receive healthy organisms, embryos, live aquadics, etc.
2). THE BREEDER/SELLER/MERCHANT - will have more confidence in their clients orders arriving safe and most important once again, arriving alive and healthy. Which in turn reduces customer returns/refunds, customer complaints and worst of all, lost of clientele with possible negative word of mouth getting passed along throughout your marketplace community.
3). THE LIVING ORGANISM, EMBRYOS/FERTILE EGGS, LIVE FISH, SMALL EXOTICS, etc. All of these listed here and more that I failed to mention are sensitive, vulnerable and defenseless creatures who stress easy and even more so when exposed to what could be considered an alien environment to them, as well posiibly toxic. In my personal opinion, this would be this party here (#3) who would be if it most if we could instill better safeguards.

As I first mentioned, I feel the 4-6 foot drop from the conveyer belt is a bit excessive as well abusive to any living thing. For example, fertile eggs with a live embryo would possibly be scrambled inside the shell after a drop like that even if it was packed better than ever, even arrived with zero shell cracks. The force for the momentum would still pass through the embryo inside and through the egg, think of like a shock wave... Anyways, the drop off height was the main purpose of this post but I also wanted to just share my thoughts on all of this as well.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this can maybe give a little more insight to any future readers. Thanks for all the info from all of the other previous commenters on this thread!

 

[FlyWheel]

Only thing that is going to help at all with x-raying is lead. Can you still get industrial lead paint?? a coat of that would work better than anything. Only thing aluminum foil is good for is making hats to keep the aliens out of your head.

Film bags (Yes Virginia, they still make photographic film!*). They are lead lined and can protect film up to 800 ASA/ISO, at least from airport carry-on x-ray machines. Mark the bag as "live embryos, hand inspect" or words to that effect. This has always worked at the airport pre-boarding checkpoints for me.


*They haven't managed to complexly assassinate it yet

 

[PeppyLaRoo]

I recently got two shipments of eggs from different sellers. Both were well packaged and eggs were unbroken. One only said fragile on the box. The other said live eggs and had do not x-ray stickers all around the box, and Inside the eggs were wrapped in aluminum foil. Well I had an 80% hatch rate from the box marked fragile and zero from the eggs marked do not x-ray.(with foil) In fact they failed to develop at all and I had other eggs in the incubator that hatched normally.

The seller who only marked fragile told me her brother worked for the post office and that people were shipping drugs in boxes marked "live eggs", so packages marked "do not x-ray" were more likely to be x-rayed in fact. I can't be sure this is what happened, but if I get more eggs I will tell the shipper to just mark the box fragile and take my chances that way.