HOW BEST TO PACKAGE EGGS FOR SHIPPING DO"S AND DON"TS

I have been recieving and attempting to hatch eggs purchased in BYC auctions and Ebay auctions for years now. I have had varying degrees of success hatching thousands of eggs, and out of my experience some patterns have emerged. Because I like to increase the diversity of genetics amoungst the birds that I like to breed, I am compelled to purchase hatching eggs. Anyone who has shopped the hatching egg auctions is accustomed to reading the disclaimers of sellers that once the eggs leave thier hands they are no longer responsable, claiming that there are a wealth of reasons that eggs do not hatch including bad handling by the USPS, less than ideal incubating tecniques etc. As I said previously I have seen patterns emerge as I observed the processes involved in getting eggs from point A to point B and the subsequent success rates in the incubator. My most notable link to poor success has been my observation of the corolation between less than ideal packaging practices. I do not for a moment believe that these practices were deliberate but just came out of lack of the knowledge of good practices. It is to that goal that i dedicate this thread. It is my intent to help to disseminate information here that will encourage good practices in shipping eggs and hopefully result in higher hatch rates. I would like to take a moment to talk directly to anyone who sells and ships eggs about thier moral obligation to take every reasonable precaution to assure that the eggs arrive in hatchable condition. Eggs that arive with thier shells intact are not a accurate measure of shipping success. In all the years that i have purchased hatching eggs, very few were recieved with broken shells, tho many d

continued from previous inturrupted post................tho many failed to develope or completely develope, It is the relationship between less than best shipping methods and embryo development that troubles me. Many people that are packaging and shipping are not even aware that they are setting thier eggs up potentially to fail. There are basic conditions that need to be met, specifically a relatively stable atmosphere, espesially stable temperature. Eggs also need to breathe, shells are porous and an exchange of air must always be maintained. To this end I find the most favorable means of packaging of each egg is to individually wrap each egg in small cell bubble wrap with the bubble side towards the egg, this allows continued exchange of air thru the shell. Durring extremes of temperature in winter and summer, I have observed that styro peanuts being insulation itself seems to provide the most temp. stablizing packaging material. I will offer a footnote here from personal experience.........Many years ago I experimented with week old eggs from my own chickens that i had already placed in the refrig. destined for eating. I incubated an entire 42 egg turner of refrigerated eggs having been refrig. for a week, and every single one hatched. I note this because it seems extremes of cold do not seem to be as damaging as heat. The soft foam units designed for shipping hatching eggs also consistantly result in good hatch rates. Double boxing sometimes helps but excellent hatches come from eggs indiv. wrapped as prev. described and packed in styro peanuts. One of the least effective packaging materials that i have encountered was the use of plastic shopping bags crumpled up.........they compress in shipping and leave the eggs bouncing around like billiard balls. We all know that the USPS system is rough on packages, so packaging with the most cushioning between eggs and outer box really helps to absorb impacts that we know will happen, and that can save the airsacks from rupturing, or the connecting tissue that helps center the yolk from being torn loose. I encourage anyone concerned about good shipping practices to engage in the dialog here, offer helping suggestions etc. The one thing that i ask is that we try to keep it positive here and not use the thread as a bitching pulpit but rather constructive dialog.

I want to salute the USPS for doing thier best. With the thousands of packages that they move daily, I for one give them real credit They are always courteous, friendly. encouraging and full of advice. To my knowledge they are the only way that we can ship eggs, and without them there would be no online egg sales.

I'm getting some shipped eggs soon, and I was sure to ask how they would be packaged. This post is very helpful and informative so far, and I'll make a note on how they ended here and how they hatch.

I must agree with the op in regard to the best method of shipping eggs.
I have also been at the receiving end of thousands of mail order eggs from numerous sources.
I would like to add,
The least effective method of shipping eggs.
When the sender simply wraps the eggs with a single layer of paper towels and inserts the wrapped eggs in an egg carton.
Suspending the carton in peanut foam or shredded news paper.
I know from experience that when I receive eggs wrapped in the fore mentioned manner , I will have a significantly low hatch rate.
I would also like to add, that with the eggs all together in a carton, that if one breaks, the probability of complete contamination to the other eggs is high.





just my .02

Good post!

1) Individually wrap eggs with bubble wrap leaving top and bottom of egg open for air exchange (make sure bubble wrap extends above/below egg)- also bubbles in like OP mentioned (for further air exchange)

2) SHIP AIR CELL UP! Lots of people lay there eggs flat or however they land in the box- This is bad. The best hatch rates and least damage to the air cell is when the fat end stays upright for shipment.

3) Fill all voids around the bubble wrapped eggs with something that will not compress to easily. I like packing peanuts, bubble wrap, shredded paper etc...

Happy Hatching

thanks for the comments, i think this is going to be a very useful thread.

Talihofarms said:

I must agree with the op in regard to the best method of shipping eggs.
I have also been at the receiving end of thousands of mail order eggs from numerous sources.
I would like to add,
The least effective method of shipping eggs.
When the sender simply wraps the eggs with a single layer of paper towels and inserts the wrapped eggs in an egg carton.
Suspending the carton in peanut foam or shredded news paper.
I know from experience that when I receive eggs wrapped in the fore mentioned manner , I will have a significantly low hatch rate.
I would also like to add, that with the eggs all together in a carton, that if one breaks, the probability of complete contamination to the other eggs is high.





just my .02

Click to expand...

the very worst packaging that i ever recieved was a doz. sent to me as you mentioned in a grocery carton, but to add insult to injury the seller was a new seller and did no packaging beyond sliding the grocery carton into the box with no additional padding. the carton bounced around in the box, every egg broke. what i recieved from the post office was all wrapped in plastic because it was oozing and stinking terribly. The worst part was when i contacted the seller, he said too bad, i have your money and its your loss. I took pics, sent them to ebay, and they refunded my money.

Thespoiledchicken said:

Good post!

1) Individually wrap eggs with bubble wrap leaving top and bottom of egg open for air exchange (make sure bubble wrap extends above/below egg)- also bubbles in like OP mentioned (for further air exchange)

2) SHIP AIR CELL UP! Lots of people lay there eggs flat or however they land in the box- This is bad. The best hatch rates and least damage to the air cell is when the fat end stays upright for shipment.

3) Fill all voids around the bubble wrapped eggs with something that will not compress to easily. I like packing peanuts, bubble wrap, shredded paper etc...

Happy Hatching

Click to expand...

EXACT PACKAGING... We have done an experiment and I highly suggest EVERYONE TRY IT! get a 3-4 day old egg and shake it to see how much force it takes for that aircell to dislodge. You will find it takes 10x more than you thought it would... Go try it and let us know! I dont think its the USPS throwing boxes around per say AT ALL... I think the problem is MOST EGGS are shipped layed in a box smothered with plastic! First thing we learn in incubating eggs is FAT END UP!! Why do they even attempt to sent them this way.... My belief is that if the egg is sideways and you have all that vibrations from the road OF COURSE that air cell will try to head to the upper most point of the egg, and if its not the air cell end its gonna eventually roll to the side! Its a no brainer but still hundreds of sellers are still packaging on sides! I have begun to REQUEST how the eggs are packaged, FAT END UP bubble wrap with some air flow! Last set of Amercauna eggs came as requested and guess what! 11-14 are VIABLE at day 7 with only two loose air cells and 3 inferts.

Sally Sunshine said:

EXACT PACKAGING... We have done an experiment and I highly suggest EVERYONE TRY IT! get a 3-4 day old egg and shake it to see how much force it takes for that aircell to dislodge. You will find it takes 10x more than you thought it would... Go try it and let us know! I dont think its the USPS throwing boxes around per say AT ALL... I think the problem is MOST EGGS are shipped layed in a box smothered with plastic! First thing we learn in incubating eggs is FAT END UP!! Why do they even attempt to sent them this way.... My belief is that if the egg is sideways and you have all that vibrations from the road OF COURSE that air cell will try to head to the upper most point of the egg, and if its not the air cell end its gonna eventually roll to the side! Its a no brainer but still hundreds of sellers are still packaging on sides! I have begun to REQUEST how the eggs are packaged, FAT END UP bubble wrap with some air flow! Last set of Amercauna eggs came as requested and guess what! 11-14 are VIABLE at day 7 with only two loose air cells and 3 inferts.

Click to expand...

THANK YOU SALLY SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!

After I posted that advice Brahmapapa (the OP) pm'd me to say that my advice was "embarrassing" and that shipping eggs air cell up was stupid since the post office is going to toss the box around anyway. He went on to say how everyone else reading this read would laugh at me and hopefully they don't embarrass me too much with their comments

I of course advised him maybe his hatch rates would be better if he took my advice

Everyone- get those air cells up for shipping, it makes a HUGE difference.


Trish