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

[pascopol]

Here is my 2 cents.

I bought and sold, mostly bought hatching shipped eggs over the years.
It seems lately I am getting poorer hatches and it is progressive. I do not know if this is due to PO deteriorating service (no question about it with all recent labor and service cuts by USPS) or lousy and careless packaging, even by some "reputable breeders" so to speak.

The only good experience with shipping eggs this winter was eggs I received from Greenfire Farms (60% hatching rate and 100% healthy strong chicks), perhaps a of combination of excellent quality fertile eggs, professional packaging and 1 day express mail (costly but worthy with expensive eggs).

Sorry to say that several shipments of eggs from members of BYC (I will not mention any names) were total disaster, poor packaging, questionable fertility and hatch rate about 0.

So at this point when it comes to serious and pricey breeds, I rather buy pairs, trios, or shipped chicks, than eggs.

The only exception in my book are eggs from Greenfire Farms, I will not hesitate to buy eggs again from Green Fire, unfortunately they do not sell hatching eggs to often.

 

[Arkansas81]

Ok, so no egg carton, interesting! So putting them on a pile of foam, packing peanuts, etc is better than a carton. Double boxing them, ok that seems like a good idea. I will do some experimenting before my next shipment. Plz keep bringing on the suggestions. I want to learn all I can.

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

Here is my 2 cents.

I bought and sold, mostly bought hatching shipped eggs over the years.
It seems lately I am getting poorer hatches and it is progressive. I do not know if this is due to PO deteriorating service (no question about it with all recent labor and service cuts by USPS) or lousy and careless packaging, even by some "reputable breeders" so to speak.

The only good experience with shipping eggs this winter was eggs I received from Greenfire Farms (60% hatching rate and 100% healthy strong chicks), perhaps a of combination of excellent quality fertile eggs, professional packaging and 1 day express mail (costly but worthy with expensive eggs).

Sorry to say that several shipments of eggs from members of BYC (I will not mention any names) were total disaster, poor packaging, questionable fertility and hatch rate about 0.

So at this point when it comes to serious and pricey breeds, I rather buy pairs, trios, or shipped chicks, than eggs.

The only exception in my book are eggs from Greenfire Farms, I will not hesitate to buy eggs again from Green Fire, unfortunately they do not sell hatching eggs to often.

Can you tell us how those eggs were packaged?

 

[gapeach717]

The best eggs I got so far were from a seller in Washington state. Eggs were somehow cupped in shredded (finely) newspaper then taped with packing tape. Egg balls (lol) then put into a carton, also filled with shredded paper. Then carton loosely taped shut. Then box half filled with newspaper shreds the carton placed in it, then filled pretty snugly with shreds and taped with BIG bold letters across all over each side of the box to hold for pickup with my phone number. I was quite impressed.

 

[brahmapapa]

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

i am going to make one rebuttal statement to the above quote and this will be all i have to say about the matter. When i read the posters original posting i questioned myself as to how we might be able to keep eggs upright while in the postal system. I understand and will concede that packages do basically travel thru conveyors and are handled by postal carriers in the label upright position, however when they are loaded into carriers to go on aircraft the packer puts them on the cart however they will fit. An exception to this might be if the packer saw it marked this side up. Now i personally maintain that it does not matter how they are faced since the boxes get tossed, tumbled etc. When the poster above made her statement about large end up, i was concerned that readers might have the same concern as i did, i therefore PM'd the poster expressing my concern. I did this in PM because i am a sensitive guy and don't want to make public statements in the forum that might be hurtful. I kept the communication private, i have the entire pm record and i think its highly inappropriate to be accused by the poster of saying something was stupid, I would never say such a thing in private or otherwise. I did explain that i pm'd to prevent anyone from being embarrassed. It is unfortunate that the poster took a private conversation public and in a way clearly intended to be damaging. When i began this thread saying lets keep everything on the thread positive, i meant it, ts fine with me if someone wants to keep all the large ends up as long as they can do it without using grocery style egg cartons to package, several other posters have expressed thier unfavorable opinion of using those cartons and i happen to agree. Lets try to stick to sharing good packaging tecniques. the batch of eggs that i recieved most recently were all individually wrapped in small cell bubblewrap, randomly placed in packing peanuts, they traveled clear across the country, and every single egg developed.

 

[brahmapapa]

Ok, so no egg carton, interesting! So putting them on a pile of foam, packing peanuts, etc is better than a carton. Double boxing them, ok that seems like a good idea. I will do some experimenting before my next shipment. Plz keep bringing on the suggestions. I want to learn all I can.

Thanks for your interest, and hopefully people will keep offering advice. Some real good suggestions have presented so far.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

Ok, am I reading this correctly..bubble wrap them individually, sit them fat side up? I'm newish to shipping eggs. Here's what I did

Wrapped individualy, sat them fat side up, put another layer of bubble wrap over the top of them while in carton. Closed the carton, taped it shut, placed the cartons flat side by side, put a whole roll of bubble wrap on top of the cartons - loosely.

Put on the box fragile this end up, call the recipient before leaving. Well about 8 eggs were broken, they were tossed on the front porch all day, in the cold and rain. The lady said the box was a soggy wet mess. She said one detached air sac, the rest looks good. She doesn't know if they will hatch because of how they were handled. The eggs were about 2-3 days old.

Do u have any suggestions for a better result? I offered to ship more, but she said wait and see what happens. I REALLY want to do the very best I can when I ship. What about care / delivery instructions en route? Plz be honest, I want to learn.

I think you did what you thought was best, HOWEVER i do believe the issue here is that not ENOUGH bubble wrap was used to wrap these eggs, I cant see them fitting in a carton when wrapped to be honest, plus that air flow issue. I am happy you are trying to find the best route for your eggs too!!

so sorry this happened enroute!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

This is NOT my photo- it is from ChicksAmongUs on the 24 hr auction thread. She does a GREAT job packing her eggs. The recipient of these eggs will likely have a great hatch. In the pic she uses pipe foam to wrap the eggs (also great) but you can wrap them the same way with bubble wrap. Notice how the tops are open for air exchange. All voids are filled nicely and those eggs are protected well. All that is needed would be a layer of something on top before sealing up the box. I like shredded paper the best but packing peanuts or more Styrofoam would also work. try to avoid too much bubble wrap over them because it would hinder air exchange.

Marking the box fragile is up to the receipt- some people receive boxes badly damaged when marked fragile. So far all my boxes marked "Live Embryos" seem to arrive in great shape, the ones marked fragile don't

I LIKE This! HOWEVER, depending on the size of the eggs and the box I also HIGHLY suggest that eggs be KEPT AWAY from all sides as FAR AS POSSIBLE and not in " rows " like this, one reason is that sometimes they try to shove the little boxes in between others in tight spaces in the truck or like I have a large mailbox and the PO tried to shove them in and inadvertently crushed them all in a row in the box!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Agree I also think no writing should be on the sides of the boxes for confusement! Also what about writing on the boxes, I would say "Live Embryos NO X-rays" on the top only, and if anything onthe sides just arrow ups

ALSO please see this http://www.skylinepoultry.com/Packing___shipping_eggs.html I AM NOT SURE ON peanuts though, but this is a great example of bubble wrap and the way to actually wrap and set the eggs in the box........ THOUGHTs??

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Here is my 2 cents.

I bought and sold, mostly bought hatching shipped eggs over the years.
It seems lately I am getting poorer hatches and it is progressive. I do not know if this is due to PO deteriorating service (no question about it with all recent labor and service cuts by USPS) or lousy and careless packaging, even by some "reputable breeders" so to speak.

The only good experience with shipping eggs this winter was eggs I received from Greenfire Farms (60% hatching rate and 100% healthy strong chicks), perhaps a of combination of excellent quality fertile eggs, professional packaging and 1 day express mail (costly but worthy with expensive eggs).

Sorry to say that several shipments of eggs from members of BYC (I will not mention any names) were total disaster, poor packaging, questionable fertility and hatch rate about 0.

So at this point when it comes to serious and pricey breeds, I rather buy pairs, trios, or shipped chicks, than eggs.

The only exception in my book are eggs from Greenfire Farms, I will not hesitate to buy eggs again from Green Fire, unfortunately they do not sell hatching eggs to often.

YEs can you try to explain shipping of the GFF eggs? This could be very helpful!

I have had so much issue with infertile eggs lately, some local and some shipped! is it the time of year perhaps? I know 2 had roo issues but I cant explain the rest!