How do you ship hatching eggs?

smoothmule

Crowing
13 Years
Apr 12, 2008
2,780
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Buffalo, Missouri
I may have some guinea eggs to sell or trade and I did a search here on how to prepare and ship the eggs but there were too many posts and not many of them addressed my questions.
I have never shipped eggs so I need to know "everything" from timing to gather them, to preparing them to shipping and anything I've failed to ask about.
Thanks
 
Well, I don't have any advice on shipping the eggs.....
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But I am very interested in guinea eggs.... How much? shipping?
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I have always wanted some guineas.......
 
The best way is to wrap each egg in bubble wrap, Please in a box with either more bubble wrap or some sort of insulation/shock absorber (newspaper crumpled, packing peanuts, ect)

Then be sure to write on the outside "FRAGILE HATCHING EGGS". Plain, simple and ensures safe delivery!

Oh, for chicken eggs, you may want to place them in a carton, add paper towels between each egg to ensure none knock into each other and break, then wrap in bubble wrap. You can cut them in half to fit better. (the carton not the eggs) lol
 
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Do you just "mail them" then? Nothing special at the post office? They have those boxes that you can ship anything in for $8 regardless of weight and to anywhere in the continental US. They are plenty large to allow for some good packing. Do eggs normally cost more than $8 to ship a dozen?
 
I usually pay about $8-10 for shipping. No special boxes, but you want to send them Priority Mail to ensure they get there faster. The square box works good. Same size on each side. (I think 8"x8")
 
Collect eggs 3-4 times a day depending on when your birds lay. Only ship the clean eggs.

Store them in a room that is about 60 degrees in a carton pointy end down. I tip mine twice a day in the carton by using something as a wedge and alternating sides of the carton it is under.

Also, don't ship eggs that are over 3-4 days old. I am usually pushing it at four. When you ship them you are adding 2-3 more days aging, plus the fact they are going thru the USPS system getting bumped and tossed around.

Eggs stored properly only last 10-14 days max.

I recently bought some eggs and some were over 10 days old when they were mailed.
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I also send all eggs priority mail. You can get all boxes for priority mail for free at your local post office.

I ship my eggs in an egg carton that is wrapped in bubble wrap inside a box filled with shreaded paper. I first make sure that the eggs are secure in the carton so that they do not move.

If you do use the bubble wrap method it works good too if you don't stack the eggs on top of each other.
 
I don't know first off...

I alway though when I saw "hatching eggs for sale", it meant that the eggs had been incubated for sometime. I'm I totally off or does it just mean they are fertile eggs that need to go in an incubator?
 
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It just means that they are fertile eggs meant to go into an incubator for hatching--21 days later.
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If the eggs had been incubated for any length of time, the disruption in incubation that would result from shipping them would kill the embryos.

My post office often freaks out when I get a package that says "Hatching Eggs." They literally think that they are hatching right then! One of the workers was very concerned one time--looking at the well-packaged box, sealed up all tight with all of its tape she exclaimed "But don't they need AIR in there!!???" It took me awhile to explain the process to her!
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ETA: As to the original poster's question, I think Jean did a great job explaining everything--everyone seems to have their own favorite method to actually package eggs, but the most important thing is that they don't move in the box. I personally 1)individually wrap each egg in bubble wrap 2) put the eggs in the bottom of an egg carton pointy end down 3) tape the top of the box back on to the bottom so that none of the eggs wiggle (if the carton is not full, I then stuff the ends with packing paper) 4) wrap the entire carton in a layer or 2 of bubble wrap 5) nestle the carton in a box with plenty of peanuts and/or wadded up packing paper, making sure that the carton is snug 6) fill in the sides with more packing material and place some sort of material on the top (I like those bags of air)

I like the "#7" Priority boxes. You can get them mailed in packs of 10 for free from the USPS web site. I don't like the flat rate boxes. Shipping has never cost me $12.95 (the flat-rate fee for the larger flat rate box--I find the $8.95 too small for the way I pack). I suppose if I were shipping something to the west coast the flat rate might work to my advantage, but so far I've never paid more than $10 to ship eggs (that was to TX; to the west coast very well might be $12.95!)
 
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I'd suggest using a larger shipping box that isn't square, and putting some of those nice colorful "Fragile Hatching Eggs" stickers all over the box, especially on the top.

I just got two shipments of hatching eggs, one in a 8x12ish box with lots of those stickers on it. Inside were egg cartons, each egg spaced far apart, the top covered with plastic bags, then each carton was sealed tight with tape so the eggs wouldn't move. All around the egg cartons was balled up newspaper. I left a note for my carrier to leave the eggs inside my door on the floor, and she did. None of them were broken.

The next box to arrive was a 6x7ish square box, each egg individually bubble wrapped. The top of the box was too small for anything much to be written, so the sender wrote "eggs" in black marker, sort of small, on the sides, and the red "fragile" stamp was on the sides too. The same carrier, with the same note, didn't notice that this box was also eggs, and just tossed the box on it's side onto a chair on my porch. 3 out of 18 eggs were cracked in this one.

I feel like a little square box, not well marked with big pictures of chicks and very obvious labels, is begging to be tossed around. I'd expect a larger, flatter box to be handled better, especially with good labeling. If you want to build a good reputation in your egg selling, put a lot of care into the outside of the box, not just the inside, because a LOT depends on how that box is handled by the postal carriers.

Just my two cents!
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