I have had very good hatches and very bad from shipped eggs, most of my bad were in very cold weather. My biggest problem is with blood spots and blood rings on shipped eggs. In over 60 eggs from my own hens I have not had one blood spot or ring, and only one infertile. And that is after I store them in the bottom of the frig in the produce drawer(45F).
I love my PO for the most part, the workers in the main building are professional and caring. The rural drivers are another story. One set of eggs was delivered when the carrier handed them to me from the bed of his open pick up with all the rest of the packages bouncing around. You guessed it zero percent hatch.
I have had particularly good luck with one breeder but not from ebay, Greenfirefarms. They are expensive but worth it. My one experience with eggs on BYC is not as I expected. All but two eggs broken and the other two covered in yolk. I did not pay much so I blame myself.
Greenfire is the best packer shipping I have seen. They pack in bubble wrap twice then wrap in sets of three and put in individual triangle mailers and then pack the mailers in bubble wrap suspended by even more wrap in a box. The other is a ebay seller and they pack with 2 layers of heavy thick bubble for each egg, put three layers on the bottom then stack eggs large end up and add three more layers and then pad the sides. the only way the eggs can sustain damage is from crushing, or a very hard bump.
I would rather a shipper charge more for shipping and package securely than cheap shipping. From now on when I see shipping the cost of actual postal fees I will see that as a indicator the the package will be poorly packed. Packing materials are not cheap and I expect to pay for them, and so should everyone else that expects to receive any package intact.
I love my PO for the most part, the workers in the main building are professional and caring. The rural drivers are another story. One set of eggs was delivered when the carrier handed them to me from the bed of his open pick up with all the rest of the packages bouncing around. You guessed it zero percent hatch.
I have had particularly good luck with one breeder but not from ebay, Greenfirefarms. They are expensive but worth it. My one experience with eggs on BYC is not as I expected. All but two eggs broken and the other two covered in yolk. I did not pay much so I blame myself.
Greenfire is the best packer shipping I have seen. They pack in bubble wrap twice then wrap in sets of three and put in individual triangle mailers and then pack the mailers in bubble wrap suspended by even more wrap in a box. The other is a ebay seller and they pack with 2 layers of heavy thick bubble for each egg, put three layers on the bottom then stack eggs large end up and add three more layers and then pad the sides. the only way the eggs can sustain damage is from crushing, or a very hard bump.
I would rather a shipper charge more for shipping and package securely than cheap shipping. From now on when I see shipping the cost of actual postal fees I will see that as a indicator the the package will be poorly packed. Packing materials are not cheap and I expect to pay for them, and so should everyone else that expects to receive any package intact.
