Shipping and Receiving Pea eggs contest!

[frenchblackcopper]

Mmmaddie13 has decided to take the plunge into Peafowl for the first time.Noone knows how badly I want her to get off to a great start so last night we boxed her up 20 eggs and they are on the way.Going Fed-ex guaranteed 2 day delivery,box weight 8.30 pounds,,cost was $86.20,,miles from zip code to zip code is 927 miles.This is the farthest I've sent eggs this year,Kedreeva may have the record in that dept.
I once again used my two box method putting all eggs in a 12x12x10 box,,using aluminum foil all around the outside of this box in case of x-ray,,then placing this box inside the 16x16x17 box using newspaper to take up the extra perimeter space between the boxes.Here is a pic of her package as it was being completed last night.

 

[DAS]

DAS,,,got the bundle of wisc Bronze B/S genetics this morning,,,no air sacks loose,,none broken,,all are now in the bator.Here's a pic

It's about time. Amazing that it took 4 days to get from northern WI to central IL. I shipped eggs to TN on Monday. They were delivered today as well. Only 2 days and they went a couple hundred miles farther.

Let me know how they do.

 

[Kedreeva]

Well, my next shipment was to Oregon from Michigan (a little over 2400 miles). I shipped them monday around 4pm, and they got there this morning. I'm currently waiting for pictures, and of the 8 eggs, one of them received a dent (waiting to hear where in the package is was and if it was outside damage like the box getting dented or was from one of the other eggs) that was repairable. This was probably my fault. This is only my second time shipping these eggs (I used to ship chicken eggs a few years ago, but the way I did for them won't work for peafowl eggs), and I was not 100% comfortable with the # of eggs I put into this particular package. In hindsight, i should have used the $16 shipping, or sent 1 egg less.

1) Brought my camera to take pictures... left SD card at home. Sigh. But the person i shipped to took pictures this time.
2) There were 8 eggs, all peafowl, from my mixed pen with Dark pieds, a pied, a regular IB and an opal.
3) USPS flatrate shipping, they got there in a little less than 3 full days.
4) Started from Canton, Mi, and went to Scio, Oregon. It's a little over 2400 miles (whatever I posted earlier... I think it was like 2433 or something)
5) It was $12.10 to ship (weight doesn't matter, so I don't have it) and that includes delivery confirmation/tracking.


On a different note- when you wrap it in tinfoil, don't you risk them opening up the package and investigating when they see a giant block of something they can't see through inside the box? Just curious if that's ever happened.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I don't know if they open it or not,,I've sent at least 9 boxes with no less than 10 eggs in them,many closer to 20 eggs,,and noone has mentioned the box had been opened.All had the inside box wrapped in aluminum foil,,maybe these boxes was never put thru an x-ray machine? If they would open the box and see whats inside I would think they would then reseal it back up and send it on it's way,,because there is no threat inside the box.The boxes and contents only weighs about 8.5 pounds,,course if you was attempting to do harm anything can go in anysized box and weigh practically nothing.Maybe they can see thru the foil,but because of the foil maybe the strength of the x-ray is cut down?Maybe someone here works for the TSA and could enlighten us as to what blocks x-rays and what don't? I bet with the large cutbacks and huge amount of postal packages,,very few gets x-rayed at all,it takes time and someone to watch and decide,,,,unless they now have a machine to do this as well??

 

[Kedreeva]

I don't think they xray many boxes, honestly. And unless you're NPIP certified, I don't think it's even legal to ship hatching eggs... If you are then they don't need to xray it, because you'd be declaring on your NPIP papers that there are hatching eggs inside... and if you aren't and they xray it and open it, I would imagine you could get in trouble for sending hatching eggs without the cert, so they wouldn't just repackage them... I think? That's part of why I was curious.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Getting NPIP certified in Illinois is a 6 month wait or longer ,,budget cutbacks,no funding for anything,and it's free to test here,,and only 1 guy in the entire state to do all the testing,,what a joke,yes? All my birds and eggs came from NPIP certified flocks,,I spent over an hour on the phone a month ago with the head veterinarian for the Ill Dept of Ag,,who oversees NPIP testing,in Quincy Illinois,,he told me not to be concerned,,and just wait it out,,his only gripe was that it's free to test but so many people don't follow thru the next year with testing and certification which is necessary to keep your flock certified.After spending tons of cash building,buying eggs and birds the past 2 years,,I'm sure not going to bail out at this point,,,nor next year,or the year after that. But I am in line to be tested,,had I known there was such a backlog within our state to have this done I'd have scheduled it 8 months ago.
Its funny but at Mt Hope this March I bought 7-8 birds thru the sale,,Brad Legg brought me 4 birds I purchased before Mt Hopes sale,,and Craig Hopkins brought my Midnight B/S male to Mt Hope for me to bring home,,everyone of these pre-purchased birds crossed at least 1 state line,,before I took posession of them in Ohio,,and all birds that was sold thru the auction was supposed to be NPIP free with the sellers submitting that paperwork before the sale,,but every bird I brought back to Illinois from Ohio,,I never had one NPIP paper accompany one bird or sale,,same locally with the Tri-K monthly poultry swaps,,I've never seen anyone ask at the entry gate for NPIP paperwork from anyone selling poultry,,nor have I seen anyone give this paperwork to the buyers,,it's unregulated at this point,,until we have an outbreak somewhere that may pose a threat,,then the reins will get tightened up quickly,,

 

[Kedreeva]

I don't think that the testers have to be state only. I'll call and ask- I am a certified tester here, so I wonder if I would be allowed to test birds across state lines or not.

 

[AugeredIn]

Since NPIP is regulated by state you probably are out of luck.

I am sure that we are going to be faced with increased regulations with regards to shipping anything biological. I would definitely get NPIP certifed as quickly as possible. It is a good thing to do, gives you peace of mind, and helps prevent spread of disease. Sooner than later, it might become much harder to get. If USPS were to overnight enforce the existing rules it would shut down a significant portion of the private poultry trade.

Even folks that are NPIP certified do not understand the complete rules and any additional rules by their own states. Legally, any importation into Florida requires a pre-approval from the state even if both parties are NPIP. How many times do you think that gets violated a week? It sounds difficult, but the way it is set up it really is not.

Luckily, here in Florida we have a great NPIP program and the staff I have talked to have been fantastic. I was tested less than two weeks after making my original inquiry.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

AugeredIn,,,I've done all I can do,,made the original call back in March,,I'm on the list and I know it's long,,some people never make the call,,but the head veterinarian spent at least 45 minutes with me on the phone,very nice gentleman and very helpful as well.

 

[Kedreeva]

Any chance you can call to the place where they mail the forms and inquire about getting certified to test? Here it took a bit of tracking, but I found the guy in charge of Michigan's program, and I called him up (because I couldn't find anyone that was a tester, they make the info really freaking hard to find!!) and asked who could test my birds. They came out (after a long wait and many voicemails left), but it was a while and they never turned in the papers (this was over 2 years ago, so I know they aren't just "on the way through the system"). So I called again and asked when and where I could get certified to do it myself because screw waiting for other people. Michigan State University hosts the annual certification, so I went with my BF and we both got certified to test. I think the cost was $50 and you have to test X number of birds a year or over three years (I forget, but I think it's 30 birds over 3 years) to stay certified, or else go back to the class. It was really easy though, I wonder if there's something like this near you?