Shipping eggs safely

Trying to ship eggs for my brother to eat.

How should I do this?

Which mail carrier should I use?

Can I use styrofoam egg cartons from the store?
You might look at threads that talk about shipping eggs for hatching. The main concern with hatching eggs is that they might break while being shipped. That will probably be your main concern as well.

When people ship eggs for hatching, they tend to individually wrap each egg in some kind of padding (example: bubble wrap), then put the wrapped eggs into a box, then sometimes they put that box into a larger box with padding between the two layers of boxes.

With most egg cartons, if you shake the carton, the eggs can bang together a little bit. If that happens while they are being shipped, the eggs will typically break. Some people do ship eggs in cartons, but most apparently do not.

For which mail carrier, I know you can use the United States Post Office. I do not know whether any other carriers will accept eggs or not. That is something you might be able to find on their websites, or in threads that talk about shipping eggs for hatching.

You would want to ship fresh eggs, not ones that are already old. There is probably no point in refrigerating the eggs before you ship them, if they will not be kept cold while they are being shipped. It is probably better not to wash the eggs before they are shipped, because washed eggs are a little more likely to rot (there is a thin coating called the bloom on an egg when it is laid. The egg keeps better if the bloom is not washed off.)

Considering how expensive it is to ship anything, I would expect it to be cheaper to buy eggs at a local store for eating, instead of shipping them from one place to another. If there is something special about the eggs you produce, then of course that changes things about whether they are worth shipping or not.

Here is one example of a thread that talks about packing eggs for shipping:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-great-method-for-shipping-hatching-eggs.1646627/
 
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This is the first thread I've seen on shipping eggs to eat. It is generally hatching eggs. The basic issues are the same though. I assume chicken eggs but don't know how many.

I agree don't wash them or scrub them, you do not want to compromise the "bloom", a protective coating the hen puts on them to help keep bacteria out. Also, do not ship dirty eggs. A light dusting isn't a problem but any that have clumps of poop or mud on them have compromised the bloom.

I agree, do not ship refrigerated eggs. Eggs coming out of the refrigerator are going to be cold so you can get condensation on the egg. This could compromise the bloom.

You have no control over how they are handled during shipment. My brother worked at the post office, we had this discussion. Most people at the post office will handle a package carefully if it is marked fragile but, as with any group, a few see it as a challenge and will toss those packages around. Bear that in mind when you are packing them. I would not want two eggs touching each other. I'd want padding all around them to absorb the blow. If you use egg cartons, maybe only 6 eggs per carton. I'd use the fine bubble wrap, enough that the eggs could not wiggle easily. Put padding around the individual cartons, under, over, and side to side. Try to snug them so they can't bang into each other.

I'd put them in a large garbage bag so I did not ruin other people's mail if the eggs broke.

I've had great hatch rates and horrible hatch rates with eggs from the same shipper with the eggs packed the same way. I don't have any proof but I think the difference was that they were handled differently. Maybe shaken, maybe one was overheated. During shipping you just don't know what will happen to them.

Good luck!
 
Our local UPS facility will ship perishable food stuffs. We have found them to be more trust worthy than the USPS, sadly. Unless you are shipping more than a dozen, it may not be worth the expense. Good luck and I hope they arrive intact.
 

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