Shipping hatching eggs

[ghulst]

I have shipped eggs for 20 years and had very good results. I put 8 eggs in a paper egg carton and cover with sawdust. Years ago I used oats. I duck tape it shut very tight. I can get two doz in a mediam flat rate Proility box

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
This is how I do it too. I received eggs from Sarah, and hatched 16 or 17 (forgot) out of 18 eggs she shipped this way. After that, I adopted her way of shipping!

I do not like the eggs wrapped singly and laying in a box. I have had much better hatching rates with Sarah's shipping method.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

It's funny how everyone has such different experiences. I have had horrible hatch rates from eggs wrapped in paper towels and put into egg cartons.

I guess you just never know...

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I too have to say, they wrapped and laid in the box deal is horrible for me. I no longer will buy from people unless they use cartons due to that. I never got more than a 10% hatch from any of them that way, and usually had tons of broken ones in the box due to them clanking around.
I use the carton method myself too

wrap each egg in bubble wrap

place big end up in the carton, (very important, air cells rupturing are the biggest problem in shipping, standing them upright helps tremendously, that's the biggest problem with laying them in a pile)

now file the carton tight with paper or any kind of filler and tape shut

file the box half full of packing material, paper, peanuts, what ever, it all works.

center the carton in the box, I use newspaper now to pack around the box so it can not move. Peanuts here can settle and the carton can move to the sides of the box and get damaged.

now finish packing the box full, and very tight, so much so that you can just close it.

tape shut and label the outside, important too. I know a lot of folks say not too, but your odds are better with FRAGILE LIVE HATCHING EGGS on the outside, otherwise, they go threw the ringer for sure.

the USPS website will send you any kind of boxes you want for free, just go on there and order what you want.

for packing supplies, stay way from the USP store, you'll go broke. If you know folks with a business, they get tons of packages usually filled with peanuts , paper etc, ask them to save it for you. If you know someone with a newspaper route, ask them to save their extra daily papers for you (my brother and brother in law both do, so I'm set on newspaper)

if you can do that, you will have virtually nothing in packing materials.

same with egg cartons, ask your friends to save theirs.

If you ship a lot like I do (30 dozen or so a week) then that will never help, but you can order them from places like eggcartons.com or ebay. I get them in boxes of 100 for like $30, so basically 30 cent each, pretty cheap in the long run.

There are various other ways people swear by, but this works for me both on shipping and happy customers, and me receiving and being happy with the results.
Like others, I based mine off receiving and what I had good luck with. To each his own, and remember that will always be damage. I dont care how you do it, shipping will on average get a minimum of 50% of them. Some times you get lucky and get 90% hatch, but those are the "YOU GOT LUCKY" moments, so be sure everyone you ship to understands this up front and you should have little to no issues.

The more stable, and secure you can pack them, and big end upright (cant stress that enough) the better results you get. All boxes are going to vibrate like crazy in shipping, and ones laid on the sides allow all the weight of the internal egg to move from side to side, this is what ruptures the air cells, Big end up placement, still gets vibrated, but the side to side motion is limited due to a shorter distance between shell walls, also it put virtually no pressure on the air cell to rupture it.
God knows it still happens, but much less frequently. If you can get them there without a damaged air cell, then the customer has a much better shot at a successful hatch and repeat business.

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
This is how I do it too. I received eggs from Sarah, and hatched 16 or 17 (forgot) out of 18 eggs she shipped this way. After that, I adopted her way of shipping!

I do not like the eggs wrapped singly and laying in a box. I have had much better hatching rates with Sarah's shipping method.

Thanks Kathy! It's all fine for me to toot my own horn, but actual other person feedback is awesome!

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
It's not just the wrapping. it's making the egg as immobile as possible. You can wrap 'em all day olng, but if that egg carton can shift and rock and flip then it's moot.

The way I have been packing them keeps the egg immobile in the carton and the carton immobile in the box. Further, I use the aluminum foil because it's supposed to keep xray from damaging the eggs. Don't know if it's true or not, but it can't hurt and if it helps, then better off for the egg.

As for the "fragile" "hatching Eggs' "Live Embryos" or any other thing that gets written on the boxes, I don't. In 3 years of getting eggs, the boxes most damaged have always had some kind of "warning" written on them. Could be coincidence...maybe not.

And for the wrapping in bubble wrap and piling them in the center of shredded paper or popcorn or any other packing material....well, in my experience, those are the ones where the eggs get broken the most and my hatch rates are the lowest. And quite honestly, if I get eggs sent to me that way, I don't order from that person again. I buy fairly expensive eggs/breeds and I can't see wasting the money.

 

[ghulst]

We at the hatchery get turkey eggs from Calif. and they hatch good.. They are packed in a 30 doz egg carton just set and not wraped. They take about a week to get to Zeeland. each case goes though the post offive. Postsage is about $44.00. I think the trick is that they don't get trown arown like small packages.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We package our eggs like this and it's very rare we have any broken eggs.

http://www.sandspoultry.com/forsaleandshipping.htm

Some feedback from people that bought eggs from us.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=sandspoultry&ftab=AllFeedback

Here is a note we got from a BYC member for a east to west coast egg shipment.

nmantime wrote:
Steve, I purchased 12 Dark Cornish eggs from you 1st week of January 2011. You shipped me 15 and i just had a hatch of 14. Really excellent fertility. the one that did not failed around day 7... no further development.

Steve

 

[phasianidae]

Thanks everyone. Now I feel more prepared

 

[bkwurth]

Quote:
It's not just the wrapping. it's making the egg as immobile as possible. You can wrap 'em all day olng, but if that egg carton can shift and rock and flip then it's moot.

The way I have been packing them keeps the egg immobile in the carton and the carton immobile in the box. Further, I use the aluminum foil because it's supposed to keep xray from damaging the eggs. Don't know if it's true or not, but it can't hurt and if it helps, then better off for the egg.

As for the "fragile" "hatching Eggs' "Live Embryos" or any other thing that gets written on the boxes, I don't. In 3 years of getting eggs, the boxes most damaged have always had some kind of "warning" written on them. Could be coincidence...maybe not.

And for the wrapping in bubble wrap and piling them in the center of shredded paper or popcorn or any other packing material....well, in my experience, those are the ones where the eggs get broken the most and my hatch rates are the lowest. And quite honestly, if I get eggs sent to me that way, I don't order from that person again. I buy fairly expensive eggs/breeds and I can't see wasting the money.

Thank you, I was wondering what the foil was for.