The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[BunnyMomma]

Hi, I went to the PO today and here is the cost for shipping on the boxes. All of the boxes weighed about 5 lbs. And were insured for the value of the eggs. I used the large Priority boxes for all 3 shipments.
I have an account with the USPS, and I get my shipping online using Click and Ship, which is less expensive. This allows me a little money to purchase packaging supplies etc.
From NC to OK ~ 5 lbs. 14.92
From NC to CO~ 17.03
From NC to FL~ 11.58
This Averages out to about 15.00 per box for shipping.

I am going to make some changes in the way I sell my eggs on BYC as well. I am going to offer free shipping and make a set price for the eggs. This will allow me to file any claims to include the shipping costs on my eggs if they are damaged in transit. Why should I have to pay the PO for damaging my eggs? It is a tremendous amount of work to package and ship eggs.

I get a big kick out of the new USPS commercial about the lady shipping her home made jam and I can imagine what happens to the jars of jam in transit!

On the box that I sent to FL, I used a small Flat Rate Box instead of the plastic sterlite box because the Sterlite box will only hold about 9 large eggs. I can get at least a dozen in the Flat Rate Box.
Now I am waiting on them to arrive and I will hopefully hear good things about the packaging.
Jody

 

[Loghousemom]

LHmom keep us informed how your dirty eggs are doing.

Dan

Dan, so far they are doing fine! I had set 13 and removed 2 clears at day 10. (1 from the washed with water group and one from the non-washed group.). I was going to candle again last night but didnt when I realized that I am just a couple days away from lockdown. There were 2 others that were harder for me to tell what was going on, but I left them in there. I will post again when we do lockdown and what hatches... I should maybe make my own expiriment post for it all in one place.

 

[ozexpat]

**** i hate paying for poop. speckled sussex speckled in excrement

 

[Bama1]

**** i hate paying for poop. speckled sussex speckled in excrement

I would be embarrassed to send anyone an egg like that but unfortunately I have received many many eggs just like that or far worse. With my breakfast layers if I ever got even a slightly soiled egg I was cleaning the nesting box and/or washing and trimming a hens hiney.

 

[MeanV2]

Dan, so far they are doing fine! I had set 13 and removed 2 clears at day 10. (1 from the washed with water group and one from the non-washed group.). I was going to candle again last night but didnt when I realized that I am just a couple days away from lockdown. There were 2 others that were harder for me to tell what was going on, but I left them in there. I will post again when we do lockdown and what hatches... I should maybe make my own expiriment post for it all in one place.

Yes! Please keep us informed.

Dan

 

[BunnyMomma]

I would be embarrassed to send anyone an egg like that but unfortunately I have received many many eggs just like that or far worse. With my breakfast layers if I ever got even a slightly soiled egg I was cleaning the nesting box and/or washing and trimming a hens hiney.

I totally agree! I try to keep my nest boxes clean with fresh shavings and hay. That way the eggs are clean as a pin! I never ship eggs to people that look like that. If any of my eggs get dirty, I keep those eggs for myself or I toss them in the trash. I sometimes will wash the dirty eggs for myself if I decide they are worth keeping. I wash them off gently in a warm soapy water, rinse and air dry them. I also have a method for replacing the "bloom" on my washed eggs. (I put the method below if you are interested)

I "Never" ship washed eggs to a customer, I want to make that 100% clear. I just keep very clean nest boxes and gather my eggs about 2 or 3 times a day. In NC, the climate is very dry and we have a lot of droughts. That makes it easy to keep clean nest boxes. I am glad I don't live in an area that is really muddy and damp with too much rain.

That being said, in the past, I had visited a farm once that the coops were extremely overcrowded and nasty, nasty, nasty! There would be no way that a person could have gotten clean eggs from that coop. I made a bee-line out of there! Gross! If I received really dirty eggs like these, I would personally wash them and coat them with the egg white. I would be afraid that the poo might be carrying some type of bacteria that would cause mushy chicks or spread some kind of disease to my flock.

If I have an egg that I have washed for myself, I will take a fresh egg white and a cotton ball and lightly coat the washed egg with the egg white and let it dry.
I can then set it in my incubator and hatch it. This has worked very well for me. Some people might not agree with this, but it is just a method that I have worked on for the last several years. It does not not seem to affect my hatch rates and I've been doing this for 2 years.

 

[lizanne]

Hi, I went to the PO today and here is the cost for shipping on the boxes. All of the boxes weighed about 5 lbs. And were insured for the value of the eggs. I used the large Priority boxes for all 3 shipments.
I have an account with the USPS, and I get my shipping online using Click and Ship, which is less expensive. This allows me a little money to purchase packaging supplies etc.
From NC to OK ~ 5 lbs. 14.92
From NC to CO~ 17.03
From NC to FL~ 11.58
This Averages out to about 15.00 per box for shipping.

I am going to make some changes in the way I sell my eggs on BYC as well. I am going to offer free shipping and make a set price for the eggs. This will allow me to file any claims to include the shipping costs on my eggs if they are damaged in transit. Why should I have to pay the PO for damaging my eggs? It is a tremendous amount of work to package and ship eggs.

I get a big kick out of the new USPS commercial about the lady shipping her home made jam and I can imagine what happens to the jars of jam in transit!

On the box that I sent to FL, I used a small Flat Rate Box instead of the plastic sterlite box because the Sterlite box will only hold about 9 large eggs. I can get at least a dozen in the Flat Rate Box.
Now I am waiting on them to arrive and I will hopefully hear good things about the packaging.
Jody

What did the PO say about insuring eggs. From what I understand USPS won't insure hatching eggs.

 

[BunnyMomma]

What did the PO say about insuring eggs. From what I understand USPS won't insure hatching eggs.

Hi, about a month ago, I ordered some Chocolate Bantam Orpington eggs and they were demolished in shipping. I called the customer service center for the PO and spoke with a fellow about the problems I was having with many of my eggs being destroyed. Both incoming eggs, and outgoing. He informed me that you can insure hatching eggs. I also thought that you could not insure them, but he said you can insure them for the value of the cost of the eggs. So that is what I am doing now. I am going to file a claim this week for a box of eggs that I shipped last week to OK. So I will have more information about how the claim will be handled after I file the claim. It will probably take 30 days to receive a payment. Also, I plan to call them every time a box of eggs is damaged and file a complaint. I have been shipping eggs for a few years now, and about 50% of everything I receive, or ship out is damaged!
Do you know of any information on the USPS website that says hatching eggs cannot be insured? I have looked before, but I may not have seen that information. That is one of the reasons I called the customer service center.

 

[lizanne]

I'll look into it tomorrow, and get back to you on what I find out.

 

[MeanV2]

Received 2 boxes of eggs this morning. They were both shipped USPS Express Mail. Boxes showed no signs of rough treatment and No eggs were broken. Pics to follow. In this first box the individual eggs were wrapped with a cohesive type of bubble wrap. It is good for protecting the eggs but not sure how much it let them breathe.

Their was quite a bit of poo on these eggs although the pic does not really show it. These were also from the person that said they do not write anything on the outside of the box. I guess the changed their mind.

Dan