THE POST OFFICE

[asher]

Me, either. I think it may depend on how far away you are, too in terms of states, but am not positive.

 

[Homegroanacres]

Quote:
Diagonal, coast to coast for these eggs!!

Now I'm stressin...

John

 

[okcarla]

I have a question to one of our postal employees here on the BYC site about whether it's better to have a hand-printed mailing label or a use the USPS.com method of "Click-N-Ship" and printing shipping labels at the home computer on the home printers. I just recently started using the "Click-N-Ship" method because I can pay the postage at home with my credit card and take the boxes directly to the post office and set them on the counter without having to stand in line, or I can call and have the boxes picked up at my house.

My question is this: Will the boxes that have the USPS printed mailing label be subjected to more of the automated sorting machines, and therefore be bounced around more & thrown in to big hoppers? Do the hand-printed address boxes get a little more special care since they require a postal employee to read the address at each stop that it travels?

I want to minimize the bouncing around as much as possible for eggs. I know that many of the eggs I receive in the mail have already had their air sack busted which makes them impossible to hatch (you can tell if its broken by candling the egg and the air bubble stays on the top whichever way you turn the egg). I think those eggs had too rough of handling along the trip.

When I ship eggs, I will go the extra mile to get eggs sent out the best way possible, and still have a live embryo that can be incubated and hatched wherever it is sent. I even drive out of my way to take the boxes of eggs to the nearest airport post office, where I know they are flown out each day ... I'm lucky to live within 20 miles of the Oklahoma City airport.

 

[asher]

I'm hoping someone from one of the main hubs will chime in. I'm just in a little P.O and we hand sort the packages (well, the clerks do) in the morning. We don't have a machine for that. I know in the big factories and processing plants, there are tons of machines, but I think most (unless your handwriting is ineligible) will go through the machines to a certain point.

 

[msrma7670]

Thought I would let ya all know I had shipped some eggs from colorado to georgia via air mail 2 day and they made it fine and a good many are growing just fine as long as I dont kill them. So just thought I would say thanks ya all for keeping my package safe. Funny thing is the eggs I got here in georgia via local in two days not a one of 12 worked out at all go figure.

 

[ozark hen]

here in my town, the local postal ...office and carriers are wonderful...it is the "en route" ones who do all the damage and trust me they do damage. I have received eggs which have been triple wrapped in bubble wrap and then the entire inside of the box has had either peanuts or more bubble wrap and the postal folks still must have used them for soccer games or whatever. My local post-mistress called me and was very upset over the damaged boxes. My local carrier visits the chickens here and I give her eggs. She always drives up to the house 3/10's of a mile from road through a steep ravine, and honks for me. If I am not at home she will leave package on porch with a note on door. They always call me if I have a live shipment or a box of eggs and I go pick it up at the post office by 6:30 a.m. Post mistress told me she was trained to read the package thoroughly before touching it.

 

[Kanchii]

I believe we've never had any eggs we've shipped been cracked or scrambled.

We use stuffing cotton, and bubble wrap each egg individually.
The bottom is lined with cotton, then I place eggs ontop of that with room in between then more cotton (at least a handful thick) then the rest of the eggs on top then put as much cotton ontop as you can get in there while being able to close the lid!

 

[S n M Poultry]

this is how i pack my eggs: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=56893&p=1

 

[Chickndaddy]

Honestly I think there are too many factors to determine just how well shipped eggs will hatch, but handling and how you prepare them I think are at the top of the list. It used to take me several hours to wrap and box eggs in the morning. I individually bubble wrapped all the eggs and always included at least two extra. I took a small box and put a piece of bubble wrap down. Added some styrofoam peanuts and the first layer of eggs. More peanuts and the last of the eggs. Another piece of bubble wrap and then I taped the box up. I then bubble wrapped the box and placed it in another larger box with packing peanuts on all sides and taped it up. I never had any complaints from anyone. And I requested that people let me know how their hatches went.

Now I do not like the sawdust method. I had a few people ship eggs to me that way and I had horrible hatch rates every time.

My PO was wonderful. I brought in my eggs to go out on the morning truck and brought my chicks and started birds in the afternoon to go out on the last truck in the evening. They kept the birds sitting behind them on a counter until it was almost time for the truck to leave and then they would take them out so they wouldn't sit outside in the heat. And they would call me the minute any chicks I had shipped to me cam in. Didn't matter if it was 2:30 in the morning they called to let me know. I loved my PO.

Now I have heard of people shipping eggs in unmarked boxes and saying that they arrived in better shape than boxes that were marked Fragile or Hatching Eggs. I always put Fragile on mine in large red lettering several times though.

 

[msrma7670]

Quote:
very impressed I like the way you ship eggs I do ok no complaints yet, but always looking to reinvinte the mouse trap to ship better thanks for the link.