What happened???

[chicksurreal]

I shipped a dozen eggs to someone and NONE of them were viable. she said that a couple of them tried for a few day and the gave up.

The story behind this is that I saved eggs for 3 days to get a dozen and tried to ship them on the third day (Wednesday). I went to the post office and they refused to ship due to high temps in Phoenix at the time. The post office employee said that they could not ship fertile eggs when temps were over 85 degrees in Phoenix (never heard of this before).

I waited 2 days and shipped during a storm that kept temps low (didn't tell P.O. what I was shipping this time).

I packed each egg in bubble wrap, leaving the ends open and then encasing each egg in pipe insulation. Packed in packing peanuts in medium flat rate box, then put in large flat rate box with more peanuts, packed tight. Sent on Friday, received on Monday. She said she'd never seen such scrambled eggs (after two weeks incubating) and blamed the post office.

I'm devastated. What could I have done differently to make this work?

 

[chickenlover432]

I have absolutely no Idea. I'm very sorry.

 

[chicksurreal]

Thanks.

This is the first time I've ever shipped eggs and wanted to do it right, so I spent hours reading threads on what to do and what not to do and all that, not one egg even had a crack in it, but they were just completely messed up inside. I hope someone has an idea of what I might be able to do to prevent that from happening again. The outer box didn't have an damage either...

 

[bobbi-j]

Even though the boxes didn't show damage, they were most likely tossed around during transit. Not much you can do about that if you didn't mark the box "FRAGILE". (And even when you do, I think they let the gorillas play catch with them.)

 

[chicksurreal]

Even though the boxes didn't show damage, they were most likely tossed around during transit. Not much you can do about that if you didn't mark the box "FRAGILE". (And even when you do, I think they let the gorillas play catch with them.)

Hm. The buyer told me not to mark it fragile. I did put arrows on the box and wrote "this end up" on the sides so the big end of the eggs would stay in position. Of course the postal worker immediately put it on it's side when I gave it to her...

I'm just wondering how to get eggs to someone without them being messed up. Is it just luck when they arrive in shape for hatching?

 

[bobbi-j]

Hm. The buyer told me not to mark it fragile. I did put arrows on the box and wrote "this end up" on the sides so the big end of the eggs would stay in position. Of course the postal worker immediately put it on it's side when I gave it to her...

I'm just wondering how to get eggs to someone without them being messed up. Is it just luck when they arrive in shape for hatching?

That's my opinion. But then, I don't have a lot of faith in USPS either. We also ship things (nothing as fragile as eggs) for our business, and sometimes our items arrive looking like they've been stomped on, run over, and dragged down the road. One guy didn't get his order for 6 weeks - of course, he thought it was on our end, but when it arrived, there were many different postmarks on it, showing just where it had gone.

 

[chicksurreal]

That's my opinion. But then, I don't have a lot of faith in USPS either. We also ship things (nothing as fragile as eggs) for our business, and sometimes our items arrive looking like they've been stomped on, run over, and dragged down the road. One guy didn't get his order for 6 weeks - of course, he thought it was on our end, but when it arrived, there were many different postmarks on it, showing just where it had gone.

I agree, not a lot of faith in the USPS. Some employees are awesome and some are definitely not.

 

[Orca5094]

I have yet to receive shipped eggs in good condition. There's really nothing else you can do for them, it's kind of a crap shoot when shipping eggs. You never know what is going to happen to them on the way (tossed around, dropped, put through x-ray machines, differing air pressure and temperatures, etc). Buying shipped eggs is a huge gamble that the customer has to be willing to take. The shipper has absolutely no control over what happens once they ship out the package, so I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Sounds like you did pack them really well, but I think writing FRAGILE all over the box might have helped at least a little bit. It also might have helped if USPS knew there were eggs in the package. But then again, who really knows for sure?

I might add that the eggs I've had shipped to me have come in large plastic buckets packed really well with wood shavings. That keeps them from being set down on their side or upside down, and the shavings keep them from being jossled too much, but alas, they still arrive with damaged air cells somehow. And they only take one day to arrive from southern Sweden, and are only on a truck and not an airplane.

 

[chicksurreal]

I have yet to receive shipped eggs in good condition. There's really nothing else you can do for them, it's kind of a crap shoot when shipping eggs. You never know what is going to happen to them on the way (tossed around, dropped, put through x-ray machines, differing air pressure and temperatures, etc). Buying shipped eggs is a huge gamble that the customer has to be willing to take. The shipper has absolutely no control over what happens once they ship out the package, so I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Sounds like you did pack them really well, but I think writing FRAGILE all over the box might have helped at least a little bit. It also might have helped if USPS knew there were eggs in the package. But then again, who really knows for sure?

I might add that the eggs I've had shipped to me have come in large plastic buckets packed really well with wood shavings. That keeps them from being set down on their side or upside down, and the shavings keep them from being jossled too much, but alas, they still arrive with damaged air cells somehow. And they only take one day to arrive from southern Sweden, and are only on a truck and not an airplane.

Oh, wow. You've NEVER received eggs in good condition? *sigh*.

This lady wants to try again, so I am trying to figure out how to give the eggs the best chance of making it through without being scrambled. I think I will write "FRAGILE " on the carton this time. Someone suggested writing "LIVE EMBRYOS" on there as well. .I might do that too.

That's a great suggestion about the bucket and wood shavings! Thanks!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I have done shipped eggs twice and won't do it again. I swear "live embryos" just makes them throw it around more. I had one our of 14 the first time and a batch due to hatch Tues that look to have 1 viable of 9. I have no problem with my own eggs. From now on I will either get chicks or pick up the eggs myself.