Wednesday, April 10, 2013

EGG SHIPPING DAY


Every Monday and Wednesday is shipping time for our hatching eggs.  You might think why only Monday and Wednesday.  We like our hatching eggs to show up as fresh as possible to our customers.  If you ship to late in the week they have a chance of sitting at your Post Office on a Sunday and not in your incubator.



Hatching eggs are gathered one evening and one morning and then shipped.  We don't like to hold eggs back any longer than that which is another way to insure you get a good hatch. When the hatching eggs are gathered they are not always clean and in the greatest condition, so the first step when filling an order, before I begin to pack their eggs they will need to be cleaned up.  A dirty egg will not hatch.  I want my customers to have the best chance possible of having a good hatch rate.  Eggs are gently cleaned, it will not hurt to wash a hatching egg with a damp cloth.


We hatch many, many eggs every week and after doing this for so long you begin to notice what eggs don't hatch and which ones have a better chance of hatching just by looking at them.   An egg with a rough shell, off color, or odd shaped will not hatch.  There are also some other characteristics that I see that will not hatch but I just don't even know how to describe them.  When shipping hatching eggs I ship the best of the best.


I use eggs cartons that I cut down to size.  I can safely fit 16 eggs in a box and no more.  Once the eggs are cleaned I put them into the carton pointed end down.   I will either label the egg or the carton as to what breed I have packed.  Eggs can be labeled with a pencil not a marker.  Each eggs is wrapped in a napkin so they can not move in the carton.  I never wrap an egg in bubble wrap and do not recommend it. 


Once the carton is filled, more napkins are added to the top of the eggs for padding and to insure no movement in the carton.  The carton is then closed and taped shut.


Each box gets about 4 inches of crumpled newspaper or shredded paper in the bottom for padding.  Egg cartons are turned on their sides and put into the box.

 
Then more crumpled newspaper is added between the two cartons so that they can never touch and all around the outer edge of the box.  This insures that the eggs never touch the outer edge of the box.  If the box should get bumped the eggs are not broken.

 
 
A layer of crumpled news paper is then added to the top of the box.  Now the hatching eggs have no wiggle room.  I then tape the box shut.
 

 
 
 
The boxes are then marked Fragile on all sides.  Not that this always matters to the Postal Service but I do try to make it visible.  I never mark the box Hatching Eggs I use to do that but we ended up with  smashed boxes more often.  The hatching eggs are shipped priority mail it proves to be just as fast as express mail these days.  When you get your hatching eggs never let them rest for 24 hours like you might read on the Internet.  This is a bunch of Bologna your eggs can rest in your incubator. 
We aren't selling hatching eggs at this time but hope to offer them again later in the summer.  We need every egg at this time  to fill our chick orders.

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting. I never could understand how the eggs could receive oxygen when wrapped in bubble wrap. A napkin is much more logical. I hope to be able to order some chicks from you.
    I enjoy your FB page immensely. Evelyn Qualls/Hillside Happy Hens

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