# Sticky  Egg Swap



## Forcast

Now that the chick hatch madness is winding down well except some people,(FM) would we like to have a eggs swap ? It would give the ones that have never shipped eggs a chance to learn. .(like me) LadyCat can hopefully share how she does it. I was thinking same amount of eggs for same amount of eggs. So the postage should be the same coming and going. Eggs would have to be free.

So what do you all think? Might get a little crazy if someone had A but wanted C and then we need a F egg person, 3 way swap?


*MODERATOR NOTE:

SEE NEXT POST FOR SWAP RULES AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION*


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## Guest

*SWAP RULES - THESE RULES WILL BE MODIFIED IF NECESSARY*

1. You need to be a member in good standing for a MINIMUM of 3 months AND have 20 posts before you can join in this swap.

2. Post what breeds/varieties you have available. Please post a pic if possible.

3. To qualify for accepting an offer, you need to post what you are offering in return in the same post.

4. When each trade is posted, please pm or email the person who offered the eggs and work out the shipping arrangements.

5. Each person sending the eggs pays the shipping costs.

6. When eggs are mailed, swapper needs to send a courtesy email to the swappee to let them know that the eggs are on their way. All eggs must be shipped with tracking number by Priority Mail. PM the tracking number to recipient when you ship.

7. Please offer eggs that you will have available to ship within two weeks of offering. It is best to send eggs no older the 4 days when shipped. 

8. Side trades are welcome but please use PMs to avoid confusion.

*SHIPPING INFO*

Here is one of the best ways to pack eggs: http://agricommunity.com/packing-eggs-to-ship/

You don't need to duplicate that method. The main things to keep in mind are:

Wrap the eggs individually in bubble wrap. (Quail eggs can be placed in cartons with padding around them in the carton cells, and then the carton needs to be taped shut and wrapped in bubble wrap)

Use ample padding in the box around the eggs, especially between the eggs and the sides of the box. The padding can be shavings, shredded paper, or lots of bubble wrap.

Place the eggs in the box big end up. Eggs are less prone to shipping damage that way.

*THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SHIPPED EGGS*

Shipped eggs seldom hatch as well as unshipped eggs. They get a lot of banging around during shipping, and sustain damage even if you can't see the damage. This is not the fault of a shipper who packs the eggs well. The better the eggs are packed (with big end up), the better they are likely to hatch.

When you receive shipped eggs, place them in a carton big end up and let them rest for 12 to 24 hours. This will also increase your chances of a good hatch, because the air bubbles that formed in eggs during shipping needs to dissipate before incubation begins.


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## Forcast

Sure thing!
Maybe post how you pack your eggs as well! I visited your page and that really looks like the way to go.


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## Muleman

I can tell you how she packages eggs, VERY GOOD. All of the eggs I have gotten from here have arrived in perfect shape. But a tutorial on egg shipping would sure be welcomed information to post here.

I would be open to the idea of trading eggs also, but I will have to check with my daughter to see what we have available and what she would want, as she is doing most all of the hatching at the moment for me. I have never been quite sure of the legalities involved with shipping eggs from one state to another?


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## Forcast

I have bought eggs on ebay... so I would guess no legal issues ....?


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## Guest

Forcast said:


> I have bought eggs on ebay... so I would guess no legal issues ....?



Shouldn't be.


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## marusempai

I would like to note that this is a fabulous idea and you should do it again next year when I get my incubator.


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## Jlynnp

I wish I had purebred chickens, all of my eggs will be mixes.


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## Muleman

The rules do not say you can not swap mixes? I bought lots of eggs I had no idea what they were at the Auction, just to practice incubating with.


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## Guest

Jlynnp said:


> I wish I had purebred chickens, all of my eggs will be mixes.


That's fine. Just state that in your offer. Lots of people don't care what they're hatching, as long as they have something to hatch.


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## Forcast

Thats right.... I would like to hatch the GOOSE that LAYS the GOLDEN EGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would think any kind of eggs, duck, turkey, guinea, pheasant, ?


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## saritamae

Love this idea! I would swap for anything that anyone has. All I have are barnyard mix chickens and Khaki Campbell ducks. I have never shipped or received eggs before and would love to practice before I buy eggs to hatch.


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## Guest

I would like to trade White Coturnix eggs or Serama eggs for pheasant eggs. Any kind of pheasants except ringnecks.


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## Lady89

interesting i may need to get in on this


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## Forcast

Has anyone started to swap eggs yet?

I will swap mixed color black ,blues,whites jersey giants of pheasant eggs .


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## Forcast

Anyone want jersey giant eggs to hatch? What you got to swap?


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## nikkers

I have been getting shipped eggs for two years. Last year the hatch rate was about 35-40%. This year is a dismal failure. The eggs I get are very well packed. Cannot fault the shipper there but my hatch rate was like 3 live chicks out of 7 doz eggs from different shippers. It feels like the USPS is deliberately abusing the packages. Maybe they now xray everything marked FRAGILE or LIVE EMBRYOS or EGGS. I incubate about a dozen of my mixes at the same time as a control. Mine hatch, but those pricey shipped eggs do not. Maybe I'm just "lucky". For now I will only hatch eggs I can get locally and pick up. This is not meant to discourage newbies, but it is good to be aware of the drawbacks.


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## Forcast

I had 50% hatch from shipped eggs all my test eggs hatched, incubating shipped eggs for some one and ZERO good. And again all my eggs test eggs are good.


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## JLMissouri

I would be interested, here is what I have:

Barnyard mix, a mix of many heritage breeds that we have raised on our farm for the last decade. Broodiness has been encouraged, in fact many of the chickens in this group are proven mothers or were raised by one. We have selected for tough stock and good foraging ability. These birds have free ranged for most of their lives.

Easter Eggers. These are becoming my favorite breed. They will plain out scratch any other breed I have used. If you want a chicken to clear ground this is it. They lay different shades of blue to olive eggs. Also called Americaunas.

Jumbo Coturnix quail. A mix of colors from white to brown.

Pharoah III the rooster of the mixed chicken group:


Mix Flock:



Easter Eggers:



Quail:


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## Fiend

I used to keep invertebrates as pets, primarily tarantulas but a few other things. There is are many hobbyists that trade specimens or even send out sexually mature males on breeding loans through the mail. It was an eye opener at the kind of critters, some venomous, being shipped regularly through the mail in the fall and spring. Anyway there were some tips for shipping that might apply here.

Ask the post office what time or times they ship the mail out. Take your package about 2 hours before they ship out the bulk mail. It decreases the time your package will be sitting in poor conditions or being man handled and kicked around. I live near a main sorting/distribution hub for all the local post offices in the area so I used to cut out some handling and time by driving an extra 20 minutes and shipping my stuff from there. If you can ask a local tax preparer which post office people take their taxes to on April 15th near the deadline to get a postmark and that is probably the best place to ship from. The large hubs used to stay open late on tax day so people could get last minute postmarks and those tend to be the places that sort and ship out directly to a truck or to the airport and are the last stop before mail is moved out of state. This was over 15 years ago so the post office may have changed. I havn't shipped anything alive in years.

When I was shipping spiders and other bugs the general belief by enthusiasts was that the more fragile labels you put on a box the more the postal workers abused it. Some people believed labeling the box as "heirloom christmas ornaments" worked better with just a couple "fragile" and "this end is up" stickers to get gentle handling. Put the address labels on the top and not the side. Since the label will need to be read the box will be more likely to spend time sitting with the top facing up. 

We always kept shipping limited to fall and spring to avoid temperature extremes as some invertebrates don't deal with too much heat or cold. Insulated shipping boxes will keep short to moderate exposure to heat or cold at bay. Some people used heat or cold packs depending on the weather if they shipped at the wrong time of the year with mostly good results.

Make nice with your local mailman and/or someone at the post office. Let them know you are expecting a package of live eggs and ask them to handle it accordingly like keeping it out of direct sunlight, no rough treatment. You might arrange to pick it up at the post office when it arrives instead of letting it sit till normal delivery. If you can arrange this somehow then be prepared for a call at almost anytime of the day or night. Just asking may be enough to impress upon the postal worker how important the package is to you and they usually are good about making the effort to handle the package carefully.

UPS, Fed Ex and DHL are hit and miss as far as service and handling something like this but they are usually much faster than the post office. You can ask and you can try with them but its harder to get any extra consideration from them, IME.

You can't control everything that happens to a package but you can try to minmize any poor treatment at the start and end of the package's journey and that might be the difference in receiving a viable shipment.


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## kygirlinwv

I found this, NOT THE SAME AS FRAGILE!

"Special Handling Fragile Label
3" x 1.85"
This 3.00â X 1.857â label may be used in place of printing or hand-stamping the required marking of Special Handling-Fragile to mailpieces when this service is either requested or required, and the extra service fee is paid."
AND THEN FOUND THE CHARGES:
"Special Handling â Fragile

Get preferential handling if youâre sending unusual shipments that are fragile or for other mailable content that needs extra care.

Notes

Purchase online or at a Post Office
Content restrictions for some mail classes

Special Handling Details
Cost 
$10.35"
source: www.usps.com/ship/insurance-extra-services.htm

~~~~
It appears that requesting Special Handling is what incurs the charges, not just calling it Fragile!


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## Guest

I have tons of White Coturnix quail eggs. Anyone have anything interesting to trade?


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## Otter

Fiend said:


> When I was shipping spiders and other bugs the general belief by enthusiasts was that the more fragile labels you put on a box the more the postal workers abused it.


I ship live fish (yeah, really) and hatching eggs, I've had folks get very good results on my shipped eggs and I have to say I agree, marking a box "Fragile" seems like a sure fire way to get it with tire marks on it (this has literally happened to me)

The best way I've found to get boxes to their destination in good condition is to use standard size, priority mail boxes, put the label on TOP and then get a couple of markers and write on it something to the tune of "Happy 6th Birthday Sweetheart! Love Grandma! XOXO" or "Happy Anniversary Darling, I wish I was there" and then draw some balloons or hearts on it.

Usually, when I tell my buyers that packages will be marked like this, I get "Oh! Can you put "Darla" on it?? That's my wife and they're for her." or "Cool! Can you draw a pokemon??"
So it's fun for everyone. Everyone who sees the package will smile and treat it nicely.

I can't do any incubating until we move, but after that, JLMissourri, want to trade some of my barnyard mix for some of yours? Mine are hardy, hardworking birds with a good bit of Leghorn in the mix, lay a light brown or tinted egg very consistently and go broody, I select males for their breastmeat, good manners and color and females for early laying and foraging.
There's my Senior rooster, Sonny Boy, a lemon blue, with some of the ladies. Our junior rooster is a blue wheaton Maran cross (hoping to darken the eggs up a bit)


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## kasilofhome

Otter said:


> I ship live fish (yeah, really) and hatching eggs, I've had folks get very good results on my shipped eggs and I have to say I agree, marking a box "Fragile" seems like a sure fire way to get it with tire marks on it (this has literally happened to me)
> 
> The best way I've found to get boxes to their destination in good condition is to use standard size, priority mail boxes, put the label on TOP and then get a couple of markers and write on it something to the tune of "Happy 6th Birthday Sweetheart! Love Grandma! XOXO" or "Happy Anniversary Darling, I wish I was there" and then draw some balloons or hearts on it.
> 
> Usually, when I tell my buyers that packages will be marked like this, I get "Oh! Can you put "Darla" on it?? That's my wife and they're for her." or "Cool! Can you draw a pokemon??"
> So it's fun for everyone. Everyone who sees the package will smile and treat it nicely.
> 
> I can't do any incubating until we move, but after that, JLMissourri, want to trade some of my barnyard mix for some of yours? Mine are hardy, hardworking birds with a good bit of Leghorn in the mix, lay a light brown or tinted egg very consistently and go broody, I select males for their breastmeat, good manners and color and females for early laying and foraging.
> There's my Senior rooster, Sonny Boy, a lemon blue, with some of the ladies. Our junior rooster is a blue wheaton Maran cross (hoping to darken the eggs up a bit)


Psychological warfare with the post office smart love it.


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## dizzy

I don't have time to do this this year, but maybe next. There are certain breeds I'd like to get the genetics into my flock for either size, egg size or egg color.


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## saritamae

Has anyone traded yet? 

I'm still happy to trade mixes if anyone is interested. My rooster is a black Langshan, and my hens are BR, RIR, Brahma, Americauna, Leghorn, and Buff Orp. I also have Silver laced Wyandottes, and white Silkies but I am fairly certain they haven't started laying yet. The Khaki Campbell ducks are molting, but I will have duck eggs again in the spring. I have regular Coturnix quail but I feel like I need to say that I have my first ever batch of their eggs in the incubator now, so I won't know the hatch rate for about two more weeks.


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## FCLady

We have silver pencil rock and rir from Dick Horstman's lines. I can send pics if someone is interested in eggs to swap. We're interested in swapping meat birds of some type. Don't know if turkeys are still laying or if anyone has cornish or freedom ranger eggs? Maybe even some thing pure bred that's a good layer.


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## jenlyn9483

Hi, I raise my own version of meaties from a Pioneer Rooster (Murray McMurray's Version of freedom Ranger) over Maran, Dark Cornish, White Rock, Black Sexlink, Dominique, Orpington and SSussex hens. I have sold and shipped eggs on ebay and BYC for many years so Im good with that. Let me know if you are interested. I would love some SPPR! I ordered some from Dick Horst last year and hatched them and a fox got ahold of the babies i hatched.


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## FCLady

jenlyn9483
I've been having computer issues. Let's exchange chicken pictures...


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## FCLady

jenlyn9483
Here are the ones that I'm using to hatch eggs from...
They are GREAT layers; except one of the ladies is constantly going broody and it's too late in the year for that stuff!!!


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## jenlyn9483




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## jenlyn9483

Here is my rooster w the dark Cornish and black sexlink hens. These others are pictures of his oldest offspring which I hatched in July. I stop hatching from July to October due to the rainy season here and extreme heat. So all others I hatched are still tiny babies.


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## FCLady

jenlyn9483 PM you details.
Thanks


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## FCLady

Thanks jenlyn9483
Great swap. She shipped priority mail. I shipped regular mail and dressed the package in ribbon and wrote "from Gma" all over it. Both took same amount of time and arrived safely. Shipped from Ohio to FLA.


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## jenlyn9483

Cheryl here is a picture of one of the last chicks I hatched. The one on the right is a dark cornishXpioneer cross and the one on the left is a pure BCM I hatched on the same day. You can see the Pioneer X is twice the size of the maran chick.


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## FCLady

I hatch eggs year round... but I get so excited every time hatch day rolls around.
Thanks for the pics Jen


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## mdangel81

Does anybody use incubator what kind do u recommend


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## FCLady

I used a styrofoam one for a while. But you really have to learn the ins and outs of how to hatch. I hatch A LOT of eggs each year and now run my Sportsman 1502 year round. We added the water tray at the top so twice a day I can add water without opening the door.
Works flawlessly. Burned up the motor after about the 3rd year of constant running. We regularly clean and dust it out, especially the fan.


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## Waiting2Retire

Is anyone doing this for 2016? I do not have anything right now- just got back into chickens and Im thinking more about spring or fall 2017, probably fall..


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## marusempai

I just started one more incubator full of chicks from what I have... next batch, I have room for something for me. Might do a swap. On the other hand, silver Ameraucanas exist and I don't have any.


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## ronnhill7

I have Welsummer eggs to swap if anyone is interested.
I'm in West-Central Georgia.........


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## Norman Kerman

I am immensely impressed to read the above shares. This is one of the best share. Thanks,


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## Charlie Christian

Forcast said:


> Now that the chick hatch madness is winding down well except some people,(FM) would we like to have a eggs swap ? It would give the ones that have never shipped eggs a chance to learn. .(like me) LadyCat can hopefully share how she does it. I was thinking same amount of eggs for same amount of eggs. So the postage should be the same coming and going. Eggs would have to be free.
> 
> So what do you all think? Might get a little crazy if someone had A but wanted C and then we need a F egg person, 3 way swap?
> 
> 
> *MODERATOR NOTE:
> 
> SEE NEXT POST FOR SWAP RULES AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION*


Everything looks wonderful. Franklin County,Ohio Health Health Department; all Poultry sold, sales, transfers in/out of the Country/City must be NPIP approved, licensed and certified. Any thoughts?


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## Wolf mom

Even though it's an old thread, that's a good thing to know Charlie!

BTW: Welcome to HT!


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## B&L Chicken Ranch and Spa

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