One of the people I buy hatching eggs from — Rachel at Gypsy Hen Poultry — packages her eggs perfectly, no breakage, no cracks, and fantastic hatch rates.

These numbers aren’t just good. They would be considered very good for non-shipped eggs. For eggs shipped across the country, a 96.4% hatch rate is epic: for every 100 fertile eggs set into the incubator, 96.4% turned into living chicks. Part of this is my excellent Brinsea Ovation EX incubators, but even they can’t hatch a poorly packaged egg.

From now on, I’m going to ship all the eggs I ship the same way, and I’m going to ask people I am buying from to consider doing the same.

The Original Gypsy Hen Poultry method, which is now the Flower Feather Farm method:

• Line a large flat rate USPS packing box for across the country shipments or a large box #7 for closer shipments with another large same sized box, trimmed to fit.

• Cut the last row off of the egg carton, so that it holds ten eggs.

• Wrap each egg in paper towel and set into the egg carton.

• Wrap carton in aluminum foil to shield the eggs from X-rays.

• Insert each foil packet into a bubble-wrap or bubble-wrapped lined shipping envelope, the sort you would get from Amazon shipments.

• Set the cartons in the box on top of some cushioning.

• Fill up any spare space in the top with newspaper or wadded paper grocery bags or more bubble stuff.

• Seal and ship.

If you are looking for a good shipping service, I am really happy with ShipStation. Use this link to get a 30-day free ShipStation trial.