Saturday 19 October 2013

Eggs get to Turkey intact but don't count your chickens until they've hatched


Last week I had a request from a blog reader in Turkey; could he buy some hatching eggs? I explained how difficult it is to ensure that the eggs arrive intact and still fertile. Rough handling can break the eggs, changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure and  delays in the post all reduce the fertility and hatchability of eggs. Despite this he insisted that he wanted six eggs. So I packed them as usual in an egg box, surrounded with packing chips inside a strong cardboard box and took it down to the Post Office.

Today I had an email with these pictures to say that they arrived yesterday, intact. So in three weeks time we'll know if they were still fertile.

I have all but given up selling hatching eggs because although they leave here at around 70 -80% fertile they can be nothing like this when they arrive, customers are very disappointed and I have to reimburse them. this did not happen in the past and I wonder if the Royal Mail is doing something different. Are the packages being X-rayed and transported in the unpressurised holds of cargo aircraft even when going to the home counties?

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