How to Ship Hatching Eggs & Live Birds (the Right Way) + How to Choose the Right Breeds & Breeder

Struggling with broken shipped eggs, stressed birds, or disappointing hatch rates?
In this Poultry Nerds Podcast episode, we walk you through exactly how we ship hatching eggs and live birds and how to choose the right breeds and the right breeder for your goals.

We’re recording straight from the egg foam warehouse, surrounded by live shipper boxes, foam trays, and all the packing supplies — so you’ll get the real behind-the-scenes info, not theory. We break down why egg foam beats pool noodles and pipe wrap, how double boxing protects your embryos, and what a USPS-approved live bird shipping box should actually look like.

Then we shift into breed and breeder selection:
🐣 Duck eggs vs chicken eggs for allergies
🦆 Why ducks might be perfect for eggs and mosquito control
🦃 Heritage turkeys vs broad-breasted meat birds
🍗 Why we like Bresse as a dual-purpose meat-and-egg breed
🛖 How your housing, space, and goals should drive your breed choices

We also dig into breeding and fertility practices inside the quail barn:
💡 Why 14+ hours of light matters for consistent laying
🥕 How nutrition, vitamins, and species-specific feed affect fertility
🥚 Why you should ask hatch rate questions and how often the breeder test-hatches
📏 Why egg size (pullet eggs vs full-size eggs) absolutely matters
🧬 The difference between a breeder and a producer
😬 Why we don’t medicate everything just to keep weak genetics alive

You’ll also hear specific questions you should be asking any breeder before you send money or buy shipped eggs/birds:

• How do you package hatching eggs and live birds?
• What kind of boxes and materials do you use (USPS-approved, biofilm, foam, peanuts, heat packs)?
• How long have you worked with this line?
• What traits do you select for (size, temperament, production, color, fertility)?
• Do you regularly hatch your own birds to monitor fertility?
• Do you medicate routinely, or do you cull weak birds and keep strong genetics?

🎁 Free Download: We also created a Breeder & Buyer Checklist you can download from the website. Use it to:

• Clarify your own goals (eggs, meat, show, pets, heritage, dual-purpose)
• Compare different breeders side-by-side
• Prepare for the questions you’ll be asked if you start selling in 2026 and beyond

Transcript

Jennifer: 0:30

Hi. We're doing this today because we are gonna talk about shipping and handling and a whole lot of other stuff that goes along with birds. And a lot of times we tell you stuff and we're descriptive, but a lot of this you really need to see. Yep. So we're gonna expand a little bit on how to select a breeder and the questions that you wanna ask. And I've created a checklist that you're gonna find on the website you can download. We're gonna go through that today and questions you can ask and how the breeder may respond. Some of the questions the breeder may respond nicely from, they won't answer you at all, and there's reasons for that. And we're gonna go through those today. Yep. But right now we are in the egg foam warehouse and yep, there we go. We see all the peanuts that you can eat. Yep. They're made outta molasses, tons of egg foam, everything she's got available, including the live super boxes. So you wanna start with eggs? We can. So obviously I ain't the fur foam. A lot of people will tell you that you can use pipe wrap or pool noodle, and I've done it. I'm not gonna say I didn't, when I first started, I didn't know this stuff existed, but now that I know better, I would not do that and I wouldn't recommend it because when you're handling the egg and you're forcing it into that cut piece of foam and then you're wrapping it individually and then you're putting it in the box, that is all. Time for the embryo to get damaged. So I think that extra amount of handling is unnecessary. So egg foam sits in the box, you put it in the box, put that in it at the top line, put it in the box, and you ship it. There's no extra jiggling of it. Keeps it nice and secure, and if you double box it, then you get extra. Oh, what impact? Impact resistance. Yeah. You can use the peanuts or on the egg foam when you cold. These little pieces out, gotta have something to do with them. So when you double box, just stick it in there and it adds to the packaging. The foam comes and you make the foam yourself, you can buy it. Personally, I don't think that you can make it any cheaper than I can sell it to you, but that's for you guys. But it comes in all these different sizes for quail eggs, but eggs, duck eggs, chicken, eggs, fanta, eggs, all the different sizes. They fit the boxes. I don't know. I get excellent hatch from my shipped eggs, and I just think I'm so committed to it that I've made a business out of it. And like when you use the phone. We all know that the post office, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. There's no way around it. You can put all the fragile stickers on there, the live embryo stickers you want, and they're, sometimes it looks like they've been playing soccer with it, so you can only control what you can do. So the less you handle it, the better the chances are. Also, the foam acts as an insulator. So when the weather is ous, that's a good word. Yeah. It, it helps to where the temperature shift is slower and that makes your hatch ability better. So I don't necessarily want this to be a commercial for hum, but it is a question for you to ask the breeder, how do they package? Then you have all of the information and you make the decision for yourself. So that's it Enough. Live shipping of birds, which I do every week. I do hundreds of them, so I'm pretty good at it. What you do need is an approved USPS box, and a box with holes jammed in it with a pair of scissors does not count. Nope. Chicks also have to be shipped express. Some people will tell you that you can ship them priority. That is not a true statement. I do believe the hatcheries might have contracts to be able to ship them cheaper, but for us plain folk, we have to use express shipping. They won't accept'em at the coast office without it. So we, these boxes have air holes, right? So you can see the air holes and vents. Okay. And more air holes on this side. Now birds need ventilation. We harp on that on other egg, other podcasts. This particular shipping box has biofilm, is what that's called, glued in there, and that prevents hee bird from sticking their head out of behold and having it knocked off in transit. For life of anything better to say. Now, I have seen some people going through some extreme measures and putting all kinds of different things on the inside of the box. Personally, I think there is a point of overkill, but I do think it's better to be prepared. Usually David and I have big conversations about being overkill, but I think in this case, overkill is better. I hot glue Dixie cups in here, and then I put grill gel in the Dixie cups. I put sawdust shavings in the bottom and they get feed. That's all I do. I've been having good success with that. So until it doesn't work anymore, I see no reason to change it. But some people put fruit and different things in there. I can go either way on that because if the bird isn't accustomed to eating fruit, then it could upset their GI tract and that become a nutrition question for him. Yeah. On that. If you're going to ship a bird express and it's gonna get there tomorrow, I think that bird's gonna be fine. But a lot of times where you see the fruit come into play, there's a lot of game foul. People will ship birds overseas for whatever reasons. And for that, having apples and stuff in there is good for not only nutrition but for hydration because it's there. You don't just let the first time that bird has had an apple be when you put'em in the box. That's something you need to get them accustomed to and a lot of breeds do feed fruit from time to time, so that helps. But don't let the day you cram a bird in a box, be the first time it gets grow gel, whatever food you're putting in there, anything. Don't do that at first. And then this is just a chick box. It falls down and you can get different varieties of check boxes. You want a size appropriate box because their body heat is trapped in there. And if you're shipping chicks, you want their body heat contained in there. So this particular box, they don't pop the circles off and I do it myself. So in July, I'll pop'em all off. In January, I'll usually only pop these top ones off and I'll put a heat pack in there. So the breeder needs to understand seasonal shipping and have size appropriate boxing. This box would be for sending like full-sized chickens. I can, believe it or not, I can fit a full-size cushion or orpington in there. They do lay down and they're in their squeeze. There's a lot of bon heat. You gotta be prepared in shit fun in the wintertime when that happens. But I also shits adult quail in this size box. This one is more for chicks of chicken and quail. So size appropriate boxes is also important. And if you've noticed when I have folded this down, see how it creates that gap right there. That's important. This box does the same thing, that what happens is when. It's on a pallet in the airplane and in that, put the boxes together like this. You still get some airflow right here, and that's what this is for, if you've ever wondered. So it doesn't just fold into a flat, perfect square box because, and then you wouldn't get airflow when the buttoned up against each other like that. That's why you include zip ties in the boxes to use. So they can use'em in the holes instead of putting the big old piece of tape on there. Exactly. So if you wanted to see this one when you filled it down, how it folds in right there, you can un see that. Oh yeah. And so that allows airflow in there also. That's the reason why these boxes have that, those shapes. That's so do. Alright, I think that should answer all of your questions on shipping eggs and birds onto the next one. Okay, so now we're gonna talk about how do you select a breed or even a bird for your situation. And all the ducks are coming to help us do it on this one too. We have tried to outrun them. It's not working. So let's just start with ducks. A lot of people are allergic to chicken, eggs, and duck eggs are a valid alternative. Yep. To a lot of people. These particular ducks. Are wel harlequins, they cannot glide. They are. They're talky. They are prolific layers. They lay, I don't know, 280 eggs a year or something, and astronomical amount of eggs. I don't even pick'em all up because there's so many eggs. They're pretty docile. They follow year round like puppy dogs. Yep. Ducks may be a good fit for you. They also are fantastic mosquito control. We have zero mosquitoes out here. Consider ducks, chickens. It depends on what you want'em for. If you just want something for eggs, then you're gonna want a production breed. Something from a hatchery, they're gonna be bred for production. That's a genetic trait. So an orpington from a hatchery wrote on red from hatchery, a leghorn, or if you're in the south, it's a legum. Or any of the fun things like Easter, Eggers, olive Eggers, the Mystic Moran, they have, even they, the ISA Browns or the high lines. You can get some of the commercial top layers from hatcheries. Those are prolific egg layers. And when people ask, how do I need to set up my chicken pin or whatever, the biggest thing you've gotta consider first is why do you want the chicken? Why you want the chicken. This helps you figure out what chicken you want and that's what type of housing. It depends,'cause if you want turkeys like these over here, you're gonna need a lot bigger housing. And if you want bans then you need smaller housing. Right. So for me, even it, like the hardest thing for me was figuring out what my goals were. Because I just like chicken them turkeys and qualled. I didn't really, I didn't, my goal was to keep'em alive. I just like'em in order to have'em around. It all depends on what you want to do. Now, if you wanna show or you want high quality birds, the size of those birds, which are called standard breads. When you breed for that size, you have to give up other genetic traits, and one of those is egg laying. So my standard bread Orpingtons may lay four eggs a week for four months and that's it. They're not prolific layers because they're massive birds. People don't understand that until they probably get here most of the time. My arm's getting tired. So if you wanna shell birds, you're gonna be looking for standard bread birds. If you want eggs, you're looking for utility, hatchery, bread type birds, more fun colors even. And if you are in the Turkey market and you want turkeys, that will reproduce. You want heritage breed, which is what we have, both of us have the red bourbons. They lay eggs, they reproduce and they taste fantastic. But you do have to feed'em all year long. They're seasonal layers. Mine only lay March to May maybe, and you have to feed'em the rest of the year. So there's that. Um, but you could get a meat bird and be done with them in 16 weeks. So. That would be your broad breasted, white, broad, breasted, bronze. Everything else should be considered heritage. Let's see. Okay. And then the breasts. The reason why we selected the breasts was because they're very fast to grow. You can harvest them as young as 17 weeks at full size, and they lay eggs probably as well as a leg, I would say. They just shoot them things out on new signal ring. It has all the Lins that are right when they're not stressed or anything like that, and they're getting plenty of daylight. Five a week from one of them. Is Notuncommon starting at, what, 20 weeks? Yeah. My, they're little for the first two or three weeks, but mad. Once they get full size, they're talking 55, 60 gram eggs. They're good size eggs. We eat our birds and so the breast is a really good choice for us. It's dual purpose meat and eggs. You ha have to know what you want before you go shopping. Otherwise, you will impulse buy and get stuck with birds that you really don't. Oh, you'll wind it up with a couple hundred birds and you won't be in love with any of'em. You'll despise your feed deal, and you'll just be miserable. Yep. All right. Onto the next one. Now we're sitting in the barn. So breeding practices is the first one right? So we're in the quail barn. Breeding, starts with feed. Got a little bit over there. Got a little bit looking that what, about 5,000 pounds total right now front. So each species has its own requirements. That would be questions for this guy and he delivers and then I beat it. And then. The fertility rate is pretty much a direct answer to those nutrition. A lot of it's the vitamin. Yeah. Yeah. I had somebody send me a feed tag this morning and they said, Hey, what would I do to this feed to make it a complete feed? And I looked at, I said, to be honest, I don't know because in the ingredients they list these different vitamins, A, D, and E. They don't tell you how much is in there, so I don't know what you need to add. I tell you where to start and see what happens. But unless you actually have a feed tag that's got all the information on it, you're, it is a shot in the dark. Okay, we're back again. David, come over to talk to us. Okay. So if you'll notice the light right there. Okay, so a bird has to have at least 14 hours of light to lay, and we are in the quill barn, so my quill are lit every day, roughly 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM I don't change it. They do not understand daylight savings time. They're on the same time all year round. Okay, whatever the timer. Sometimes it's five to nine, sometimes it's six to 10, whatever. Have you ever been out with you right after daylight savings and he cut off on you like I was, yeah. The other night, like just this week. Well, that happened to me too. I was like, crap. So the garage door light was on because I was moving around in here. So that was enough light for me to see to get out. But yeah, I'm not one of those breeders to come back there and sorts Burge until midnight. I dark. I don't do that. I don't care. I can't see the difference between fee and Pharaoh in the middle of the night when it's half lit in here. So I just, I don't do that. Okay. So back to how breeders should be able to answer your questions. So I know my fertility, because my nutritionist good. My birds have the appropriate amount of light, they have the appropriate amount of space for their ce, and I have the proper ratios. I hatch weekly to test my own fertility and to make proof that there's not any problems. So that is what I would answer if you were to ask me what do I bring for fertility? And all the quail are gonna start talking because we're talking the brewers. Another question you should ask is, how long have you been working with that line? Too many. Do you know if they say they've been working with that line for five minutes? You might wanna keep shopping for a brand if they've been working with their mers for a couple of new, you might want to continue the conversation, right? So there's a lot of people out there that buy chick from hatchery. Get them to point of lay and then sell hatching eggs. So you're literally buying hatching eggs off of hatchery birds that aren't very old. And that leads me to another thing. You don't want pull eggs, you want little sized eggs. So make sure you are asking for full-sized eggs, not pull eggs. And if the breeder doesn't know the difference, you can either jump hang on the phone and find another one. Yep. Or ask'em what gram the egg is, they should be able to tell you how big their hushing eggs are. Okay. I couldn't tell you on my orpington eggs, but I don't sell those a lot, that I would guess'em around 40, 45. But I know that my breast eggs are 55 trust tip C, and that is just something that a breeder should know. Okay. All right. What's next? You should also ask the breeders, what tray do they select for with brewing program? Whether it be size, color, fertility, temperament, that's a really big one, or a production because a lot of times say, how do you, where do you separate your quail or what kind of race ratio have, do you have your quail? Mine seem to be 86 in LUTs earlier, and mine don't do that. I can, in a 36 inch wide page, I could put 25 of them in there. Or I could put six or eight of'em in there and they're not killing each other. Now if I put 25 of'em in there, I'm even change that poop tray like twice a day. But they're not gonna go nuts and kill each other, but that's because they've been bred that way. If I find, if I'm like doing my chores and I find a bird that is being mean to the other bird, it ends very short. The rat bird. The other animals, like the treat that makes feed you air what they breed for because you don't want grass, a bird. That's one of the things they should be looking for. If you won't quail them, give you 300 eggs a year, then ask that ley if you, if you called me and said, Hey, I wanna get some Rhode Island red. Okay, I got some Raven. This is what they are. Don't call me six, eight months down the road and say that they lay horrible eggs because they're standard breads because they only lay three or four. We, I'm sorry, that's the way it is. You didn't ask for production. You asked for the best quality you did, so that that's why you need to right ing, because you don't wanna be disappointed with your chart laying or. Whatever it is. People on car could ask them about their hatch rate and ask them how often they have, because if they don't come up, if they don't answer that question right away, whether it's every week or every month, they hatch their own just for them to see what it is, then they don't really know what it is. They're just giving you a number if they have to think about it. Because unless you catch me at two o'clock in the morning and ask me, I'm gonna say every week. Occasion. Most breeders are, especially with quail, their hats in every lee. Now with chickens this time of year, I don't do that every week because they're not laying a whole lot. But when I do it, I'm doing it for me and I'm keeping up with those numbers. Yeah. We're not selling chicken eggs right now. No. Neither one of us. If you're off season, like if you're looking for Turkey eights in September, you shouldn't find any. If you find some, if they're not near. The south, I mean in the equator area, then you probably are getting scammed. If they're in Alabama or Florida or Texas and they light their Turkey, it's possible otherwise don't buy'em. Or they're cuing known genetic traits or mutations in the birds. So every breeder. Let's go backwards for one second. There's a difference between a breeder and a producer. Not necessarily saying one is better than the other. One. A producer doesn't select and just reproduces a hatchery, somebody who's churning out quantity. It is what it is. We're not calling people producers to be derogatory. Yeah, I do know some people that produce a lot, but they've also spent a really long time. Really selecting word and 95% of what they hatch out is a great bird. But again, if they ain't been working in it for five or 10 years, that's not gonna be the case. So a breeder puts two birds together for a specific purpose herd. It's the answer. Every breeder has things about their birds that they're not, that they're not happy about. So I can tell you. The turkeys. I would like them to be just a little bit, the hens to be just a little bit darker and I am working on breeding bearded hens. Okay. The ducks. I still get the wrong color bill on some of my hens, so I'm working to read that out. The orpingtons, those are for show that's different. So there's a lot of traits there working on the length of back. Uniformity of color, the depth of the buff color. There's all kinds of different things. The quail always working on size and temperament. You're fighting nature with the temperament thing.'cause they're, they're a prey animal and so they're flighty and so let, their instinct is to be flighty. So just selecting for temperament is always going against in nature. And so what I basically do. Is if I am moving birds from the grow out to a layer cage and the bird just fights me incessantly, just walk, cooperate and being moved or being sexed or whatever. It just goes in a cold pan if it's just, it's not worth it. I've hatched so many that I can, that one's expendable because it doesn't, I can't get past its temperament to even sex it to decide if I want to keep it. Yeah. So it's just out right there for me. It's, and I'm doing my job and you try to fight me. You're turning, you're food, you're going into the coal bin. So I've got some grout breasts over here that are about six weeks old. Every day, twice a day, I reach in there to change their water. I always clean their waters and change it out and he attacks my hand like he is like a kitten, like pouncing on my hand and he bites. Guess what? He ain't going No breeder pen. He's done for already. He has made his decision. I'm raising the breasts with the Orpingtons. The Orpingtons are so docile. I'm hoping that rubs not robot, hold them. Rubs up on them. Yeah, they are flight ear, but they're smaller. They can fly. The Orpingtons can't. So there's some differences there. Physical traits, yeah. That you have to take into a camp for. So there the breeders should be able to tell you, Hey, these are some things I don't like about my line. I need you to be aware of that so you can make the decision if that works for your farm. Let's see. Oh, my favorite. Okay. What medications do you goding eat? This question none said a lot, and I'm like, I got some garlic, some oregano. It does amazing stuff. Yep. But no, because you know the whole reason, I don't want store bought chicken. Is because I know what they pump into those birds. And if I'm gonna consume it, I don't ruin it. To have that right, and I need it to have the vigor and the tenacity to not fall over dead. And that's another thing that like with the quail, if a lot of them seem like they just want to buy every time, every since you take'em outta the hatcher. If one of'em starts to act like a goup ball, you're out because I don't want that. I don't need it. And some people will say, oh, this brutal, you should do this, we should do that. Not really, because a lot of the stuff that they have is not curable. Have medications, just put a bandaid on it. So it's something they're gonna have to deal with. Correct. So when I first started breeding Sirius, there's another podcast, and he doesn't medicate either. He, he said it would be hard the first year. Then after that you'll do better. And I trusted him because he's done it for 30 ish years, Kenny. And so I did it. And guess what? I haven't had any trouble since. I don't medicate anything. Because you want the birds to be able to stand on their own two feet. Yeah. The. We're gonna get off that soapbox'cause that's not what today's podcast is about. So the question you ask is, what medications do you use? And the answer is for your informational purposes only. Okay? Yeah. It's your personal prelease. But be aware that a breeder, Kohl's heart. Okay. Just like I said about the temperament, if I can't even sex you, you can't go into a breeder cage. Okay. If you're sickly and I have to medicate you to keep you alive, to breed you, those genetics are the ones that you're buying. Yeah. Okay. If you are buying from me or him, then it's the strongest genetics. So you can, the people on Facebook can be mad that we're what he calls ruthless, but. Those are the genetics that you want to buy. You don't wanna buy birds that you have to give cord to upon arrival. I saw that on Facebook the other day and she actually tells people to give them cord upon arrival. Yeah, I had the same look. Okay. City. I don't, yeah, we'll just leave that one there. Allow on. So here's some questions, some other questions. You need to think about why you're buying. Do you have enough space housing and equipment for these birds? Because if you're, if you've decided after you've done all your homework, you want orps, you need to know they're gonna be two feet tall or taller. They're gonna be seven to nine pounds. That's standard for standards. Yeah. And they're gonna eat a lot. Yeah. If you, let's say you wanna get Indigo Dantes,'cause they're like the new thing now you need to know them. Suckers are gonna be three to four feet tall. The giraffes, they don't like to be housed in anything small and they're breeding. You need to do individual pair mating with them because they're very to territorial on that. So once you figure out what Bre. You need to think about space and housing and equipment because you know, when you say you want a layer and somebody says it's 40 bucks, you're like, do you have sticker shot? That breeder, if they're doing it right, they spent thousands. Just to house that murder and keep it safe. I have a limit cos Jennifer has a limit. Cos a lot of people have on, they're not she, but they're extremely durable and nothing's getting in them. Key statement. They even have kits for'em that will keep bears and stuff out. So those are things to think about, handling potential losses. Hatch rates from shit tags. What kind of reaction are you gonna have if you walk outside and some predator has killed your favorite chicken? And I've been nice about it. That's things to think about because that's natural part of having chickens because everybody likes stickers, including dogs blossoms, raccoons. Anything you can think about. Yeah, but I think it's talking about shipping. Shipping. We're talking about shipping. Shipping. That was in this section right here. Your goals of capacity. Oh, okay. Yeah, I was reading the notes. Also, when you think about when you're, when you get your birds and you start hatching, you need to be careful of the truth. That little Turin sound from the hatcher. Everybody loves that sound. It's adorable, but you gotta be careful of it because like kids, you gotta feed them. You gotta house hou and they're not gonna be T 90 all their long. So when you throw 150 eggs in your brand new incubator,'cause you want to try it out, you gotta be prepared for them all hatches. You'll be like me and you'll do your first really big test half of the season because everything started delay and you got these and these, and they're all in there marked and you put'em in their individual baskets, so the little sock thingies to keep everything separate. So you know what was what. And then 98% of a max, so somebody. To collect all the different kinds of birds. Somebody, me is focused. I like bird. Yes, we all like'em, obviously. We're listening to'em. Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up now'cause my arm's really tired of holding this camera up. So we're gonna put this worksheet up on the website and you can answer the questions for yourself and then. You can use it, print it off. So when you talk to different breeders, worst case, use it for something to think about. Yeah. If you're new to the game and you're listening to the podcast or you're trying to figure out what you want, or if you're gonna sell in 2026, use it to be prepared for the questions that you're going to get.'cause you'll get them. But anyway, it's there. It's, I figured out how to do it. We had a little hiccup last week, but now I understand how to do Google sheets a little bit better and he's forever teaching me. And so it's a downloadable now that you can just down front off as many as you want. Yes. And so fill it off as many as you, and it's many times you want to, for as many breeders as you want to. But anyway, I hope this helps you guys to have set your expectations. Expectations reasonable here. All right. Bye. Nice to see y'all next week.