I get asked a lot to ship eggs to people. I understand the attraction, the potential to obtain a rare breeds at a low cost. Gambling is popular, and shipped eggs are clearly a gamble – though more likely to pay off than other forms of gambling I suppose. So, my policy has been to make the cost difference between shipped eggs and chicks as small as possible. I don’t like posting details on a public website, so consider the following as hypothetical.
A buy several states away, Tennesee for example, wants to get a line of Opal Legbars that are homozygous for the blue eggs gene (designated O/O), since their line occasionally produces white eggs (hens with o/o). Here are their options, with the relative costs:
- Submit DNA samples to a lab to identify the homozygous breeders in their flock. Cost is $15 to $25 per test. Many samples will come back as not O/O, so even after spending a lot of money on tests, you may still not be able to produce O/O chicks from your flock.
- Buy eggs from a breeder with a flock of known O/O tested Opals. Cost is $3 to $5 per egg. Shipping is about $30. Shipping eggs generally come with no guarantees because the breeder cannot control the bad behaviour of the postal employees, who may decide anything marked “fragile” should have a good shake to see if it really is. In theory, you might get a great hatch and end up with straight run chicks for about $5 each. The chances of this happening is really quite low. It is perhaps more probable that you will get 2 cockerels that end up costing you $30 – $40 each.
- Buy chicks from a breeder with a flock of known O/O tested Opals. Cost is $10 to $20 per chick. Shipping is about $30. Minimums for shipping usually apply, so you are going to have well over $100 invested in a box of chicks. But usually live arrival is guaranteed , and extras are often included. But the really big win is that the chicks are sexable, so you can get 10 pullets and 2 cockerels, if that is what you want. This is by far, the lowest risk option, and as an extension, the lowest costs in most cases. You are getting O/O chicks for about the same cost as the DNA tests, but positive genetics are assured.
As they used to say at the carnivals – you pay your money and you take your chances. Even chicks pose a certain risk, they may live for a week or 2, then start dying. They could get take out by predators or disease. But all those are true for the other options as well.
From the sellers perspective, shipping eggs is a huge reputational risk. Yes, the disclaimers are helpful, but an unhappy customer is still unhappy. I feel bad even if it is clearly not my fault. Often I re-shipped eggs, or even shipped chicks to make things right. Losing money that way really does feel like you are flushing time and money down the USPS toilet.
And that is why I don’t ship eggs, only chicks.