Short answer: Most table eggs break on the road because they knock against each other for hours, not because of one hard bump. Pack clean, sound eggs in crates that hold each egg in its own cell, fill every cell, stack only as high as the bottom crate can carry, and keep the load out of the sun. Count the breakage on every trip, because the count tells you which link in the chain is failing.
Key takeaways
- Breakage comes from eggs moving against each other over hours, so fill every cell and stop the crate sliding.
- Pack only clean, uncracked eggs, and check each one as it goes into the cell.
- Keep crates out of direct sun and off the hot floor of a closed vehicle.
- Count the broken eggs per crate on every trip, then fix the weakest link first.
- A cheap divider that cuts breakage from two eggs a crate to one pays for itself within weeks.
Eggs break from movement, not from one bad bump
Ask a farmer why eggs break on the road and the answer is usually a pothole. Look at the crate after a long trip and you will often find the cracks are on the sides that touched a neighbour, not the side that hit the floor. The egg is not being dropped. It is being rubbed, again and again, for three or four hours.
That changes what you pack for. A crate that protects against a single hard knock can still lose a lot of eggs on a corrugated road, if the eggs can slide and tap each other all the way. The real enemy is looseness: an egg that can move a few millimetres inside its cell will crack against the wall of that cell, and it will do so slowly and quietly.
Count it to believe it. Two cracked eggs in a crate of 30 is 6.7 per cent of that crate. Ten crates a week with that rate is a lot of money walking out of the farm in small pieces, and most of it is avoidable with a bit of care in the packing shed.
Crate types, compared on a rough road
The crate is the first line of defence, and it is only as good as the way it holds each egg. The table below compares the crate types most farmers use in Ghana. Pick the one that matches your road and your trips, not the one that looks neatest on the shelf.
| Crate type | How it holds the egg | Handling and weight | Where it tends to fail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moulded pulp tray with 30 cells | Each egg sits in its own cell, with a snug fit | Light, but soaks up water if left wet | Damp after rain, and collapsed corners from careless stacking |
| Plastic crate with cell inserts | Cells hold each egg firmly; the insert can be removed for cleaning | Heavier, stacks well, easy to wipe down | Loose or missing inserts, which let eggs roll |
| Flat trays inside a carton box | Trays hold the eggs; the box adds a shell | Good for short trips, bulky to store | Box crushed under weight, with the trays shifting inside |
| Open crate with loose filler | Eggs rest on straw, paper or shavings | Cheap to start, awkward to count | Eggs roll into each other, and the filler gets damp and dusty |
For most farms we would choose the cell-based crate, pulp or plastic, and keep the open crate for eggs that are going a few hundred metres to a neighbour. Whatever you choose, every crate you send out should be the same type, so the buyer and the driver know what to expect.
Packing one crate, cell by cell
Packing is slow when you do it properly, and that is the point. Work at a clean table, not on the back of a pickup, and check every egg as it goes into its cell. A dirty egg packed into a crate spreads its dirt to the next egg through the wet fibres of the tray, and a cracked egg packed in the middle of a crate is a claim waiting to happen.
- Lay the crate flat on a clean surface and check that every cell is clean and dry.
- Hold each egg up to a bright light or a torch in a dim room, and reject any with a visible crack.
- Place the egg pointy end down in its cell, with the broad end up, so the cell holds it steady.
- Pack eggs of one size class in one crate. Mixed sizes leave gaps, and gaps let eggs move.
- Fill every cell. A half-empty crate is not a saving, because the gaps are where the eggs rub.
- Close the lid firmly and press down once to check nothing shifts when you tilt it.
Pack the crate the same way each time, from the same side, so the person checking the count knows where to look. A routine like this is what separates a farm that loses a few eggs a month from one that loses a few crates.
Cushioning, and what not to pack with the eggs
Cushioning means holding the egg, not wrapping it. Cardboard dividers, moulded inserts and clean shredded paper all work when they keep each egg in place. Loose straw, sawdust and rags do not. They carry dust and damp into the crate, they pack down under weight, and they give the eggs something to sit in that is no longer holding anything.
Keep the packing shed free of things that can contaminate the shells. Fertiliser bags, fuel cans, damp sacks and the leftover feed from a mouldy bag all share the same space in a poorly kept shed, and eggs take up smells through the shell. A clean crate that sits next to a feed bag going musty is no longer clean.
A cushion does not replace good packing. We have seen crates packed tight with a lot of filler that still broke, because the filler was loose and the eggs were not filling their cells. Fix the fit first, then add a divider if you still see breakage in the middle of the crate.
Stacking in the vehicle without bowing the bottom crate
Load the heaviest crates at the bottom, and keep the stack square. A crate that sits on uneven ground or under a leaning stack will bow in the middle, and the bow breaks the eggs at the bottom first. If the bottom crate is bending, the stack is too high, not the crate too weak.
Keep a flat board or pallet under the stack, and tie the load down so it does not slide on a bend or a sudden stop. In a pickup, a strap or rope through the tailboard is enough. In a van, a few wooden battens along the wall stop the stack leaning when the driver brakes. Do not let the crates touch the metal wall, where the heat comes through.
Stack no higher than you would want to carry the bottom crate yourself. If you are not sure, stack one row less. A lost row on a trip costs you less than a lost tray of broken eggs.
Heat in a closed vehicle
The sun does more damage than the potholes on many Ghanaian trips. A closed pickup parked in the sun by mid-morning gets hot inside, and eggs that were cool at the farm can sweat when the doors are opened at the buyer's end. Sweating shells are wet shells, and wet shells pick up dirt and bacteria through the pores.
Load early in the day, when the farm is still cool, and get the crates into the shade or a closed cool space straight away. Cover the load with a clean cloth or a tarpaulin that lets air through, not a black plastic sheet that traps the heat. If the trip is long and the sun is high, plan the route so the vehicle is moving or parked in shade at the hottest hours.
Do not leave crates on the back of a pickup during a stop in a market or at a station. The stop feels short. In the heat it is long enough to warm the whole load, and the buyer at the far end will open the crate to a smell and a damp lid. Cooling at the farm matters as much as the road, so our storage guide covers how to hold crates cool before they leave.
What our chick boxes teach about moving fragile things
We ship day-old chicks in ventilated boxes of 50, and the lesson from that box applies to eggs. The box is not about padding. It is about air, and about keeping every bird in a fixed position so none of them is thrown against the others when the vehicle moves. Chicks go out the day they hatch, so the box has to be right first time.
Eggs need the same discipline in a different shape. Air matters less, because a crate of eggs is not breathing, but fixed position matters just as much. If the egg can move, it will be damaged. Our guide to transporting day-old chicks covers the same thinking for birds, and it is worth reading alongside this one if you carry both.
The other lesson is that losses in transit are rarely random. They follow the same pattern each trip, which means the cause can be found. Our chick mortality in transit article shows how to trace that pattern, and the same counting habit works for crates of eggs.
Need chicks for your next batch?
Send breed, number and town. We reply with price, hatch date and delivery cost in writing.
Worked example: 40 crates a week, two eggs a crate
Say you send out 40 crates a week, which is 1,200 eggs. Your crates arrive with an average of two broken eggs each. That is 80 eggs a week, or 6.7 per cent of the load. These figures are assumptions for the sum, so swap in your own counts when you have them.
Eighty eggs is 2.67 crates. At an assumed price of GH₵45 a crate, the breakage costs about GH₵120 a week, which is roughly GH₵520 a month. Now suppose better dividers and a tighter fill bring the average down to one broken egg a crate. That is 40 eggs, or 1.33 crates, or about GH₵60 a week and roughly GH₵260 a month saved.
The fix is not expensive. Even if the dividers and the extra time cost a fair bit, the saving usually comes back inside a month or two, and it comes back every month after that. The bigger gain is the buyer who stops calling to complain.
Handing over at the buyer's door
The delivery does not end when the vehicle stops. Count the crates in front of the buyer, and count the broken eggs in each crate while they watch. A buyer who sees the count happen trusts the number that follows, and a buyer who finds breakage after you have left will assume the farm is careless.
Write the count on the delivery note: crates delivered, eggs broken, and the time. Take a photo of the broken eggs if there are more than a few, and send it on WhatsApp the same day. We do the same with chicks: the count on arrival and a photo the same day. It keeps the conversation short and the blame where it belongs.
Settle the breakage rule before the first load, while nobody is annoyed. One rule that works is to swap broken eggs on the following run, within a limit you both accept, and to note anything beyond the limit. Our guide to selling to shops and hotels sets out the terms in more detail.
Mistakes that crack more eggs than the road does
Overfilled crates are the first mistake. A lid that will not close without pressing is a crate where the eggs cannot settle, and the lid will crack the top layer on the first bump. If the eggs do not fit, take some out and pack a second crate.
Warm eggs packed into a closed box are the second. Eggs that have been in a hot room, or that came straight from a warm nest without cooling, sweat inside a sealed carton. Let them cool in the shade before packing, and leave the lid open a little until the load is cool.
Cracked eggs left in the crate are the third. One cracked egg in the middle of a crate leaks onto the eggs around it, and by the buyer's door those eggs are dirty and stuck to the cell. Pull every cracked egg out at the packing table, not at the buyer's door.
Mixed ages and mixed colours are the fourth. They do not break eggs, but they make the crate look careless, and the buyer will assume the rest of the farm is the same. Keep one crate for one batch and one colour, and say so on the label.
Finally, the stack that is taller than the vehicle's sides. It leans, it slides on the first brake, and it takes the top row down with it. Keep the stack below the sides, and tie it.
A buyer who sees a clean, even crate is judging quality by eye before they judge anything else. Our egg quality guide sets out exactly what they look at.
Before the vehicle leaves: a checklist
Run this list at the packing table every time, and keep a copy in the vehicle. It takes a few minutes and it catches the mistakes that cost the most.
- Every crate is the same type, clean and dry, with no damaged corners.
- Every cell is filled, and every egg is sound, clean and the same size class in its crate.
- Lids close without pressing, and nothing shifts when a crate is tilted.
- Eggs were cooled in shade before packing, and the crates are out of direct sun.
- The stack is square, on a board, below the sides, and tied down.
- The delivery note shows crate count, the date and the time of loading.
- You have the buyer's phone number, and you know how you will record breakage on arrival.
When you can run that list without thinking, you are ready to add the next step, which is sorting and labelling for a buyer who wants a specific size or brand. Our egg grading and sizes guide covers how to sort, and our branding and packaging guide covers the label.
If the flock is still on paper, start with our layer day-old chicks. For questions about a particular load, WhatsApp +233 24 915 1503. Our delivery page explains the regions we cover, and the FAQ page answers what this guide leaves open.
Questions farmers ask
What is the best crate for carrying table eggs in Ghana?
A crate with a separate cell for every egg is the safest choice, whether the cells are moulded pulp or plastic inserts. Keep the crate type the same for every delivery. Open crates with loose filler are cheaper to start, but they let eggs roll into each other on rough roads, so reserve them for short trips.
How many eggs break on a typical trip?
There is no single typical figure, because it depends on the road, the crate, the packing and the heat. Count your own breakage for a month before you judge it. Many farms that pack carefully see only a few eggs in a load, and farms that pack loosely see far more. The count on your own trips is the number that matters.
Should I wash eggs before I pack them for a buyer?
Not as a rule. Wash only eggs that are visibly soiled, and do it close to the sale, because a wet egg packed in a warm crate picks up dirt and spoils faster. Dry each egg straight after washing. Our washing guide explains the do's and don'ts in more detail.
Can I send eggs by bus or courier across regions?
Many farms do, but the risk is high because the eggs spend hours being handled, stacked and left in heat. If you must send by public transport, use a sturdy crate with a lid that closes firmly, pack every cell, and keep the box out of direct sun. Ask the buyer to count on receipt and tell you the breakage the same day.
How high can I stack crates in a pickup?
Stack only as high as the bottom crate can carry without bowing, and keep the stack below the sides of the vehicle. Tie the load so it cannot slide on the first brake. If you see the bottom crate bend, remove a row. A lost row costs far less than the eggs in the bottom crate.
How do I stop eggs sweating when I open the crate at the buyer's?
Sweating happens when cool eggs meet warm, humid air, or when warm eggs are packed in a closed box. Cool the eggs in shade before packing, keep the crates out of the sun, and load early in the day. If you must open a crate in a warm place, let the eggs warm gently and use them quickly.
Who pays for broken eggs on delivery?
Agree that before the first delivery, in writing. Many farms swap the broken eggs on the following run, within a limit both sides accept, and write down anything over that. The rule matters less than the fact that both sides know it before the eggs are on the road.
