Egg Trays and Handling Equipment
TL;DR: In the Philippines the tray is the unit — the trade counts, prices and transports in trays, so a seller who talks in trays is speaking the buyer’s language. Confirm the count your buyer means before agreeing anything. Plastic beats paper for anything reused, because paper absorbs moisture and cannot be disinfected, and used trays are a genuine biosecurity route. Eggs sit pointed end down. Beyond trays, the gear worth having is short: basket, kitchen scale, torch, and somewhere cool.
Unglamorous, and the part of egg selling that most often costs a small producer their buyer.
The Tray as a Unit
The Philippine egg trade runs on trays. Prices are quoted per tray, volumes are discussed in trays, transport is organised around trays.
For a small seller that matters practically:
- Talk in trays. It is the vocabulary your buyer already uses — see selling eggs in the Philippines and egg price.
- Confirm the count. The standard tray holds a fixed number, but agree explicitly what a “tray” means in your transaction before you agree a price. Assumptions here get expensive.
- Plan production in trays, because it is how you will be selling. See chicken record keeping and how many eggs per day.
Paper or Plastic
The one equipment decision here with a real answer.
| Paper pulp | Plastic | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Cheap | Higher upfront |
| Cleaning | Cannot be properly cleaned | Washable, disinfectable |
| Moisture | Absorbs it | Does not |
| Lifespan | Short, especially in humidity | Long |
| Reuse | Biosecurity risk | Fine, if washed |
Paper is fine for a one-way trip — eggs leave with the tray and it does not come back.
For anything you reuse, plastic. The reasons compound in this climate: pulp trays take up moisture in a Philippine wet season, soften, and become a mould problem in their own right; and they cannot be disinfected, so anything that was on them stays.
Second-hand trays are a genuine biosecurity route. Trays that have been in other people’s flocks and come back through a market have been somewhere you know nothing about. This is the same logic as quarantining new birds and everything in backyard flock biosecurity — shared equipment moves disease as reliably as shared birds do.
If you must use returned trays, use ones you can wash and disinfect — see cleaning and disinfecting a chicken coop for the general standard.
Pointed End Down
Standard practice, and the reason is straightforward: the air cell sits at the blunt end, and keeping it uppermost is how eggs are stored throughout the trade.
The air cell is also what candling reads to judge an egg’s age, and what the float test relies on — see how to store chicken eggs.
The Gear That Actually Earns Its Cost
Short list, in order:
A collection basket or bucket with padding. Frequent collection is the single best thing you can do for egg quality, and it needs something to collect into. Several times a day — clean eggs come from prompt collection and clean nests, not from washing. See chicken nest box design.
Trays. As above.
A kitchen scale. For sizing. Weighing beats eye judgement and lets you group consistently, and consistency is what buyers actually pay for — see egg grading.
A torch, and somewhere dark. Candling shows cracks invisible in normal light, air cell size, and internal abnormalities. Seconds per egg once set up, and worth it if you sell in any quantity.
Somewhere cool and shaded. Not a piece of equipment, and more important than any of them. See how to store chicken eggs.
A marker or pencil. Date them and sell oldest first. Costs nothing.
That is the list. Anything beyond it — washers, graders, candling rigs — belongs to a scale most readers of this site are not at, and buying it early is capital that should have gone into birds or housing. See poultry farm business plan.
What Not to Do
- Do not wash eggs routinely. Washing removes the protective cuticle. Collect clean eggs instead — see how to store chicken eggs and egg grading.
- Do not sell cracked eggs. Ever — see soft-shelled eggs for why some shells break so easily.
- Do not stack trays badly. Weight on the top layer breaks the bottom one.
- Do not leave eggs in the nest. A broken egg in a nest teaches egg eating, and eggs left out get found by snakes and rats.
- Do not mix trays from other flocks into your system without cleaning them.
- Do not sell eggs from birds within a medication withdrawal period — see antibiotics for chickens.
Hatching Eggs Are Different
If the eggs are going into an incubator or under a hen, the handling rules change — orientation, turning, storage duration and temperature all matter differently. See how to store hatching eggs and how to incubate chicken eggs.
Do not treat table-egg handling and hatching-egg handling as the same job.
The Honest Limits Here
That the egg tray is the standard trading unit in the Philippine egg trade, that eggs are stored pointed end down because the air cell sits at the blunt end, and that porous pulp trays cannot be effectively cleaned while plastic ones can, is standard practice in the trade. This guide gives no tray counts, dimensions or prices — confirm the count with your buyer, and see egg price for how to read current local pricing. Used trays from unknown flocks carry a real biosecurity risk. Eggs from birds within a medication withdrawal period must not be sold.
Related: selling eggs in the Philippines, egg grading, how to store chicken eggs, chicken nest box design.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many eggs are in an egg tray?
The standard tray used in the Philippine trade holds a fixed count, and it is the unit that prices and volumes are usually quoted in. Confirm the count your buyer means before agreeing a price.
Why is the tray the unit in the Philippines?
Because the trade prices, counts and transports in trays. A small seller who talks in trays is speaking the same language as the buyer.
Should I use paper or plastic egg trays?
Paper pulp trays are cheap and widely used but absorb moisture and cannot be properly cleaned. Plastic trays cost more, can be washed and disinfected, and last.
Can I reuse egg trays?
Reusing paper trays between batches carries a real biosecurity risk, particularly trays that have come from elsewhere. Plastic trays that can be washed and disinfected are the safer option.
How should eggs sit in a tray?
Pointed end down. The air cell is at the blunt end and keeping it uppermost is standard practice.
What handling equipment does a small egg seller need?
A collection basket, trays, a kitchen scale for sizing, a torch for candling, and somewhere cool and shaded to store them. Very little else earns its cost early on.
Are second-hand trays from the market safe to use?
Trays that have been in other people flocks are a biosecurity risk. If you use them, use ones you can wash and disinfect properly.