Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, computer-readable media, mechanisms, and means for load balancing manipulation of packet flows within a transport conduit (e.g., a tunnel, pseudo wire, etc.), typically using a load balancing value which is independent of standard routing-based parameters (e.g., source address, destination address, source port, destination port, protocol type, etc.). A load balancing value is included in encapsulated packets transported across a network using a transport conduit. This load balancing value can be used to load balance the individual flows/microflows within the transport conduit.