I Have a Question for You All

Hi friends. I have a question I need a honest answer too. I was wondering, How many baby chicks can I expect to loose in shipping? I know you can never possibly for see what can happen but I'd like to hear FROM YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES with reviving newly hatched chicks how many have YOU PERSONALLY lost? The reason I'm asking this is my order is very small this year . only 5 birds and I really can't afford to loose any. so I called and added two more to make 7 but if I can expect to loose 3 or 4 I'm going to have to make the order larger even. I don't want to end up with only 3 birds. so I would really love to hear AS MANY PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCES AS POSSIBLE!! This way I can make a judgment call on realistically how many I can expect to loose in the shipping process. Also, I would love to hear HOW LONG the EXPRESS shipping took exactly to arrive to your homes?Of course I understand ALL circumstances are different, I just want some GENERAL ideas and experiences that YOU have had in the past. Your input is VERY much appreciated!! Also, if it even makes a difference, the hatchery I'm using is Meyer. Thank you so much!!

I don't know if I've just been lucky or what, but I really don't lose chicks during shipping. Here's my experiences....

I've ordered through MMM and Ideal.
I order at appropriate times of the year. not dead of winter or heat of high summer.
I do order larger batches of chicks, usually 25. Not sure how a small batch shipping may give you different results?
I honestly can't recall any DOA chicks. I've lost a few in the first week, probably to shipping stress, but it's been a small number overall over the years and I can't recall exact numbers, sorry. But I'd say not more than 10, over all the orders over the last dozen plus years.

Seems like shipping usually takes 2 days.

something to keep in mind---I know it's not always financially feasible, but you might look into padding your order with extra pullets and plan to sell them. I always do that if I'm only wanting a small number of a specific breed. I get extras of either a fancy breed I think I can resell, or hatchery choice brown egg layers. I can sell those all day long, usually as little chicks but they also sell great at the 6-8 week old point when they don't need a brooder anymore.

That's a excellent idea!! But the times sure have changed here since I was growing up in this area. I grew up across the highway from where I live now and ALL my friends had chickens, or sheep, or pigs even lambs. EVERYONE I knew was in 4H and showing their animals. Now times have changed and I only know of ONE lady who lives in my neighborhood that has chickens! So I wouldn't even BEGIN to know who to sell to. Now my husband has friends who keeps chickens who might want a few extra. He mentioned it to me before. Other than that I don't know of Anyone. I LOVE keeping chickens personally. I grew up that way, but most people have really changed. My area used to be considered country but my town keeps building and building and although some still consider it WAY OUT HERE. it's a LOT different than it used to be! so sadly I'm not sure about selling any extra birds. Some years back it could have worked out really well but I'm not sure about anymore. it's a real shame because I really miss how it used to be. Anyway, thank you for sharing your experience with me. As I mentioned, I did order a couple more (in case) birds and got lucky because I didn't have to change my shipping or hatch date! Also I was able to get the same breed! The Barred Rock!SO it worked out really well! in fact, because I ordered more it lowered their cost of getting the Mareks vaccine from a dollar to fifty cents a bird! so it all worked out really well!!But I'd still love to hear other experiencess with the shipped chicks!

I personally know only a small handful of folks who keep chickens, and I usually don't sell to them cause they order or hatch their own. But look outside your small neighborhood! I put ads on CL and get great responses. In my rural area, folks think nothing of driving 30 miles to pick up laying hens. I guarantee there are chicken lovers within that radius of you . And you could make new chicken friends, always a nice resource if you need someone to watch birds in an emergency.

I’ve only ordered chicks three times, from Cackle, Meyer, and Ideal. Shipments were 28, 21, and 20 chicks. A couple were in the colder times of the year. I have had zero dead on arrivals. I did have one that died a couple of days after I received the shipment.

Rachel makes some good points about the number of chicks and time of year. I’ll add to try to avoid ordering them so they ship around postal holidays. You’ll see a spike about problems with shipments around holidays.

We can tell you our experiences but all we can give you is our experiences. You can get an average from that, but you only have one shipment. That’s not really enough data points for the averages to mean a lot. A freak storm or something else can have a huge effect. It’s something like when your company announces a 10% reduction in workforce. It’s not 10%, it’s either 0% or 100%, depending on how you are affected. The majority of shipments are going to go fine, but every now and then you get a real problem. It’s unpredictable.

it's really good to hear that most of you haven't had issues!! what really concerned me was that I've read so many posts about hatchery horrors. I'm not a new chicken mom but I've always had them shipped from private breeders. After about 5 years of that I finally decided to order from a hatchery. it's SO much more affordable!! being my first hatchery experience I'm nervous!!

As the others have said, a lot is dependent on circumstances beyond your control whether or not the shipment gets to you in a timely manner. Screw-ups happen, shipments get lost or plane departures are missed due to traffic accidents, etc. If the chicks are in transit longer than three days, for whatever reason, the chicks may be stressed when you get them. I've only lost one recently, having tried mail order only twice now this year.

Meyer was the hatchery where my chicks came from, and they do take proper care to package the chicks with heat packs, and adequate packing. The post office is usually very careful with chicks, and when they notice a box "peeping", it goes under a heat lamp indoors if a layover is expected.

All you can do is make sure you order during a period when the temps aren't expected to be too drastic and make sure no big storms are forecast that might interfere with shipping.

And another tip, make sure you stress to the people you're placing the order with that you want pullets and NOT straight run. I had the misfortune of having far too many accidental cockerels appear in both of my orders from Meyer.

OH NO!!!! YIKES!!! I PRAY that does NOT HAPPEN!!SIGH,... that's all I need!!!

My one and only experience was with Meyer.
I ordered 7 in July. They were shipped on a Monday, I got them on Tuesday. But they were coming from OH to NC so no cross country. They arrived with heating pad and all were lively, robust and ready to go. No need for sav-a-chick or anything. They ate, drank and chased a couple of moths that came into the coop that night
I really do think it does come down to how the package is handled as well?

very true. I just know it will break my heart to open and get D.O.A chicks!! I made certain my hatch and ship date was a Monday April 11th in fact. But what scares the heck out of me is the arrival date is the 12 to the 14th!! oh my goodness I PRAY to the Lord they don't arrive on the 14th!! THAT'S THREE DAYS! I've had older started pellets ship cross country from Chicago quicker than that!! They took two days to come from Chicago. I just hope they will be o.k. my order is so small. only 7 female barred Rocks.I really can't afford to loose them. I DID add two more female B.R to my shipment as a just in case. I know that sound awful but if I had 5 and even lost 2 that's only 3 chicks for this spring! not good.I'm so worried when they ship I don't think I will sleep until they arrive! I'm such a nervous mommy to be!! thanks for sharing your story.