Birdsonghill
Crowing
All newly hatched poultry in the USA is shipped USPS LIVE, only! Usually anywhere in the country in 2-3 days. My experiences over the past 45 years ordering chicks is they get to me in the same time frame, regardless of where they shipped from in the states. (Maybe not Alaska/Hawaii) Only once did that not happen , due to a postal worker error and it took 4 full days and I had lots of dead chicks. The worker put the chicks outside on the dock because "they stank", to them, and they were overlooked, until I came in demanding to know where they where! I have ordered from Ohio to California, baby chicks and ducks, with fairly good success. I have had a couple bad experiences due to the post office employees mishandling the chicks, but no problems with most of the hatcheries I have used. If you order many times, you will experience losses, that are excessive , most likely, at some point in time. However, I have, over the years, experienced no more than about a 10% loss in mail order birds. It has not been unusual to not lose any or only one or two out of 25 to 50 chick orders. Also, it has made it possible for me to enjoy a dozen breeds ,I may never of found locally, at the time! PS. I have had chicks delivered from less than 500 miles take the same time as from 2000 miles, coming mail order! They don't come on trains anymore!
