Is anyone else having issues with the USPS and dead chicks?

[ImNotYogi]

It may not be entirely accurate but it sounds like the MM Hatchery has the most issues getting the chicks safely delivered out of the bigger hatcheries. Obviously not everything that can go wrong during shipping is their fault though it seems to effect them the most. Or maybe more people are saying it about them than the others.

 

[TheMallons]

I have posted about this before, but my postal people here in Massachusetts bent over backwards this year in their careful handling of my chick order from Cackle Hatchery. They took special care to be sure the 30 babies were warm in below freezing temperatures and I was able to pick them up at 5 am, as soon as the truck arrived. Although I grieve your losses along with you, I don't think we can assume that there is a systemic USPS issue.

 

[dpenning]

I went to my local PO the day before my chicks were to ship from Ideal. I gave them my phone number and they called me the day after they shipped saying they arrived. Then they called 5 minutes later and said they weren't mine, they just saw chicks and assumed they were for me. LOL, this morning I got another call at 7:30 but it went to voice mail and my reception is awful so the message didn't show. They called me again at 8:50 and the call came through as did the message. I guess we are lucky our little post office is very responsive! 9 Chicks healthy and happy in the brooder.

 

[Cherie1n2]

Try ordering eggs instead and hatching them yourself? If you have a nearby neighbour with a rooster and chickens you could buy a brooder and ask for/buy some fertilized eggs from them, then simply hatch them yourself.

Using an incubator can be tricky and the viability of hatching eggs isn't the best when shipped. I agree that getting fertile eggs local is a good alternative, it still requires extra equipment and many extra weeks of care.
I'm hatching from an incubator for the first time using my chickens I purchased last year from a hatchery. Theyve proven better than 90% fertile but my technique isn't there yet and at lockdown I only have 60% still moving around in the shell.. And honestly I'll probably lose more before they're out of the shells and dry.

 

[KWSRetMSgt]

Yes, any of the postal services anymore dont care what is being shipped. To them it's nothing more then a BOX. Unless of course it's considered some kind of hazard or explosive, than there's all kinds of rules and regs they have to follow or they will be fined into bankrupcy. I also had the exact same thing happen this year 50 broiler chicks and five ducks left in a fed-ex truck parked for 1.5 days during an ice storm. That was back in March, was told it was one of the worse winter storms Texas has seen in a long time. We lost 13 chicks & 1 duck right off the bat, & another 18 chicks over the next two weeks due to all the issues they developed from being all but frozen. They remaining 19 we had to eliminate due to the mycoplasmn issues they had, sos between the hatchery making a BAD decision to ship them and fed-ex driver making a REAL BAD decision to leave them. It turned into a 300 dollar plus lesson for me.

 

[tsmith91]

I think everyone should know what could happen when you order live animals to be delivered in the mail most hatcheries will refund your money for up to 48 hours after you receive them I'm sure they have a pretty good success rate or they couldn't stay in business I ordered some chicks from Meyers they shipped last Monday I received them on Wednesday morning the post office called as soon as they arrived about 630 am my wife went there and picked them up right then they seem very healthy I would definitely order from Meyers again

 

[Cherie1n2]

I was one of many people who's chick order was shipped the week of that horrible out of season snow storm this year that crippled the country and I learned a lot about how chicks ship as it took 6 days for mine to arrive.

First priority and express shipping are both two day shipping when live chicks are concerned. Period. Regardless of the hatchery or sender or coding on the box.This came straight from the postal service corporate office. Chicks must be two day shipped or else they can't guarantee less than 72° old arrival.

By law chicks cannot be shipped without reasonable expectancy that they will arrive before they are 72 hours old (not 72 hours in transit, 72 hours old)
If the shipper excepts the package from the hatchery theyve agreed that their company can deliver in time.

Chicks do not travel in the same "travel lanes" as regular cargo. They are not held in the same areas and are not scanned in like other shipments is why your tracking number is basically useless.

By policy chicks are loaded last and unloaded first.. This is usually followed as there are also laws as to how long chicks can spend in between stops..

That being said, things happen. Mistakes are made.. Usually it is due to delays in the whole shipment and not because you ordered chickens. You didn't do anything wrong. Noone can say you should have or could have incubated or bought local to have gotten what you wanted in chicks ..and honestly the industry and preservation of the breeds themselves needs you to desire to get what you want and not what your neighbor has in regard to breeds.

One of my 79 year old grandmother's fondest memories of her grandmother was going with her to town to pick up her chicks from the "big post office". This is a part of the way its been done for a long long time.

 

[KWSRetMSgt]

I was one of many people who's chick order was shipped the week of that horrible out of season snow storm this year that crippled the country and I learned a lot about how chicks ship as it took 6 days for mine to arrive.

First priority and express shipping are both two day shipping when live chicks are concerned. Period. Regardless of the hatchery or sender or coding on the box.This came straight from the postal service corporate office. Chicks must be two day shipped or else they can't guarantee less than 72° old arrival.

By law chicks cannot be shipped without reasonable expectancy that they will arrive before they are 72 hours old (not 72 hours in transit, 72 hours old)
If the shipper excepts the package from the hatchery theyve agreed that their company can deliver in time.

Chicks do not travel in the same "travel lanes" as regular cargo. They are not held in the same areas and are not scanned in like other shipments is why your tracking number is basically useless.

By policy chicks are loaded last and unloaded first.. This is usually followed as there are also laws as to how long chicks can spend in between stops..

That being said, things happen. Mistakes are made.. Usually it is due to delays in the whole shipment and not because you ordered chickens. You didn't do anything wrong. Noone can say you should have or could have incubated or bought local to have gotten what you wanted in chicks ..and honestly the industry and preservation of the breeds themselves needs you to desire to get what you want and not what your neighbor has in regard to breeds.

One of my 79 year old grandmother's fondest memories of her grandmother was going with her to town to pick up her chicks from the "big post office". This is a part of the way its been done for a long long time.

OK I've read this twice to ensure I wasn't missing something!!

But the fact remains that FED-EX, USPS, & UPS when animals are shipped HUMAN ISSUES are abundant, usually meaning lose of life to the young livestock WE as customers paid for.

Is it the FED-Ex, USPS or UPS organizations that pay for the loses NO it's the (in most cases) (within as you stated 48 HRS, most give you up to 4 day) the hatchery and in a lot later cases the customer who lose out.

In my case with the broilers the fact that the day old chicks were all but frozen it cause them to not be able to fight off the common problems most poultry are born with, thus me losing a lot of money.

Unless your willing to drive yourself to the hatchery and pick up your animals directly, were all pretty much at their mercy, And in my humble opinion that is why MOST good hatcheries will include several (depending on quanity ordered) extra birds to cover losses.

We all know that that the shipping companys will not do something they know will COST them money, so ... it's like I said before .

Pick up BOX-A at location A deliver to location B as long as it gets there in 3 days they are happy they get paid, NO concerns as to how it got there or what condition it arrived.

SAD to think that way when it comes to live animals.

 

[Cherie1n2]

Pick up BOX-A at location A deliver to location B as long as it gets there in 3 days they are happy they get paid, NO concerns as to how it got there or what condition it arrived.

SAD to think that way when it comes to live animals.

I do absolutely agree with you but sometimes that's the mentality you have to have.. Not always, never always.. But when its your order that is delayed and your chicks that are slowly starving and dying of dehydration in limbo you have to take on that outlook or risk burning a dark spot in your soul.

I have had many hatchery orders at this point and only one with any losses at all.. And talking to my post office they've only had two mass casualties including mine in several years.. Mine from snow delays the other from extreme heat. Other than that most orders go thru OK or like you said, there would be no money in it.

 

[brahmapapa]

MM Hatchery is one of if not the largest rare breed hatcheries, they do much more volume than most and therefore get more issues reported. They are statisticly better at dealing with issues than any other hatchery that i know of.