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

[havery]

I just received my shipment from McMurray yesterday (Tuesday) after them shipping out Saturday. They spent almost 24 hours in the Dallas office, I was livid. It was nerve-wracking and I was almost certain I was going to find nothing but dead chicks. But they all arrived perky and chirping! I lost one last night, but out of 39 chicks who spent 4 days on the road I expected stress losses. Thankfully I seem to have been lucky and hit a week of mild weather all the way from Iowa to East Texas, and combined with the gro-gel they put in with the chicks I'm sure that's the only reason why mine made it. I do agree that USPS is declining in quality, and it's really infuriating for me, because my local post office is so wonderful. At my request my postmaster called me at 4 am to pick up my chicks because he knew how worried I was! I guess that's just the perks of a smaller office, though. My problems always come out of either the St. Paul, MN or Coppell, TX sorting facilities, where packages (even live birds apparently!) seem to get misrouted or lost for days.

 

[Cherie1n2]

Here are some pictures of the rest of my Ideal poultry chicks that came today. I just wanted to say out of both replacement batched ALL CAME ALIVE, HEALTHY, and PERKY.. and the staff at Ideal was wonderful about trying to make sure I was 100% satisfied. My first batch of 43 are all doing wonderful.

The first two pictures are my ameraucana pullets (oh and Bowser my snapping turtle in the back round)


The next two photos are my Dark cornish and White laced Red cornish.

The next two photos are my Saipans and Spangled Russian Orloffs. I had practically everything marked.

 

[kyexotics]

I'm surprised there aren't more incidents of chicks not surviving delivery in this kind of weather.
Why do so many people in the north order chicks at this time of year? Wouldn't it make sense to wait a few weeks? What am I missing?

Our level of insanity and impatience!

I am so furious and sad.

I ordered 27 chicks from McMurray a while back to ship last week.

They shipped 30 on Fri/Sat 2/20 and they were all dead when they arrived Tuesday morning. Apparently, they were actually dead by the time they hit Columbus and then another day later they got to me. The temps were record cold here (-18 one day) so I was sad but not surprised they didn't survive. Although I was expecting that with that kind of weather they would have included heat packs of some kind?

I was surprised McMurray shipped given the severe weather/storm that was all over the news. I worked for a large specialty pharmacy that shipped out drugs that required special handling and we all checked the weather for our accounts and knew what/if there was bad weather coming and adjusted shipments accordingly. Just thought this was sad that they didn't. But certainly that was just a fluke.

McMurray was great and offered to replace them or refund my money. I need more hens after a particularly hard Fall and Winter so I opted for replacement. I looked at the weather and it looked warmer/clear for this week, so they reshipped the entire order on Fri/Sat(they say Sat, tracking says Fri).

Well, we are a 9hr ride from the hatchery and this shipment went from IA to MN to ATLANTA, GA then back to Columbus and out to me. I realized there would be a delay when I saw it went to GA, so I started calling to see if I could at least pick them up in Columbus and hopefully they'd be okay. USPS said no, there was no way for them to locate it, I'd just have to wait for them to arrive.

Out of 30 chicks, 8 arrived alive, 2 died immediately and 2 more are on their way out. So FOUR of 60 chicks total look like they might make it and that's only after 3hrs. Not sure what the next few days will bring.

It's not McMurray, it's the USPS. I understand mistakes happen but this is not only absurd but cruel. I'm not really sure what to do. How does the USPS not have a policy regarding live animal shipments that at least minimizes the possibility?! I had this happen once before and the "guaranteed" shipment in 2 days took 4 and they refused to refund my money. They could not have cared less!!!

McMurray says they'll try one last time and then they won't ship again. Do other hatcheries pack differently or am I kind of stuck because it's the USPS?

Sigh…I'm more complaining than anything else because I know you guys will understand. : (

This is one of the saddest stories I've read on here...Thankfully, McMurray is good with customer service...We just got an order of 25, had 1 DOA, 3 more after a day, wrote McMurray(I like these things in writing) and within minutes was told they would add those birds to our other order due to ship in a couple of weeks...

Now to USPS...First, they have policies regarding live animal shipments, they allow you to choose what's best...It's really not much of a policy...2nd, the routing was very strange, but without looking at the weather on that day or where that flight normally goes to, Atlanta may have been where almost everything went that was scheduled to go to Chicago or other points that may have had weather not allowing flights...Crazy winter...

Jan and Feb are a crap shoot time of year to have animals shipped, it just is, and I bet they are Columbus' worst two months for snow!...It could be clear at McMurray and clear at your house but where that plane has to go isn't clear and it's delayed and/ rerouted as we stare up at blue sky...

We specifically had our order being shipped first week in April to ensure milder weather during shipping...The other order was spur of the moment but arrived after the weather broke for the year..We're 250m down yonder here in Elizabethtown, KY, it was baaad here, I can only guess got pounded even worse...

 

[brahmapapa]

I just received my shipment from McMurray yesterday (Tuesday) after them shipping out Saturday. They spent almost 24 hours in the Dallas office, I was livid. It was nerve-wracking and I was almost certain I was going to find nothing but dead chicks. But they all arrived perky and chirping! I lost one last night, but out of 39 chicks who spent 4 days on the road I expected stress losses. Thankfully I seem to have been lucky and hit a week of mild weather all the way from Iowa to East Texas, and combined with the gro-gel they put in with the chicks I'm sure that's the only reason why mine made it. I do agree that USPS is declining in quality, and it's really infuriating for me, because my local post office is so wonderful. At my request my postmaster called me at 4 am to pick up my chicks because he knew how worried I was! I guess that's just the perks of a smaller office, though. My problems always come out of either the St. Paul, MN or Coppell, TX sorting facilities, where packages (even live birds apparently!) seem to get misrouted or lost for days.

so glad you had a favorable experience , I still stand by mcmurray, they really do try as hard as possible to do right by the customer as well as the chicks. even when they ship on Friday or Saturday, the mail continues to move even tho the local post offices are closed. if they hadn't been handled poorly by the postal system they would have been to you by Monday morning. I have had the local post office call me at 4 in the am on sunday night/ Monday morning to come pick up my chicks. best of luck Tom

 

[TheMallons]

Gonna jump in on this thread because we just had a great experience, both with the hatchery and USPS. We have watched the weather carefully and waited to order when it was warmer, but an unexpected cold snap put our 30 chicks from Cackle Hatchery on a truck at 17 degrees yesterday. Apparently, our local truck driver for USPS took it upon himself to keep the chicks in the passenger compartment with him. Bless him! They were all strong, healthy and peeping upon receipt. And my local postmaster let me pick them up at 5 am rather than waiting for the PO to open (I called a day ahead). Props to Cackle, too, for its careful packaging. To the folks suggesting people in the north wait until all danger of cold has passed: sounds reasonable, but means that they don't start laying until late fall, just in time for winter. It can mean many extra months of feeding with very few eggs to show for it.

 

[susandonb]

I just ended my weekend with a shipment from Privett hatchery that was suppose to arrive Friday morning and arrived Saturday morning instead. My order was for 34 chicks. Of the 34, 7 were alive when I got the box Saturday. It is now 12:18 Mon morning and I have 4 chicks that survived and appear to be stable. I got the run around on Friday from Privett and the same run around from the USPS. I dont know where the box got delayed, no one will take accountability. This was my first mail order chicks and what a horrible experience. I will calling Privett when they open Mon morning and they vowed to issue a refund when I spoke to them Mon if any of the chicks died. Something has to change with this process. It is ridiculous, inhumane, slow torturous death for these birds and emotionally draining on the buyer. I have placed an order with My Pet Chicken and another with Myers just to replace the birds and breeds I ordered originally from Privett, I chose Myers and MPC because they offer Express shipping which Privett did not. Express does not necessarily guarantee they will arrive over night but at least there is a better chance than with Priority.

I am so angry and sad, I have cried for the past two days. What a horrible sight to open the box and find almost nothing but dead bodies. I am sick, cant sleep. Thank you for letting me post and vent here.
I dont know where to turn to try and have changes made in this process? I do know I will be getting a rooster or two so that I can grow my flock naturally and after this year never order from a hatchery again.

 

[song of joy]

I just ended my weekend with a shipment from Privett hatchery that was suppose to arrive Friday morning and arrived Saturday morning instead. My order was for 34 chicks. Of the 34, 7 were alive when I got the box Saturday. It is now 12:18 Mon morning and I have 4 chicks that survived and appear to be stable. I got the run around on Friday from Privett and the same run around from the USPS. I dont know where the box got delayed, no one will take accountability. This was my first mail order chicks and what a horrible experience. I will calling Privett when they open Mon morning and they vowed to issue a refund when I spoke to them Mon if any of the chicks died. Something has to change with this process. It is ridiculous, inhumane, slow torturous death for these birds and emotionally draining on the buyer. I have placed an order with My Pet Chicken and another with Myers just to replace the birds and breeds I ordered originally from Privett, I chose Myers and MPC because they offer Express shipping which Privett did not. Express does not necessarily guarantee they will arrive over night but at least there is a better chance than with Priority.

I am so angry and sad, I have cried for the past two days. What a horrible sight to open the box and find almost nothing but dead bodies. I am sick, cant sleep. Thank you for letting me post and vent here.
I dont know where to turn to try and have changes made in this process? I do know I will be getting a rooster or two so that I can grow my flock naturally and after this year never order from a hatchery again.

I'm so sorry for your loss! Thank you for taking the time to post this. Many first-time buyers don't understand the risks of shipping chicks, so I hope these forums are helping them as well as giving you a chance to vent. I really hope that through the pain of these postings, people will learn how to reduce the risk of such things happening again. As you pointed out, some hatcheries use Express shipping, which in many cases means the chicks will arrive the following day. I've been very happy with Meyer Hatchery, as they do this and also include a heat pack. It's very risk to have shipments travel through cold states during the winter months (Nov through March), as mortality rates tend to be higher due to colder temperatures and weather-related delays. These tragic experiences will not be wasted if they help people make informed decisions that reduce the likelihood of preventable chick deaths in the future. Choose hatcheries that Express ship and place orders when the risk of shipping-related mortality is lower. I've never lost any chicks that were Express shipped during the months of April through June.

 

[ImNotYogi]

Their ship times is the reason why I changed hatcheries. There's 2 days or so with the yolk but with a Friday shipment they're unnecessarily pushing that window of safety.

 

[olliegrow]

I just ended my weekend with a shipment from Privett hatchery that was suppose to arrive Friday morning and arrived Saturday morning instead. My order was for 34 chicks. Of the 34, 7 were alive when I got the box Saturday. It is now 12:18 Mon morning and I have 4 chicks that survived and appear to be stable. I got the run around on Friday from Privett and the same run around from the USPS. I dont know where the box got delayed, no one will take accountability. This was my first mail order chicks and what a horrible experience. I will calling Privett when they open Mon morning and they vowed to issue a refund when I spoke to them Mon if any of the chicks died. Something has to change with this process. It is ridiculous, inhumane, slow torturous death for these birds and emotionally draining on the buyer. I have placed an order with My Pet Chicken and another with Myers just to replace the birds and breeds I ordered originally from Privett, I chose Myers and MPC because they offer Express shipping which Privett did not. Express does not necessarily guarantee they will arrive over night but at least there is a better chance than with Priority.

I am so angry and sad, I have cried for the past two days. What a horrible sight to open the box and find almost nothing but dead bodies. I am sick, cant sleep. Thank you for letting me post and vent here.
I dont know where to turn to try and have changes made in this process? I do know I will be getting a rooster or two so that I can grow my flock naturally and after this year never order from a hatchery again.

privet? wow that's way down here in NM !? Isnt there any hatcherys closer to PA? If so to all who order chicks via mail, Ive ordered chicks for over 10 years and a simple rule of thumb is order from the closest hatchery to you and make sure if they don't ship out when specified, call them asap and let them know you want to cancel due to longer shipping dates...it will save lives...I order on Monday and get them Thursday after they hatch Wednesday..any longer and I will cancel the order...that's just the way it is...

 

[Jackschicks]

Ordered my 46 chicks from McMurray back in January. They were scheduled to ship on Monday the 16th but shipped on Saturday the 14th of March and arrived at the PO sometime over the weekend. McMurray did notify me via text message they were shipping so I had the weekend to finish getting ready for them. The Post Office called me at 6:30 am on Monday morning and I went in to pick them up. All 46 chicks (plus my free exotic) were active and noisy and made the transition to the brooder well. All are eating and drinking and doing cute little chickie things. The weather here in Texas was in the mid 60's - I didn't think to check and see how cold it was Iowa where McMurray is located. I know there are other hatcheries closer to me but McMurray had most of the breeds I was looking for.

I am very happy with my chicks.