Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Yea!! Thank you Bert!

We received our order from Mcmurray yesterday!! WOOT! Love seeing those babies! However, out of 62, 19 were DOA. We got them less than 24 hours from shipping. From what I can surmise from the way they were piled, I am guessing the box got off balance and they were forced into huddles. I will be calling Mcmurray on Monday to chat with them about replacements. Saddest part is that 2 out the the 4 breeds ordered for the kids were gone completely!

That is horrible. You are brave ordering chicks this time of year. I am so afraid to do that. I ordered mail order in August and was afraid they would get too cold.

What breeds did you order? Which ones did not make it?

I have such an urge to incubate some eggs..... I might yet, Anyone need some half breed EE?....It is suppose to be warm towards the end of the week, hopefully I can get Bert and a few Rainbows and maybe the white rock that is trying to corrupt him into their own pen/coop.. But it would still be 6 weeks until I could incubate them.

Does anyone have a picture of a back Australorp egg? Those have a good chance of being pure, but they are so hard to de-feather for eating.

 

[Rhetts]

That is horrible. You are brave ordering chicks this time of year. I am so afraid to do that. I ordered mail order in August and was afraid they would get too cold.

What breeds did you order? Which ones did not make it?

My family ordered 44 birds of 14 different breeds. I wanted to 'try' out some breeds to see how I liked them. I also let each of the 4 kids pick out one for them. DH wanted RIR. So breeds were: Blue Cochin, Silver & Golden Wyandotte, Silver and Golden polish, Light and Buff Brahma, New Hampshire, partridge rock, black austrolorpe, cuckoo maran, welsummer, and black langshan. Thus 44 chicks and 14 breeds. 2 of my BIL ordered to ship along with ours. They got Buff orp and RIR. the dead ones were 8 RIR, 2 Buff orp, 2 golden polish, 2 black langshan, 2 blue cochins, 3 hew hampshire. Today one of the buffs looks like it won't make it either. Too bad! I expect there to be some chick loss BUT we got the chicks in less than 24 hours from shipping with 19 dead. Not normal chick loss in my opinion.

We wanted to order early enough to hopefully get them laying good before the winter hits. Last year we got the chicks in June and they started to lay in November then winter hits and they slowed down. So I would like to space it out to get a decent amount of eggs year round.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

This time of year is just risky for chick ordering through the mail IMHO. I know that showing birds at fairs and such dictates getting birds early. But if not showing why not wait? Grandma wouldn't get hers until April.

 

[Rhetts]

This time of year is just risky for chick ordering through the mail IMHO. I know that showing birds at fairs and such dictates getting birds early. But if not showing why not wait? Grandma wouldn't get hers until April.

Yeah I know. Heck mail ordering chicks period is risky then add weather! We were going to try to pick them up directly but the kids came down with something and that kept us at home.

Nothing I could do. But I really did get them super fast especially up here. They called me from Duluth to pick them up or I could wait to have them brought to local PO for monday. A no brainer there. I was told by the workers were I picked up the chicks from that there were 2 more orders for my area that opted to NOT pick them up and wait for them. I can only imagine what is in store for those people when they open their boxes.

 

[duluthralphie]

OH MY!!

Who would allow chicks to sit in the Duluth post office for 2 days???

I understand the trouble getting things that have to go through Duluth. Things can get to Minneapolis in a day then spend 3 days getting to Duluth and another 3 getting out from Duluth to the outlying towns. The one I lived in took about a week to get stuff from Duluth.

We use to laugh about the time it took. I have a brother in NC. If my folks mailed something from Elk River or Princeton, he would get it before I did.

BUT back to the chicks.. WHY leave the poor things in the post office for the weekend? What day did they hatch on? I am trying to figure out how long they would go without water.

 

[myclan]

Hi. We are new to Minnesota but not chickens. We have raised chickens for 5 years now but can't have anywhere we are now(renting in Zumbrota). We are moving again in May but I don't think we can have them there either. We are moving to Mazeppa buy from what I found they are not chicken friendly

 

[starbuck123]

Welcome! I'm surprised- mazeppa seems rural?

 

[starbuck123]

OH MY!!

Who would allow chicks to sit in the Duluth post office for 2 days???

I understand the trouble getting things that have to go through Duluth. Things can get to Minneapolis in a day then spend 3 days getting to Duluth and another 3 getting out from Duluth to the outlying towns.  The one I lived in took about a week to get stuff from Duluth.

We use to laugh about the time it took. I have a brother in NC. If my folks mailed something from Elk River or Princeton, he would get it before I did.

BUT back to the chicks.. WHY leave the poor things in the post office for the weekend?  What day did they hatch on?  I am trying to figure out how long they would go without water.

I agree. living things.

 

[Rhetts]

OH MY!!

Who would allow chicks to sit in the Duluth post office for 2 days???

I understand the trouble getting things that have to go through Duluth. Things can get to Minneapolis in a day then spend 3 days getting to Duluth and another 3 getting out from Duluth to the outlying towns. The one I lived in took about a week to get stuff from Duluth.

We use to laugh about the time it took. I have a brother in NC. If my folks mailed something from Elk River or Princeton, he would get it before I did.

BUT back to the chicks.. WHY leave the poor things in the post office for the weekend? What day did they hatch on? I am trying to figure out how long they would go without water.

My tracking for the chick box says they left Friday night to St. Paul and then they went up to Duluth on Saturday morning. I was called at 3pm Sat. to come get them. I am guessing they hatched Friday.

 

[coldupnorth]

We received our order on Friday from Welp. Shipped out Wednesday morning and got a call from our post office Friday late morning. Apparently they had taken a little detour and missed the shipment from Minneapolis, so they actually drove them up to our post office because they had already been in the mail a few days. Out of 25 there was only one DOA and the other 24 are doing wonderful. I would rather receive chicks in March or April because many of the places that they come from are very warm/hot and they don't thrive because of overheating. DD does 4H so it can be tough to get them early enough. We are late as it is. I have hatched my own but its hard to hatch when no one is laying well in January (at least not the ones that you need to).