Problems with shipped quail

[eddie_van_quailen]

Also, to your note about breeders: I emailed SWGB Wednesday evening, when it was looking like the birds were not arriving on time, then again the following morning, Thursday, when the post office called me that they had finally arrived. Then I sent another message when I discovered the deceased one. And I still haven’t heard anything back. Seems strange… I expected to hear back by now considering they have a 72-hour live guarantee. I asked them not to ship a replacement, though, I don’t want to put another quail through that. Maybe that’s why? I’m hoping they’re just a bit behind on emails, maybe.

Update: SWGB got back to me today, apologized for the delayed response, and said they will refund for the lost bird. I’m happy with that I’d rather have the bird, of course, but all things considered I think that’s the best outcome that can be expected.

 

[007Sean]

Update: SWGB got back to me today, apologized for the delayed response, and said they will refund for the lost bird. I’m happy with that I’d rather have the bird, of course, but all things considered I think that’s the best outcome that can be expected.

Sounds like they are a 'top shelf' operation. Glad your at least getting your money back.

 

[Nabiki]

Update: SWGB got back to me today, apologized for the delayed response, and said they will refund for the lost bird. I’m happy with that I’d rather have the bird, of course, but all things considered I think that’s the best outcome that can be expected.

SW is a good company, and I've had some great interactions with Michael. I do know that they're really busy this time of year, so I'm glad they were able to get back to you.

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

I had high expectations for them, and am not at all surprised they're busy this time of year. As I said, I don't blame them at all for the lost bird it was most likely due to the USPS delay/handling, or just stress that no one could control. I've read the golden Manchurians can be a bit more delicate than others. I would 100% order eggs from SWGB in the future, as I have noticed the dispositions of these birds are markedly better than the ones I purchased locally. They're calmer, sweeter, and seem much more confident. That's one of the benefits of purchasing from an accomplished breeder, I suppose!

On another happy note, the falb is completely un-puffed this morning, eating, stretching, flapping her wings, and preening happily I'll be removing all supplements but the electrolyte water this afternoon, and tomorrow evening as long as she's still doing well, they'll both go out into the aviary with the others after sundown.

 

[Jannbo]

Apologies in advance for the long and emotional post. It's been an incredibly stressful and sad day. We got the aviary finished a couple days ago, and our first 3 quail have been enjoying it immensely. We've had so much fun watching them run around, climb the logs, burrow under them, and roll around in their sand bath.

A month ago, I ordered 3 more quail from Southwest Gamebirds and they shipped on 5/16, right on schedule. A pearl fee, falb fee, and golden Manchurian, all hens. I was so excited, they would complete my all-jumbo flock perfectly. My first 3 girls are all Pharoahs, so I was excited for the infusion of color as well. I got the shipping notification on 5/16 and eagerly watched the tracking history as they made their way to California. The shipping should have been next-day, since I'm in CA.

I want to start off by saying that none of this reflects poorly on Southwest Gamebirds at all. Their ordering process was super easy, straightforward, the birds shipped on time and were packaged well, and as far as I can tell everything that went wrong went wrong because of the US Postal Service.

SWGB suggests calling your local post office to make sure they will call when your package arrives at the local office, so you can go pick it up rather than having the postal carrier attempt to deliver it. This is where the problems began. My local post office didn't seem to understand what I was asking when I did this. Maybe I got unlucky and ended up on the phone with someone who didn't know what they were doing? Who knows. Anyway, I gave up and checked online and discovered there's a "package intercept" option to have the package held at the local post office, but it wanted a $211 fee?? So I noped out of there. I was so confused at this point. So I called the general USPS customer service line to ask what to do, and the customer service rep informs me that, somehow, I've already put a request on the package to have it held at the post office?! I have no idea how that's even possible, but I thank him and leave it at that. I continue watching the birds' tracking, and it still says their delivery is scheduled by 6:00pm on 5/17.

So 5/17 comes, I'm waiting all morning & afternoon... still no call. This whole time the tracking still shows the birds scanned in AZ on 5/16 but nothing after that... all day. Suddenly, a full 24 hours later, they scan in San Francisco at 3pm. But I'm at least an hour from there and the guaranteed delivery is still showing 6:00pm. I'm starting to get worried, so I check the USPS website again. On the "delayed packages FAQ" page, it says to contact customer service "after 6pm local time on the guaranteed delivery date if the package has still not arrived." So decided to wait a little longer and see if they called me before 6. 6pm comes and goes, so at 6:05pm I called customer service, and surprise, they close at 6pm. Are you f%#king kidding me? Why would it say to wait until after 6 to call if they close at 6????

So now I'm completely helpless, with no recourse, no birds, and nothing to do except wait. I did yard work outside in case a delivery person came until well after 9pm. Kept my phone off silent all night long in case I got a phone call. Went to bed late, woke up early. Throughout the entire night last night and early this morning, by the way, the tracking still said "delivery guaranteed on or before 6:00pm Wednesday 5/17" I have a screenshot at 1am 5/18 that says "guaranteed delivery Wednesday 5/17 by 6:00pm." Then, suddenly, at 7am the package disappeared from the system and I got an error message when checking the tracking. WTF??

Just as I'm really starting to freak out, FINALLY, someone calls and tells me I can come to the local postal annex to pick up a live animal package. I fly down there, knowing that by now they've been without food and water for nearly 48 hours, and get the birds. (There was a whole confusing saga about them giving me terrible directions about where to go for after-hours pickups but that's another story).

Sure enough, the golden Manchurian was dead in the box. I was (and still am) devastated. But not at all surprised, considering they were more than 12 hours delayed. The box didn't look damaged, but who knows what happened. I'm livid with the USPS. I can't believe their incompetence. The incompetence of the worker not understanding what I was asking for when I called the first time, the incompetence of their tracking system to update in a timely manner and to reflect accurate delivery expectations, the incompetence of their deliveries to arrive on time, their incompetence when handling live animals, all of it. This was a terrible experience. I had doubts about shipping live birds, which is why I chose to buy local birds in the first place. I don't know why I went back on that. After this experience I can confidently say I will never ship live birds again. It's not fair to them.

The pearl fee and falb fee are still not out of the woods yet. The pearl fee is in the best shape, she seems the most alert. The falb fee has been very puffed, with half-closed eyes most of the time. I've gave them only room-temp electrolyte water for the first few hours, and every hour since then have been making them a mash with crumble and lukewarm water that they've been eating eagerly. I don't want them eating too much too quickly or getting too dehydrated with food, so I'm trying to take it slowly and keep moisture intake up. I feel terrible about the whole thing and I feel selfish for putting them through this. I also buried the golden Manchurian in the backyard under our apple tree.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this was other than maybe catharsis, and to share my experience with shipping live birds. I hope maybe it helps someone. I know not everyone has bad experiences with it, plenty of people ship live birds every day and it works out just fine. I know that. But I won't do it again.

I'm so sorry to hear this happened to you! After how much I've bought and sold on platforms like eBay and Mercari, I know not to trust any delivery company with something more fragile, valuable, or precious than a piece of paper. All 3 of the big delivery companies in the US are beyond incompetent, and how they're still around baffles me every day. It would be nice to see at least one of the three actually deliver packages on the date they say its supposed to be delivered

 

[Whraith]

Michael is great to work with. I am lucky I live about 30 minutes from them so was able to pick up my birds. Within 3 days two of the hens were already laying. I have since ordered eggs from them and just had them shipped rather then make an hour round trip drive to Tonopah, and those peepers are now 4 weeks old and about to go outside to the aviary. They do write call and put the number (my office did this without an issue). Sorry you had such a bad experience with USPS, but glad to hear the fee is better (I have mostly the Calico Fee from SWGB, the fee's are great!).

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

Michael is great to work with. I am lucky I live about 30 minutes from them so was able to pick up my birds. Within 3 days two of the hens were already laying. I have since ordered eggs from them and just had them shipped rather then make an hour round trip drive to Tonopah, and those peepers are now 4 weeks old and about to go outside to the aviary. They do write call and put the number (my office did this without an issue). Sorry you had such a bad experience with USPS, but glad to hear the fee is better (I have mostly the Calico Fee from SWGB, the fee's are great!).

Thanks for sharing! That's so awesome you live close by. The SW birds are much calmer around humans than my others are, I will definitely order eggs from them if I ever decide to invest in an incubator But unfortunately now the falb has taken to chasing my pharoahs around At least she's feeling good! She hasn't hurt anyone yet, I can't really tell if she's protecting her pearl buddy or just being territorial... Might have to pull her out for a few days and try to re-introduce her with a better attitude!

 

[Azavatone]

Apologies in advance for the long and emotional post. It's been an incredibly stressful and sad day. We got the aviary finished a couple days ago, and our first 3 quail have been enjoying it immensely. We've had so much fun watching them run around, climb the logs, burrow under them, and roll around in their sand bath.

A month ago, I ordered 3 more quail from Southwest Gamebirds and they shipped on 5/16, right on schedule. A pearl fee, falb fee, and golden Manchurian, all hens. I was so excited, they would complete my all-jumbo flock perfectly. My first 3 girls are all Pharoahs, so I was excited for the infusion of color as well. I got the shipping notification on 5/16 and eagerly watched the tracking history as they made their way to California. The shipping should have been next-day, since I'm in CA.

I want to start off by saying that none of this reflects poorly on Southwest Gamebirds at all. Their ordering process was super easy, straightforward, the birds shipped on time and were packaged well, and as far as I can tell everything that went wrong went wrong because of the US Postal Service.

SWGB suggests calling your local post office to make sure they will call when your package arrives at the local office, so you can go pick it up rather than having the postal carrier attempt to deliver it. This is where the problems began. My local post office didn't seem to understand what I was asking when I did this. Maybe I got unlucky and ended up on the phone with someone who didn't know what they were doing? Who knows. Anyway, I gave up and checked online and discovered there's a "package intercept" option to have the package held at the local post office, but it wanted a $211 fee?? So I noped out of there. I was so confused at this point. So I called the general USPS customer service line to ask what to do, and the customer service rep informs me that, somehow, I've already put a request on the package to have it held at the post office?! I have no idea how that's even possible, but I thank him and leave it at that. I continue watching the birds' tracking, and it still says their delivery is scheduled by 6:00pm on 5/17.

So 5/17 comes, I'm waiting all morning & afternoon... still no call. This whole time the tracking still shows the birds scanned in AZ on 5/16 but nothing after that... all day. Suddenly, a full 24 hours later, they scan in San Francisco at 3pm. But I'm at least an hour from there and the guaranteed delivery is still showing 6:00pm. I'm starting to get worried, so I check the USPS website again. On the "delayed packages FAQ" page, it says to contact customer service "after 6pm local time on the guaranteed delivery date if the package has still not arrived." So decided to wait a little longer and see if they called me before 6. 6pm comes and goes, so at 6:05pm I called customer service, and surprise, they close at 6pm. Are you f%#king kidding me? Why would it say to wait until after 6 to call if they close at 6????

So now I'm completely helpless, with no recourse, no birds, and nothing to do except wait. I did yard work outside in case a delivery person came until well after 9pm. Kept my phone off silent all night long in case I got a phone call. Went to bed late, woke up early. Throughout the entire night last night and early this morning, by the way, the tracking still said "delivery guaranteed on or before 6:00pm Wednesday 5/17" I have a screenshot at 1am 5/18 that says "guaranteed delivery Wednesday 5/17 by 6:00pm." Then, suddenly, at 7am the package disappeared from the system and I got an error message when checking the tracking. WTF??

Just as I'm really starting to freak out, FINALLY, someone calls and tells me I can come to the local postal annex to pick up a live animal package. I fly down there, knowing that by now they've been without food and water for nearly 48 hours, and get the birds. (There was a whole confusing saga about them giving me terrible directions about where to go for after-hours pickups but that's another story).

Sure enough, the golden Manchurian was dead in the box. I was (and still am) devastated. But not at all surprised, considering they were more than 12 hours delayed. The box didn't look damaged, but who knows what happened. I'm livid with the USPS. I can't believe their incompetence. The incompetence of the worker not understanding what I was asking for when I called the first time, the incompetence of their tracking system to update in a timely manner and to reflect accurate delivery expectations, the incompetence of their deliveries to arrive on time, their incompetence when handling live animals, all of it. This was a terrible experience. I had doubts about shipping live birds, which is why I chose to buy local birds in the first place. I don't know why I went back on that. After this experience I can confidently say I will never ship live birds again. It's not fair to them.

The pearl fee and falb fee are still not out of the woods yet. The pearl fee is in the best shape, she seems the most alert. The falb fee has been very puffed, with half-closed eyes most of the time. I've gave them only room-temp electrolyte water for the first few hours, and every hour since then have been making them a mash with crumble and lukewarm water that they've been eating eagerly. I don't want them eating too much too quickly or getting too dehydrated with food, so I'm trying to take it slowly and keep moisture intake up. I feel terrible about the whole thing and I feel selfish for putting them through this. I also buried the golden Manchurian in the backyard under our apple tree.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this was other than maybe catharsis, and to share my experience with shipping live birds. I hope maybe it helps someone. I know not everyone has bad experiences with it, plenty of people ship live birds every day and it works out just fine. I know that. But I won't do it again.

Ohhh, I'm so sorry to hear that. It's heartbreaking when an animal dies during shipping. FWIW, I've had eggs shipped to me 3 times from SWGB when I'm in the US and they all arrived on time. I'm surprised (and saddened) that there was a delay in shipping live animals from Arizona to Quailifornia and upset that they ask you to call after they close. It looks like something you'd have to take up with the Post Office, but it might make the most sense to step away from it lest you carry more grief. Your decision of investing in an incubator may be the right choice.

FWIW, I have a pair of tuxedo coturnix (Quail) hens and one politish rooster from the eggs I got from SWGB. It took them almost to 3 months before they started laying and not until this week when the first of their eggs started hatching. Most were just yolk only but now I have one four day old chick and two one and a half day old tuxedo chicks. They popped out on day 15 of incubation. Now, since I have two hens producing the grand total of two eggs a day, if I put them right into the incubator, we'll have eggs where they are all pairs of different days form when the incubation started. Unless I save some for a week, how will I know when I should expect them to hatch? And if they keep laying am I hatching them, eating them or tossing them? I don't want eggs of an unknown incubation duration sitting in my incubator and possibly going bad and exploding. What to do?

Well, here's what I did. I have two incubators. One that seems to get 0% hatch rate and another Chinese one that takes getting used to but has the eggs on rollers and I'm learning how to uhhh, learn. 26 days ago, I started a new batch of 100 SWGB eggs split over in my 0% Nurture Right 360 and this egg roller style Hethya Chinese one. My idea was that on lockdown, I would move all of the eggs into the Hethya, keep them separated so that I could see which ones hatched from the NR360 and the Hethya. In the Hethya, I also set up some rollers on the right of first and second level that would take my current batch of my two hens' eggs + more as I'd add them. But here's the trick. The Hethya has an expected LED display indicating the day since incubation started. Since I'd be adding 2 eggs a day as my hens produced, I'd need to label the eggs with the number of day they were added. +1, +2, +12, +20 and so on. That way, the duration of days of each of my tux hens' eggs is simply the current listed day (26 right now) minus the number on the egg. So, if it's day 26 and I have an egg in one of those rails with a sharpie mark on it that says +1, that egg has been in there for 25 days and should be thrown out.

OK. So, as I write this, all the SWGB eggs have either hatched or not over a week ago. I have eggs from my hens in the right rollers with numbers on them counting up to last night (+26). This means that there were/are up to 52 of my tux hens' eggs sitting on those rollers waiting to pop out. How could I know which eggs to pull if I didn't have an age listed on them? If any egg got to a duration of 20 days, I easily picked it up, popped the top side open and inspected if there was a chick in there. Now, here's one of the important parts. NONE OF THEM (until this week) had a developing embryo in them. They were all yolk. So, if you want to hatch eggs hoping that you'll get babies from the eggs, it's not guaranteed to happen in the first month after they have been getting busy. I even changed roos too. BUT, over the past week, I awoke to hear peeping from my Hethya incubator. Well, dang and butter mah biscuits! A baby unlocked itself from its shell on day 15 - when the eggs were still on rollers. - Wait. Does that mean that you don't need to stop rolling the eggs with quail on lockdown? I… don't… know. But then the next day or two none of the eggs of the corresponding day for day 15 hatched. So, I waited and yesterday morning, one little peeper woke me up and just in time for brunch another did. They hatched around day 15. But today, there were two eggs that would be incubated for 20 days as of today which I took out and inspected and they were all yolk.

At this point, I have pairs of eggs from the day incubation start +11 to 26 still rolling. And the Hethya rolls eggs every one and a half hours. So far, I had 4 hatchlings of these eggs but the first one had a little too much of its intestines protruding and I couldn't push it back in. However, I do have 3 fresh arrivals who are robust and flappy and stupidly cute and tiny compared to their week+ older brothers and sisters.

If you're going to hatch, we're here to help. I'm new here, but willing to share the limits of my knowledge and experience.

Sorry about your babies. The post office needs to be more aware when transporting live animals.