Attention those who plan on ordering chicks from hatcheries!

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi!

I wouldn't order chicks to Idaho in cold weather months.

I wouldn't either.

Lisa​

 

[PurpleChicken]

Rather than post my opinion on the 4 or 5 other threads going on right
now I think I'll say a few things here.

For those of you who lost chicks, I feel sorry for the chicks but not for you.
This is one of the coldest winters in decades and you expect a box of
day old chicks to miraculously make it to your front porch? Please.

Then the people who blame the hatcheries make me laugh even more.
Hmmm, let's try and predict the weather 21 days or more in advance.
Yup, that works well.

Personally, If I ordered chicks to have shipped in the middle of winter
and they don't make it I don't think the hatchery owes me anything,
yet they will still refund my money or send out new birds. That's the
funny thing about being a business. You have to do business and take
care of the customer to stay in business.

I buy eggs all year long. I know the ones I get in the winter are going
to have horrendous hatch rates. Is it the shippers fault? I think not.

There are these character traits called awareness and personal responsibility. Too bad they don't make a pill to help people with these.

 

[PostalChick]

Quote:
LOL, I work in an urban post office and we've had chickens once-we were all delighted! They started out the morning peeping, and after a couple hours they got louder PEEPING! It was so cute. One guy in the far end of the building didn't realize for an hour that we had chicks-he finally said, I thought I was going crazy hearing peeping in my head

I'm a little concerned because I, a first time chick person, ordered my chicks to be delivered the first week of March, in CT...it didn't occur to me about the cold. I ordered them from Healthy Chicks and More, which I haven't seen mentioned here-are they OK? I'm trying to decide if I should just have them delivered to my own post office where I work, so at least I could leave them inside all day.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
LOL, I work in an urban post office and we've had chickens once-we were all delighted! They started out the morning peeping, and after a couple hours they got louder PEEPING! It was so cute. One guy in the far end of the building didn't realize for an hour that we had chicks-he finally said, I thought I was going crazy hearing peeping in my head

I'm a little concerned because I, a first time chick person, ordered my chicks to be delivered the first week of March, in CT...it didn't occur to me about the cold. I ordered them from Healthy Chicks and More, which I haven't seen mentioned here-are they OK? I'm trying to decide if I should just have them delivered to my own post office where I work, so at least I could leave them inside all day.

That is a good idea as they will be right there for you and you can take them straight home. I have not heard of Healthy Chicks but I am sure others have. One thing you have to keep in mind is there are always folks with bad things to say and some with good things. I guess you have to weigh one to the other.

Good Luck and let us know how they turn out. Maybe they have something I can't get from Ideal. BTW I have never had a problem with my post office itself. The rural carriers are another story though some of them are very dense. We have one who throws the packages in the bed of his pickup, and they bounce around there until delivered. I had a low hatch on duck eggs that he delivered. I am sure the bouncing and cold did not help them.

 

[texas_chick]

So how come Hatcheries don't give people more options in regards to how they are shipped?
I only know 2 hatcheries that include heat packs (a heat pack holds a surface temperature of 100 degrees for 60 to 72 hours depending on what kind of heat pack you get).
Also hardly anybody offers Express Overnight (again only the two that offered the heat pad also offered the overnight shipping).

I ordered my chicks now because Summer gets here early (and its hot) and I want them to be a little more mature and have a few weeks of acclimation rather than just take them outside hot turkey...

I would have gladly ordered from Ideal but they don't offer heat packs and they don't offer Express shipping.

My chicks will be delivered Express On Hold. Meaning they don't come to my rural post office, they go to San Antonio because that way they can guarantee that the chicks will be in transit only 24 hours or less and I will be called as soon as they come in.

Anyway. I am just saying there are options and everybody chooses what they think will work best. I doubt people want to have their birds die.

I think ideally we could just buy chicks that don't get shipped in the mail at all but rather are hatched locally. Unfortunately that's not always easy to do.

 

[PurpleChicken]

PostalChick, I'm one of the folks who love my local post office. They
treat me very well, including calling me at 5am and letting me into
a closed office to get my chicks. Super nice people there.

Texas_chick, offering heat packs and express shipping increases
processing costs. Let's face it, the hatcheries sell chicks cheap and
are on a schedule. In Ideal's case they are a Texas hatchery and
probably have less cold related issues than an Ohio hatchery.

IMO Ideal is all business. Losses are an expected cost. They are
one of the few hatcheries that sell dyed chicks at Easter. That tells
me they are 99.9% about volume, profits, and cash flow.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Last year I waited until at least late March to order my chicks.
This year I need to have 50+ Cornish Cross meaties done and in the freezer before it gets hot here so I am ordering now. I am ordering 10 more chicks than what I need plus various ducklings/goslings/ etc. My order is going to hover around 100 birds. Hopefully they keep eachother warm, if not and I lose some then that's the gamble I took. I will be biting nails and worrying when they go in the mail but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

 

[wingnut1]

Quote:

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Hopefully it warms up some when your chicks ship. 100 should help
with the heat too.

I don't remember ever seeing so many reports of dead chicks here.
It can't be a cooincidence that the temps have been so cold.

Hey, we may see 45 degrees today.

 

[texas_chick]

Quote:
True but it's not like they can't pass on the cost to the customer. I paid $20 for Express and heat pack. It's not like they are loosing any money on it.
I am not saying every hatchery should offer it. I am just saying as a customer you do have choices that may decrease the risk for your chicks. What's most effective in decreasing risk might really be more of a decision based on the situation.

Saying it's unsafe to ship now and safe to ship in a couple of months is not entirely true in my opinion.

Any time you ship animals you expose them to an increased risk of mishandling (shipping loss or damage, not being protected from heat or cold, etc.)
The only way to eliminate shipping risk is to simply not ship but then most of use would be stuck with unsexed chicks and many of us keep chickens with restrictions imposed on us (no roosters in subdivisions, etc.)

So unless somebody buys their chickens from 'the guy down the road' we all are somewhat in the same boat...