Attention those who plan on ordering chicks from hatcheries!

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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...

I get the impression you think it's equally dangerous to ship chicks in single digit weather as it is in 60 degrees. I couldn't disagree with you more, but I didn't start this post to argue, I started it to help. Let's resume this debate about what month is best to ship in in a few months, but in the mean time, please keep careful record of the number of posters on this board who say they received a box or half a box of dead chicks in the mail now compared to the ones who post it later in the spring.
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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...

Offering Express service does increase costs. You now have to have
additional packaging, employees trained in processing, potential
additional ship times. Just by offering the service a company increases
costs and work loads, even if only 1% of people use it.

I completely agree with you on shipping always being a danger. I've
shipped a full grown bird and I cringed as I dropped it off. I send eggs
out to my friends here and even that can be disheartening.

We order from hatcheries also in addition to hatching lots of eggs. We
will be ordering next month. They will be coming from PA to CT in early
March. It's a risk I have to take if I want meat birds. The hatchery we
order from, jmhatchery.com, does offer Express service but his birds are
a higher end animal, not the typical Ideal or McMurray hatchery bird.

I don't see any disagreements here. We both know, and accept, the risks.
 
Great advise on ordering dates but also remember not to go too far out as I lost about 50 ducks who were cooked when I got them.
Jambunny
 
Just a question and please no flaming. Where are these posts of people losing half a box of chicks? I have not seen any other than the one where the post office lost the chicks, and after a week of course they are all going to be dead.

As to the express shipping Ideal uses air mail in most cases the chicks are at your post office in LESS than 24 hours. Both cases for me. Express is not going to be any faster than that, the only difference is express is delivered to your door and that is not a good thing in this cold. Speaking of cold the chicks are subjected to cold every time they get on a plane even if it is 104F outside. The extremes of going from 45 in a cargo hold to 104 in a hot truck would be much worse than being straight in the cold.

When I talked to Ideal they take into account the weather at time of shipping and add appropriate packing peanuts. When they pack the chicks they can not know how many are weak and will not make it. Losing chicks is a common thing all year round. I think everybody has to decide for themselves when they want to order chicks and take into account all the circumstances. We should not have to make excuses or explanations for exercising our right to purchase when our needs require chicks at certain times.

This should be a friendly discussion and those that do order chicks are not subjecting them to cruelty and is unfair to suggest it. Even if chicks die from hypothermia it is simply falling asleep. Now I have read that many adult and juvenile chickens have suffered frostbite and died from this cold and some have never been in shipment, do we label those people to. This is headed very much in the direction of the threads for dubbing where some wish to impose their believes on another. And of course this is wrong and will result in flaming.

There is nothing wrong with being passionate, but be careful not to throw stones at others. There is a biblical saying on that.
 
We are due to get 2 boxes in the next 2-3 weeks. We'll let you know how many we lose in the 1st 3 days. Wish us luck.
 
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I cannot understand why the hatcheries ship eggs to northern areas during the cold times in the first place.. If the chicks die enroute, they always replace them at no cost so it is coming out of their pocket..
 
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You asked for posts about dead chicks arriving- these are all recent and don't include any of the list of the ones from LAST spring.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=130208
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=129929
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=130109
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=129464
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=127533&p=3 (post #166)

There's more, I'm sure, but that's all I have the patience to dig up right now.

BTW, I live in Idaho and it took 4 days for my Ideal chicks to ship here last spring. I lost one out of 17. But that was in late April and they did replace it. I'm glad it wasn't in a colder month. Can you imagine how cold the cargo hold of a plane gets in the winter months? I wouldn't order chicks in summer months either as I've stated several times so please don't assume I am suggesting that.
 
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