Bad Experience with shipped chicks

[SurferchickinSB]

I have ordered chicks through the mail over the years and never lost any. It's been a while so I ordered 22 from a hatchery I have dealt with before. I won't name them since I don't blame them for what happened.
The chicks were shipped on Mon, 6/11 with expected delivery between 6/12-6/14. The tracking showed them leaving their origin, but from then on it would only say in route to next destination. By Thu, I was frantic and started calling USPS. Unfortunately, you can never talk to a person so I got no answers. Finally on Fri, my Postmaster told me she did some checking and the box was damaged and returned to the hatchery.
Then on Sat, she calls and tells me the box has arrived and there are some peeps. I picked them up with a lot of dread as I knew it couldn't be good. I opened the box to find a pile of mostly dead chicks. Eight were still alive but very weak. I gave them water with electrolytes but by Sun morning only one was left alive - a little Austra White. By some good fortune, I found a local person with some little chicks and I was able to get 2 buddies for it. It really perked up when I introduced it's new friends and I'm hopeful it continues to thrive.
The hatchery is replacing all the chicks and I hope not to have a bad experience again - but it was very depressing.
I was wondering how many other people may have had similar experiences. More than one person has told me the Post Office doesn't do a good job with them any more.

I had a similar experience, the chicks were sent on a Monday and they arrived Tuesday, but most of them were weak and sort of limp, within a day and a half 5 out of 8 died I was so upset, it was horrible! I did not want replacements at first because it sort of traumatized me watching them die over that day and a half. I could only find 1 local replacement, so I decided to have them send me the four chicks. I was really worried, but this time they all arrived healthy One of them ended up picked in the eye and blinded by another chick, but seems to be OK now, have taken it to the vet, but it is the runt now because it always gets picked on The box did not look damaged, so I'm not really sure what happened? Hopefully no one at USPS was getting their jollies throwing around the little babies! I guess they are just so fragile that the whole experience is just stressfull!

 

[KikiLeigh02]

Oh my gosh. Those poor chicks. I'm so sorry, that is an awful situation.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

It varies largely based on where they're coming from and when they're shipped. I've always had good shipment results from a hatchery about 2 hours away. Never lost a chick from them and they always ship on monday/tuesday.
Ordered chicks from someone across the state, and she sent them right into a snow storm with no warning to me that she was shipping them until after they were sent... I would have told her no if I'd known! Lost half of the batch - $80 of chicks and $40 shipping! They almost got stuck in the post office over the weekend too because she shipped later in the week too. They were supposed to get here in 24 hours tops, they showed up in 56 hours, but the post office only refunds if they're later than 72 hours. Super lame. Very upsetting. Some post offices are better than others!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Thought I would post a pic of the only one that survived. She is 9 days old now and acting completely normal so I'm hoping for the best. I think I may name her Angel.
View attachment 1438225

She's adorable!