Wow that’s horrendous. I know it’s the post office. They really don’t care about how they handle the babies. We’ve seen it. They aren’t gentle not to mention we don’t know what they go through enroute. Obviously there’s a huge handling problem. We have ordered from McMurray and Meyer. There was a snake in the box from Meyer that killed one chick. I can’t say who’s fault that is. It could have happened anywhere. They were gracious about it and gave us a credit. They were also astounded because they hadn’t heard of that happening before. The scenarios that run through my mind are endless concerning what these little chickens endure after they leave the hatchery. It’s not good. So I think there needs to be a major shipping change to a carrier that actually CARES about transporting live animals. All of our chicks arrived healthy but we lost a few from Meyer last Fall and so far this year, no losses from McMurray. My husband says he notices how they are not handling the chicks carefully like they used to years ago (before I met him he raised chickens for years.) He also said he’s never seen so many issues with chickens like we had with the Cornish X and the sudden deaths. Hopefully we can find a breeder and go and pick them up in person. I would prefer that at this point and I’m sure the chickens would be thankful.
