Chicken Odds, Place your bets!

[Ridgerunner]

Just one of the hatcheries we use may hatch 80,000 to 100,000 chicks a week. With that many chicks there will be some horror stories, but the majority of the time everything goes fine. Shipping them around a holiday is generally not a great idea since they can be delayed. Shipping them in really cold or really hot weather can sometimes be a problem too but who can predict the weather that far out?

Losing 4 out of 16 is rough. I don’t know if they were delayed during shipping or if maybe the weather was unusually rough. My brother works at the post office and says that most people there take care of shipped chicks, but occasionally you get a jerk that just doesn’t care. They have procedures they are supposed to follow. There is some luck involved with this.

I don’t order that may but the few times I have they have all arrived alive and none have died in the brooder.

 

[Bill1st]

I get my 18 chicks from Meyer the following week (week of Feb 2nd)… I am curious your out come. Please keep posting to this forum. I have never ordered baby chicks in the mail. We are getting buff orphingtons, red stars, a unknown meal maker (love this idea) & red laced blue wyandottes.

 

[Alabama Jack]

All remaining 12 are doing fine. One of the Australorps had some feet issues, but Epsom salt soaks twice a day has seemed to treat the issue.

Here's one of our BRs, two weeks old tomorrow:

 

[K-Kritter]

Yeah! Glad to hear they are doing good. Still perusing through all the forums, trying to learn as much as I can before the Big Day gets here in April.