Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Yeah they'll read it right before they plant their big ole' boot right in the middle of the box.

 

[Trish44]

It's just a crap shoot sending or receiving eggs through the mail. I know my local post office had no clue how much these eggs or chicks we ship cost. I had a shipment of expensive chicks arrive all dead at the post office & they told me to take them home & freeze the dead chicks until the claim was processed. It was like pulling teeth to get the correct forms filled out by them to get the claim through & they did make me bring the dead chicks back in, which they promptly threw in the trash. The manager asked me how much money we were talking about here anyway was how he put it & I told him over $200, which he was surprised about. It just depends on what hubs the eggs go through as well & how that post office treats them. I've gotten eggs from California that were in much better shape & I had a super hatch than the ones I got from someone right in our own state. The post office in Kansas City evidently thinks it's funny to crush boxes with eggs in them. Our local one has gotten somewhat better since I wrote a letter of complaint & they were made to apologize for leaving expensive eggs out in the blazing sun & not telling me they were there. That same box of eggs got lost in the postal system & was days late, so you can imagine that none hatched by the time I got them. Then quite awhile after that was the debacle with the dead chicks. I have to say that the eggs that are double boxed & padding put between the boxes for shock proofing are the ones that have done the best.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

Unfortunately the postal service can wreck just about any egg package. I think they make it a daily goal. I would opt to send eggs regular priority mail. Reason being you can send up to a 12 X 12 x12 box. And although your packing won't weigh that much you can sure put a lot more in a bigger box than a one rate box. More packing= better chance of eggs surviving the trip. Also be sure to insure the eggs and then if the box is crushed or messed up get a picture of the box before and after it is opened and submit it for a claim. I think it's like $50 free now so I'd value the eggs at $50. You won't get your postage back though... just the value of the eggs.
We went to Topeka and picked up the gates I ordered. As always they had lost them. I've never special ordered anything from this business that they could ever find when I went to pick them up. So as usual we wasted a couple hours while they got their act together. We also went to Orchlen's while we were there. They have their kennel panels 25% off through today so I got another 13 regular panels. I have enough fencing to do all of my inside fencing for the breeder pens on the inside of my building!! Woot! I was going to build egg boxes etc that I could access from outside the gate but walking in to gather eggs is a small price to pay for not having to build all of those gates and pens from wood and wire. Time is money around here. I also bought a bunch of buckets to make feeders as well. Found some on the cheap at Menards.
Now if I can just find a way to get all the dirt work done and get my outside runs built I'll have it made. Looks like today will be spent cleaning and moving stuff in the building so I have a place to put the panels. Now that I've got this much in line I need to start working on my auto waterer system as well. I hadn't plumbed it in until I was sure I knew how I was going to be doing the pens.

As a retired postal worker, I would like to inform the average postal patron that most of the mail and parcels are transported by independent contractors, and by UPS and FedEx.. In reality, the USPS delivers the mail; it does not transport. As for handling, A few years ago I was at the Tulsa Airport awaiting an arrival. I watched a plane that arrived, and saw something interesting. I noticed how far of a drop it was from the open hatch to the pavement. I also noticed those golden-yellow Priority Mail sacks being tossed out and loaded on the baggage trailers. As the vehicle pulled out with the trailers, one of the golden-yellow bags fell off. It laid there for a long time, but when the trailer-train returned with the luggage to place on the plane for its next departure, they picked up the bag. I also noticed as the trailer-train returned to the terminal, that it was empty. So that PRIORITY bag was put back on the plane it arrived in Tulsa on, bound to who knows where, as Tulsa is an international airport.

 

[chicken danz]

Ralph actually I did fairly well with shipped eggs until they closed the Topeka postal hub and all our packages went to KC sorting. That is where the problems began. I have contacted the postal service gobs of times and get the same song and dance. The postal service blames the contractors, and the contractors, UPS, FEDex etc blame the sorting center. No one will take responsibility. If you write EGGS or EMBRYOS on a package you can guarantee it will be crushed coming from KC. I literally have had boxes with huge big shoe prints on the smashed part before. I understand that things get thrown and tossed but when the box doesn't say anything they seem to arrive in better shape. Unfortunately now to collect insurance you have to have something on the box to indicate it's eggs so again you are screwed. I was selling and shipping some eggs but until there are some better options out there I'm not putting my reputation at risk. It's pretty sad especially considering the cost to ship. And the box can be destroyed without smashing it as well. ...so what are your options?
My local postoffice is awesome. They take great care to handle my chicks and or eggs with care. I have even gotten calls from our postmaster saying, "We got the box in like that. We didn't do it." That was one of many smelly omelets I got in place of eggs. They always want to know what kind of chicks I got when I ship birds in. And they are thrilled to check them out as long as I don't leave them sitting there cheaping for hours.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

My local post office has been wonderful with the birds I've had shipped in. They always want to see the birds and know what kind they are. They call immediately whenever I get birds in and take excellent care of them until I get there.
Maybe it's a Ks City thing. I must say the one time we flew out of Ks City will probably be our last. The airport was extremely unorganized and low class and we waited to board for much longer than normal. The place that we were to take has sat overnight and could have been de-iced long before we were ready to board but nothing had been done with it. After boarding we sat on the plane for over 2 hours before we finally were on our way which made us and many others miss our connecting flight. Over all I was very unimpressed with the whole setup. They didn't seem to care about the customers/passengers whatsoever.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

Ralph actually I did fairly well with shipped eggs until they closed the Topeka postal hub and all our packages went to KC sorting. That is where the problems began. I have contacted the postal service gobs of times and get the same song and dance. The postal service blames the contractors, and the contractors, UPS, FEDex etc blame the sorting center. No one will take responsibility. If you write EGGS or EMBRYOS on a package you can guarantee it will be crushed coming from KC. I literally have had boxes with huge big shoe prints on the smashed part before. I understand that things get thrown and tossed but when the box doesn't say anything they seem to arrive in better shape. Unfortunately now to collect insurance you have to have something on the box to indicate it's eggs so again you are screwed. I was selling and shipping some eggs but until there are some better options out there I'm not putting my reputation at risk. It's pretty sad especially considering the cost to ship. And the box can be destroyed without smashing it as well. ...so what are your options?
My local postoffice is awesome. They take great care to handle my chicks and or eggs with care. I have even gotten calls from our postmaster saying, "We got the box in like that. We didn't do it." That was one of many smelly omelets I got in place of eggs. They always want to know what kind of chicks I got when I ship birds in. And they are thrilled to check them out as long as I don't leave them sitting there cheaping for hours.

Danz, Priority Mail parcels are moved from local post offices in parcel cages, but arrive in Priority bags at their designation in the Priority Mail sacks. ( Express Mail in Blue Express mail sacks), The parcels marked fragile are in those bags when they arrive at the designation. Live poultry are given good care and I know the delivery contractors between here and KC have them in the cab with then. The only exception I noticed ,was with very large quantity of quail and pheasants, being shipped in parcel cages. There is no way I will sell eggs on EBay and expect good feedback. I have sold thousands of items, but not one egg.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

By the way if anyone has or knows of a nice BLRW roo for sale let me know. I haven't been able to replace my roo I lost last year and I'd really like to be able to hatch out some chicks this year.

 

[thndrdancr]

I know it's always a crapshoot with eggs, I imagine to get to Prairie's it shouldn't take over 2 days athe most and I would reckon it would go thru Wichita if they have a hub. I don't know what hub ours goes through actually. I will have to ask, makes me curious. That's why we thought be good to do this as a test, I know I have a lot of mutt eggs, she needs eggs to test, so nothing valuable is lost if they don't hatch or p.o. Smashes etc. only thing lost is sentimental for me and of course Prairie's time, effort and electricity. I hate to take up someone's valuable bator space with eggs that he "probably" was the father of and its getting late for them. it's getting past time to incubate for his if I don't do it in next few days.

Prairie, keep posting pics of those goat babies, they are really cute!

 

[thndrdancr]

Hey I thought you would all get a laugh at this!

My pretty white peacock rooster was up on the roof of the house with some ladies, when the girl on the corner indicated she was ready to be mated and squatted for him! He was looking at her like she was crazy "woman, you trying to get me killed here???" Lol

He just couldn't figure out how to accommodate without rolling off the roof!

I even got pics!

 

[chicken danz]

Been out working and clearing an area and trying to do some quick dirt work before the little skid steer is gone tomorrow. I had a bunch of old rotten hedge posts I put in the burn pile. But that sucker is warming half the country right now so I had to give it a break.I've been trying to get some of the stuff picked up out of the yard that needs trashed. I started working on the hill that needs knocked down some and leveled out for my chicken runs and made a terrible discovery. It's rocks. I don't know of someone in the past piled rocks there because it is alongside a well or if they are there naturally. At any rate it is pretty discouraging. First this little machine won't handle that heavy work and secondly It's going to make it very difficult to drill post holes for my fencing.I really need some heavy equipment to get that mess leveled out. Why can't a plan go as scheduled just once??
I started cleaning up in the building but when it got warm outside I got to work on yard work. I feel like I'm trying to get a winters work done in a day.