DOA--Need Advice

[E.M. Silkies]

My sister has been researching silkies for a while and wants to show them. She found a breeder whose chickens were beautiful and after talking back and forth for a couple weeks, decided to buy a pair of full grown, bearded silkies. The breeder is in Florida and was concerned about the heat, and said he would keep an eye on the weather and send them when it had cooled off some. While we were out of town this past weekend, he emailed my sister and said he would be shipping them Monday and to be expecting them Tuesday. Well, the chickens did not arrive until Wednesday. They arrived in a tiny box, and while we can't be sure, we suspect that the rooster sat on the hen and smothered her to death. Understanding that it is already hot out, it is beyond us why he shipped them when he did because it was hotter this week than it was when she first initiated the buy, and in such a small box. We have gotten chicks in a bigger box than he sent two full grown chickens! The other thing we've wondered is if the hen was completely healthy when she was shipped. Within 10 minutes of getting out of the box, the rooster was crowing, eating, and drinking. How did he fair so well and the hen die?

The breeder has offered to sell my sister another hen at a discounted rate, but we feel that someone with so much experience with chickens should have known better than to ship them in such a small box as well as on a day when it was 95 degrees out in GA and they were coming from FL. If you were in our shoes, what would you? We feel that since the birds were insured, we should either get the money or he should send another bird.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Camelot Farms]

If there wasnt enough room for both birds to stand up and sit down side by side comfortably then the box was too small.

Can you post a picture of the box?

 

[WIChookchick]

Your sister should have documented everything..taking pics of the box when first opened..
BUT at this point.. I would take pics of the box, pics of the deceased hen, see if you can find a similar sized hen and put the rooster in there with her and take pics.
Demand a refund on the deceased hen, especially if he offered Live arrival guarantee. And if he offered overnight vs priority shipping...
You may be able to go after the mail carrier service if it was Fed Ex, UPS vs USPS.
Also document time of arrival, condition of the box, were there enough holes? was there any water or fruit for the pair??
IF you go in with a boat load of documentation you may be able to get another hen for free.
I am on reptile forums and people have to deal with DOA's all the time.. and they always say document, document document!!

SOrry to hear about the loss of the hen!!

Carol

 

[Katy]

Were they not sent in a Horizen box? I thought all adult birds had to be sent in the approved size box.

As far as overnight shipping....I don't think they even guarentee overnight anymore do they? I think technically overnight is now guarenteed delivery by 3 pm on the second day.

 

[drdoolittle]

Where are you located? I just picked up 10 silkie chicks that I ordered from Michelle Reese of Reese Poultry----she's in OH. They were all in great shape, and she shipped them yesterday afternoon, they arrived at my P.O. at 10:30 this morning. Her birds are very nice, and she may have a hen for sale-----reesepoultry.com. Sorry about what happened to you----I'm always on pins and needles from the time the chicks ship until I actually have them and can see they're o.k.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The post office is not supposed to accept birds if the high is greater than 85 degrees at either shipping or receiving location. Every time I have received a bird (never sent one) there have been phone calls ahead of time verifying the day the bird or birds were being sent.

 

[E.M. Silkies]

This is the sister here!

Hi all,
Thanks for all the advice. I have lots of pictures(will post asap) of the box and chickens. The box was not the large square box but one of the narrow rectangular ones. It was a Horizon box. I will post the pics of the roo and hen in the box together. They were not packed with any type of food or fruit. I'm supposed to hear back from our post office manager tomorrow and she's going to give me all the info she can. All she knew when I talked to her on Friday was that there was a certain time of year to ship birds--you know, when the weather is right-- and last week wasn't it.

Will post pics soon--and I want everyones opinion!!

Thanks

 

[E.M. Silkies]

I have talked to our post office manager but now I'm more confused.
Here's what I know: I did not have any additional insurance put on the parcel I had shipped. The lady at the p.o said that you can't insure lives at all. She said you can't put insurance on the actual critters being sent. A different p.o person in another county said that the shipping boxes automatically come with insurance but just insuring that the box arrives in one piece. So for future shipping reference.... Can I have the birds insured or just the box? I know a seller can provide live arrival guarantee but can the post office do anything? Another question I had was about box sizes-- There's the big square box and then the narrower rectangular box. Which one is standard to send grown silkies in? Or is it either one of those at all?

On another note... I have new hens! I drove a couple hours from home and met a super nice guy raising/selling Silkies and a number of other breeds. I bought two beautiful Silkies from him. I'm so excited to see how they fill out and I'm planning to show them! It was so nice chatting and learning from him. He was just a real nice, down to earth, honest guy! I will definitely buy more birds from him in the future! I asked him to keep me in mind when he hatched out other colors of Silkies and he said he would. He also offered to answer any questions I had any time and said I could send him pictures of birds and he'd look at them and tell me what he thought. I love meeting such great people that share the same interests you do! I will definitely recommend him to anyone interested in Silkies!

 

[Mahonri]

all's well that ends well.