Freedom Ranges Dying

[bearfretworks]

Our order of 100 Freedom Rangers arrived Friday and all were/are in great health. We split the order with some friends so half of them are now gone. The only "issue" was that the Postal Service delivered the chicks to a different town than we live in. Luckily it is only 10 minutes away So it looks like the midwest jinx is broken.

 

[eKo_birdies]

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Did they say if there was a continuing problem with them shipping to/thru the midwest, or just a particular day/week/month? Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

I am under the impression that this was an isolated incident, based on my conversations with folks at the hatchery. I have another (larger) order shipping the 26th. So we will see, but I don't anticipate any problems.

And on a side note - I live up at about 8,000 feet in Colorado and randomly got like 2 feet (literally) of snow this past week and had no power for 48 hours. I have around 200 birds under brooders (well not 200 - 87 week old rangers and 95 3 week old f. guineas, all from JM), so when the power went out it was panic mode. To make matters worse they closed the roads getting to my house and I did not have a generator. It was almost 8 hours until I could get a generator up to my house... and ALL, every last one, of the birds survived. I just laid blankets over the brooder and placed rocks (covered in towels) in there that I had warmed in the wood burning and Russian stoves. ALL the birds lived. It was amazing. They did not pile up whatsoever, something that I am fairly certain would have happened with the Cornish Xs, causing inevitable losses. As far as the french guineas, they are in a large, uninsulated 20x16 building that was built for them, and that building alone held enough heat for them to all survive.
Basically... these all are some hardy little birds!