Has Anyone Ordered From Freedom Ranger Hatchery Before?

[SusanME]

I just had a very frustrating experience with Freedom Ranger Hatchery- or, rather, Fifth Day Farm, which is where they sub out their Khaki Campbell duck hatching to. My 13 year old and his best friend, who is a poultry farmer (like, his own farm, very serious kid), researched and chose Freedom Ranger, so I went with it without research on my own. We ordered 15 khaki campbells, intending to keep 3 ourselves, the other 2 going to my kid's buddy and a neighbor.
I got an email that they had been shipped on 7/6 and would arrive 7/8. No tracking number. 7/8 came - no birds. I called the hatchery & he couldn't supply a tracking number. If you buy a box of laundry soap online, you get a tracking number. I couldn't believe how unconcerned he was- basically telling me they'd probably shipped a day late (after getting an email saying they'd been shipped on the right date) and to call him the next day if they didn't show up.
Thankfully, they did arrive the next day- he shipped 16, one arrived dead and completely flattened by the other birds.
The surviving birds have been healthy, as far as we know (we only have three), but I really couldn't believe they couldn't give me a tracking number on 16 live birds. I'll be looking into different hatcheries (maybe Cackle, from what I'm hearing, or Al's Quackery here in Maine) when we eventually buy more ducks.

 

[MaddylTN]

I know this is a post from years ago, but I wish I had searched here before we ordered from this hatchery. We ordered 50 freedom ranger meat birds (straight run) for late spring, and were ensured that the birds would be delivered in less than 3 days. With Covid-19, we asked if we should pay for the 1-day shipping, and they said no, that the priority mail was still being delivered on time. The tracking said otherwise, so we were concerned. The package tracking went dark after day 2, and no one had any idea about where our chicks were. Day 4 they arrived at our post office, all were dead. Freedom Ranger hatchery replaced our order, but they could only supply all males. We insisted this time on one-day shipping and we paid for that. We kept a close eye on the tracking and again after the chicks were on the road for a day, the tracking went dark. Panic set in, and I called Post Offices and terminals along the route. No one knew where the chicks were, and after hours of calls and emails, I learned that there was a glitch in the order address....the address lines in the shipping document were mispopulated, my address was my zipcode, and the zipcode was my street address. I reached out to the hatchery and after I provided screenshots of the messed up address from the post office documents, they said that the post office always throws them under the bus. I insisted that they actually look at what I sent them. He finally looked at the document, and said he would look into the software glitch. There was an APB put on the package from all of the folks at various Post Offices and Terminals as a result of my phonecalls to them (the hatchery did not put effort in to find this package or make calls), and because Post Office workers were personally looking for this package locally and at their offices and terminals along the route, the package was found and the chicks made their way to my post office in 2.5 days. Personal phone calls and communication between employees and myself were the only things that got the chicks delivered (mostly) alive.

To note, all of the birds but one were alive, and they are happy and healthy now. The quality and health of the birds are excellent, we are very happy with that aspect of the hatchery. But they really have work to do with the systems they use in our experience. I am only writing this because I wonder how this glitch has impacted their timely delivery beyond just our case, and to give others a heads-up that this has been an issue for them. We have never had this issue with Cackle, and unless we can physically pick up birds at Freedom Ranger Hatchery, we will be using Cackle for all our chick orders.

I am super scared as I am experiencing this issue currently. I was told I would receive my chicks at the latest within 2 days. We are on day 3 and shipping has gone completely Ghost. Super anxious... I also didn't receive proper shipping information until later hours of the evening the day they were shipped.
I haven't received any updates and usps is saying I won't receive them until Friday.. I am terrified that they are all going to be dead upon arrival.

 

[Miss Lydia]

From what hatchery?