how do i ship?

[sdshoars]

i need to ship 7 day old chicks. they will only be in transit for one day. how do i go about shipping the little guys?

 

[ChickenToes]

Hmm...I would check with the post office, there may be certain requirements for shipping live poultry.

Otherwise I would say in a heavy duty cardboard box with air holes, with straw on the bottom of the box. The only red flag I see is about feed/water during transit...day old chicks have yolk sacs to live off of, will your chicks be okay for one day without food and water?

Edited to add - - did you mean you have seven 1-day-old chicks to ship or a bunch of 7 day old chicks? If they are only 1 day old, you don't need to worry about them, they should be fine getting nourishment from the yolk sac.

 

[sdshoars]

seven one day olds.

 

[hinkjc]

There are required shipping boxes for shipping all live birds. They are made by Horizon and can be ordered online.

Day old chicks must be shipped within 24 hours of hatch for safe arrival. There are various opinions on how many should be shipped to ensure they are warm enough for a safe arrival. I have found 15 works best for us.

You also want to consider the temp of their travels. Some parts of the country are very hot and if the chicks get stuck in the back of a truck for several hours, they will die.

There is no 1 day shipping service that I am aware of. You may want to look into that as well. Express is only guaranteed 2nd day and usually takes the 2 days.

Jody

 

[KierBri]

you're better off with priority, it's faster. my ducks arrived in one day, oregon to ct. they specified they would not use express for that reason.

 

[Calebs Acre]

I have a friend who works the counter at the USPS. Express Mail is the preferred way to send live birds. If you live near major airports, the service is guaranteed overnight. If not, it can be two days. I am in the NYC area, so I don't have problems receiving overnight packages, as long as they are coming from towns that are also overnight areas. Many far out rural areas are two day express mail zones.

Express mail is always given special handling over priority mail. Express should always arrive faster than priority because it is received by the post offices more than once a day and is not part of the regular mail delivery service.

When I had eggs shipped priority, they arrived in two days. When I had day old geese shipped Express, they were here overnight. You should take the zip code to which you are shipping and ask your postal clerks to check the shipping times for express and priority. Their computers should be able to tell you what is the fastest method. I swear that I read somewhere that live birds HAD to go express mail because of postal regulations, but I could be having a Senior Moment and my mind could be fabricating information on that one.

Good luck!

 

[hinkjc]

We don't use Priority because it is not a guaranteed service. It is for the buyer and my protection to have a guarantee.

As far as time...I have found no rhyme or reason as to arrival times. I sent live birds Express and a Priority box of eggs to the exact same address at the same time, same day. The eggs got there in 2 days..the birds in 3. You just never know. The only time I have ever gotten an Express box to its destination overnight was within my own state.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

Jody

 

[Calebs Acre]

I had two juvenile geese shipped to me via express leaving yesterday at 2:15PM from Georgia and they arrived here in NY at 10:30AM. It's 11:50AM now and they are in their new area, investigating. I might just be lucky, but I have found if I inquire from zip code to zip code, I get the guaranteed time. When they get to the post office, they call me immediately to come and get them. I don't even have to wait in line...someone takes me out of line and goes to get the birds for me.
I'm SURE there are horror stories, but I know that the post office tries very hard to meet the express deadlines...at least in this part of the country.
Just got online to let the shipper know that the birds arrived safely. Gotta go play with the babies!