Is this right? Shipping question

[MuranoFarms]

I order chick boxes to ship keets in...supposed to fit 25 chicks each. This can't possibly be right! lol They are so small!

Just for reference...I put 9 week old banty chicks in there. Looks awfully crowded in there!

 

[jcatblum]

I order some other colors last week too! Can't wait for them to arrive. Next week pick up a few & try putting them back in that box, you will be shocked how they ever fit in there!

 

[MuranoFarms]

I need to order about 100 more guineas! lol Well....that's what DH says!

I ordered the boxes so I could start shipping keets, but they look so flimsy! I've never ordered keets/chicks to be shipped to me, so I suppose I should first just to see how it's done.

 

[jcatblum]

They just put 25 chicks inside the box. Hay in the bottom & strap it close. Packing label is on the outside. Nothing special or fancy. Have you priced out shipping the keets? With the cost of shipping I think it would be hard to sell the keets & make the same as selling locally. Day old keets go for $3.50-$4 at auction here everyday. I think selling @ the auction is easiest & fastest. Don't have to entertain multiple buyers & don't have a lot of time invested. I always order birds from places with free shipping. I am guessing it would cost $30+ to ship a box of live birds? Don't know just guessing.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
Where do you order birds with free shipping?

 

[PeepsCA]

Most that ship keets or chicks ship day olds... because the residual yolk they've just absorbed prior to hatching can sustain them for a couple days while they are in the shipping transit.

I just shipped 33 day old keets in a box like that to perchie.girl about 2 weeks ago. They had plenty of room, and were able to keep themselves warm. The box came with mats for the bottom for traction for each side. I zip-tied water melon slices to the inside so they had moisture, sugar and something to do along their travels. They all made it, no casualties, but we opted to ship them over night (Express Mail - USPS).

It was almost $40 to ship them. I only shipped them from Northern CA down to Southern CA tho.

 

[jcatblum]

Quote:
Where do you order birds with free shipping?

I order from different places, most recent order was strombergs. I am all for getting birds from someone who you know has good quality & loves their birds, but affordability is also important.

The zip tied watermelons through me for a loop. Will have to google so I can get a visual picture on that!

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
I was in a huge rush to get the keets to the post office on time so they went out on the first truck of the day, so I didn't get a pic of them (pr the water melon) before I closed up the box and added extra zip ties to secure the box tightly...

But I used a half of a slice of water melon (small sugar baby water melon) for each side of the box, poked a hole thru each melon slice above the tough part of the rhine, ran the zip ties thru the melon and thru the center divider in the box and cinched the watermelon slices down tight to the box divider so they would stay put.

Deb said they had it munched down almost all the way and they smelled good when she picked them up from her post office lol.

 

[MuranoFarms]

So, if it's almost $40 to ship them, how do the hatchery's do it? I just ordered some pullet chicks since so many of my customers are asking for egg layers (and I have no intention of leaving myself stuck with all roos! lol) and it was $1.25 per chick, 25 chicks...total $42! How can they do that? Does the post office give a volume discount or something? Maybe there will be a price on the stamp/label when they get here tomorrow.

I think it ended up being $3 per box and mat (that includes shipping) I got them from Cutler supply. Those would need a volume discount too. *sigh*


jcatblum.....I've been selling them for $5 each. I've sold several hundred, but sales are slowing down for the season and I was hoping to start shipping since I have some requests. I'm going to try a swap this weekend, but the only auction I know of wont let you set a starting price and I'm afraid to have a whole box of them sell for practically nothing.

 

[PeepsCA]

I don't know how the hatcheries do it and $42 for 25 chicks delivered is definitely cheap! Keets are usually a little more expensive than chicks, but they must get some sort of a business rate on their shipping, PLUS I bet they don't ship them overnight (Express) like we chose to do for Deb's batch.

If I had just shipped them Priority Mail it would have only been around $15, but Priority Mail is not guaranteed for 2-day shipping, it could take up to 3 days (poor babies). My hatch was a little staggered and I did not want to risk them getting stuck in a post office or even worse a postal truck somewhere over the weekend and losing half of them because of dehydration, getting too hot during the day or too cold at night even.

Since Deb wanted 30 keets I did not want to risk stuffing them all in a 25-chick box... so I ordered a divided box that held up to 50 and put half on each side... plus the melon slices. Cutlers only listed their 25-chick boxes in packs of 10 or more and I only needed 1 box... so I ordered mine from egg cartons.com, and it came with the traction pads, which worked out great, no splayed legs. It wasn't $3 tho, even without the shipping on it, lol.

If you find out how the hatcheries pack those chicks up and ship em out so cheaply, let me know, cuz I wanna know too!