Mail Ordering Birds...

[aruralone]

Well I'm not so sure I should say anything. I work for the Post Office. I'm a rural carrier and we have had good success with our chick shipments. If our chicks miss the truck the distribution office usually calls us and then we can call the customer. I always call my customer as soon as the chicks get in so that I can be sure someone will be home to claim them. Many times the customer wants to come and pick them up. I'm sorry that not everyone has good luck. Maybe you have to be a chick lover!

 

[babsboys]

My post office loves to get chicks. I have to open the box every time before I leave so they can see my fuzzy butts.

 

[the_great_snag]

I think the story on the whole shipping chickens thing was that the postal service's contract air carriers (airlines) did not want to transport live chicks in their cargo holds, and the initial thought was to just stop allowing it and keep the airlines happy. This of course caused on outrage and there was a fierce lobbying effort to get them to continue to ship chicks.

I remember my old McMurray catalogs containing 'write your congressmen' articles a few years ago asking people to call Washington in support of continued shipment of live chicks via the USPS.

There is probably a ton of into on this on the internet. I am NOT an expert, and I didn't mean to imply that all postal workers dislike handling chicks or handle them roughly.

My point was they are required by law (or regulations) to do it, and the level of enthusiasm for it probably varies widely depending on which workers handle your shipment, etc...

I am also 99.9% sure that the postal service is the only major package carrier that will handle live animals, or at least live birds.

 

[the_great_snag]

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This has always been my experience too.

 

[Judy]

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Of course you should say something! It is good to hear that things go this well where you are, and that you take care with these shipments.

I have not before heard of distribution centers calling local PO's when chicks miss a truck. I hope this is much more common than I am aware of!

When things go badly, people get frustrated with the USPS, or the hatchery. Yet there are really not a lot of threads on here about shipments gone bad, even though there are obviously a huge number of chicks being shipped this year, since hatcheries are staying sold out til they can hatch more. Seems to me if there were a significant number of careless (or worse) postal employees, we'd hear a whole lot more negative reports. Meanwhile, people will make mistakes. After all, there are also threads here by people who accidentally killed their own chick.

I think you just have to be a responsible employee, not necessarily a chick lover, and it certainly sounds like you are. I am sure your customers appreciate you!

 

[the_great_snag]

Yes, let me clarify...

I am NOT bashing on the USPS. Thank Goodness they allow us to ship chicks through them!

I think the vast majority of shipments are handled great by both the hatcheries and the USPS.

My original point was that I hoped the plethora of negative reports on chick shipments doesn't give the animal rightists ammunition to lobby against live shipment of birds.

 

[Judy]

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I did not know this. Makes me feel a whole lot better about hatcheries. Obviously it was in their own interest, but still, it protected a civil liberty. Good to know. How sad it took millions and lobbying to get it done, as that indicates that that our representatives did not see it as an obvious right.

 

[lisahaschickens]

While I agree that people shouldn't be afraid to post about negative experiences, I do think that they should be written in the light of constructive criticism. "Here is my bad experience, so that we can all learn from it and try to avoid it in the future." When I read something like - "I got a box full of dead chicks and the hatchery is stupid and horrible and I would never mail-order again," I am saddened. Doesn't it seem silly to think that the hatcheries have no regard for the safety and wellfare of the chicks? If they delivered boxes of dead chicks over and over again, they would be out of business in a flash. It is in their best interest to do all that they can for the chicks. Once the boxes leave their facilities, it is out of their hands. And I do agree that it is worrisome that the horror stories that people tell could be fodder for "animal rights" people to try to get this ability to have chicks shipped taken away from us, which makes me sad.

I personally do my best to post my own 100% positive experience with shipped chicks on here every chance I get.

I ordered from McMurray and my shipment arrived here in SW Washington on Februray 9th. My order was for 25 chicks plus one free rare chick, which makes 26 chicks. The post office called me before dawn to tell me I could come pick them up on Monday morning and I could hear the peeping in the background. When I got to the post office, it had been open for 2 minutes and there was already a line. I could hear peeping from inside the office/store room somewhere. Everyone, including the employees, looked a little sleepy and down-in-the-dumps. But, when I got to the front of the line and said I was there for my chicks, the post office employees broke into a huge grin and said, "why yes you are! Here they are! Enjoy them!" He was so nice and happy about the babies... and everyone in line was smiling as I walked out with them. I like to think it brightened their morning.

Anyway, I rushed home with stories of dead babies in my head the whole way... I fully expected to open the box and find several dead chicks in the bottom. I was prepared for this because I knew it was a long, hard trip. But, lo and behold... when I got home and opened the box and started pulling out the cute little peeping fuzzy-butts, I pulled out 27 living, breathing chicks. That's one extra on top of the one free extra one, and 100% alive and well. I popped them in the brooder under the light and they started eating and drinking right away. About an hour later, I gave 10 of them to a lady who split the order with me. The next morning, one was dead by the feeder and the others were hopping on it. I was prepared for this. The next day, one slowly got weaker and died. I was prepared for this as well, as not all chicks are going to make it to adulthood. That is just nature.

My 15 chickens are now 11 weeks old today, and growing like weeds and thriving. They are beautiful and healthy and charming and lovely. The lady who took the other 10 has had zero losses so far. That's 25 out of 27 shipped chicks alive and healthy still. I did have one attacked by a hawk a few weeks ago, and she survived it, amazingly. She is so tough. I love my birds and would recommend McMurray Hatchery and getting chicks shipped in general to anyone who asked. I have had a great experience.

 

[the_great_snag]

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I did not know this. Makes me feel a whole lot better about hatcheries. Obviously it was in their own interest, but still, it protected a civil liberty. Good to know. How sad it took millions and lobbying to get it done, as that indicates that that our representatives did not see it as an obvious right.

I consider a RIGHT to be something like owning a gun or freedom of speech, but I get your point. If the USPS stopped doing it it would've killed the hatchery industry.

It is a necessary service that we would have lost without governmental intervention. This is much like how the government used to require railroads to provide passenger service until the advent of Amtrak (that was a crummy deal though, huh?)

I also think it would've seriously impacted the genetic diversity of the US poultry flock, since cross-mingling of different bloodlines and strains from different geographical areas would've been seriously curtailed.

 

[scbatz33]

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I agree. I think the USPS is like any business, you have good and bad employees. I know my former mail carrier was horrible. She refused to go down my driveway. I had to request she just leave any and all packages at the office. Otherwise my eggs would be riding in a hot car all day!

I also agree about watching the negative comments. There are lurkers even here. We vent about our frustrations for support but there are plenty of people who want to "shut us down" and will take our simple venting out of context.

I had an aquaintance have a problem with her posting on Craig's List. She was looking to rehome her Great Dane and was shut down with in half an hour. These folks have actual web sites and chat groups where they coordinate their efforts to keep people like us from B/S/Ting our animals.

The irony of their efforts to "protect" animals is that they usually accomplish the dead opposite of what those types of groups proport to be doing.