Meyer Hatchery 2 questions please

[biophiliac]

Still waiting with you MerryMouse and holding the thought your chicks will have a heat pack and maybe even some gro-gel. You are probably prepared with some electrolytes for their water. Sending you a hug...

 

[Merrymouse]

Quote:
No rotten tomatoes here. What you said makes sense. Still no chicks, unfortunately. The next truck is 3:00pm, 6 hours from now. Surely the chicks are probably not alive now. Its been at least 72 hours since hatch and probably more. Not sure I'm going to reorder. This is just awful, not the happy, cheerful week with chicks I was anticipating for sure. Thank you all for your kind thought and well wishes. For some reason my computer won't let me multi quote or I would respond to each and every one of you. Has anyone had their chicks survive with more than 72 hours of travel in cold weather? Just curious. Thanks again all <3

 

[Merrymouse]

Quote:
Thank you <3 I have electrolytes, probiotic and nutri-drench on hand.

 

[av8torcrj]

Unfortunately their incentive is to ship, even into the teeth of a storm like this.  If they don't then the chicks are a total loss, I assume.  I'm sure they just destroy them in that case.  They're certainly not in the business of raising un-shippable (i.e. several day old) chicks.  So they'll be very inclined to ship, hoping that the customer gets them in intact, or mostly so.  And that the customer doesn't blame them, but the weather, or the postal service (who may indeed be at least partly culpable, no doubt, but there's only so much they can do in such conditions). 

Of course that's balanced against the dynamic of customer satisfaction and therefore repeat business (as well as word of mouth references and online reviews).  I have no idea how they normally rate, in all respects.  Nor how they compare to other hatcheries, in the case of this storm and in the larger picture.  Maybe they should have been more circumspect about shipping into the teeth of such a certain storm, though we know how weather forecasting can be, and hindsight is 20/20.  Those can be tough calls, as anybody who has experience with weather affecting their business knows all too well.  (I'm a retired pilot, so I have lots of that myself and sympathize.)  I am not defending the hatchery here.  I don't have enough information nor experience with their business to really know one way or the other.  I'm just thinking this through myself.

So here's another way to look at this.  If they hadn't shipped them they would have all died, being destroyed by the hatchery (again, I'm assuming this, so correct me if I'm wrong.  Maybe they have a way of selling older chicks thru retail outlets.)  And if they die enroute from the cold, it probably isn't as painful and awful a death as we would think.  Hypothermia is actually a rather easy way to go, even for humans.  After some violent shivering (not pleasant, but not painful) generally comes unconsciousness, and then death.  This makes it a rather insidious condition for us, and therefore dangerous.  But not the worse way to go.

I'm sure some will be horrified by this rather clinical perspective, but I'm just trying to be objective here, and put aside my emotion.  I fully realize the emotional impact this is having on Merrymouse and would experience very much the same if it were "my chicks."  It sucks, for sure. 

Maybe this helps, maybe not.  Go ahead all you who want to throw rotten tomatoes at me for this.  I can take it.

Bottom line is that I hope they make it through, and in good shape.  And if not then at least it looks like Meyer will replace them under their guarantee (though I know that's not the whole issue here!).

Good luck to you, Merrymouse, and to your chicks. 

My thoughts exactly as if my mind were read. Definitely no tomatoes. I suspect they arrived at CLE and all outbounds to the northeast were canceled due to weather.

 

[Nathan J]

Still no chicks, unfortunately. The next truck is 3:00pm, 6 hours from now. Surely the chicks are probably not alive now.

Wow, I'm really sorry about that. Bummer is an understatement.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Merrymouse, don't let this stop you. If they arrive DOA call Myers, insist they re ship your order I bet they have extras of the breeds they show sold out of. I am still holding out hope they arrive alive , if they don't then get more. Suck it up buttercup! You have come too far to quit now.

Gary

 

[debid]

I'd take a reship. This weather is freakishly abnormal and Meyer has a good reputation for shipping success. I don't know how they do the replacement process but maybe they can get you most of what you ordered even if there aren't enough to have them showing "available" on the website?

 

[Nathan J]

Merrymouse, don't let this stop you. If they arrive DOA call Myers, insist they re ship your order I bet they have extras of the breeds they show sold out of. I am still holding out hope they arrive alive , if they don't then get more. Suck it up buttercup! You have come too far to quit now.

Gary

Yeah, I agree with this. I know it would be hard emotionally. We tend to have a recency bias that makes it feel like there's a high probability of the something bad that just happened to us happening again (e.g. tornado, car accidents, etc.). But in reality the chances of this happening again are likely quite low, as long as the forecast isn't looking bad, of course. Millions of chicks are shipped and do just fine.

Of course you might decide instead to go to a store like TSC or others that sell chicks, but that has its own risks.

Again, I know this is easy for us to say, but we're pulling for you and want you to get your start with some healthy chicks. Chin up.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve never had shipped chicks arrive that late. I have had a chick hatch on a Monday and the hen not bring her chicks off the nest to eat or drink until Friday so it’s possible they can go longer than 72 hours without food or water. This may be more of an issue to the chicks than just the cold. The post office has certain protocols on how they are supposed to handle the chicks, the cold may not be the real threat, the delay and food and water would concern me more. A lot of that depends on how well the employees follow those protocols and you just don’t know. All you can do is wait.

I agree to contact Meyer after they arrive if you have issues. They are a reputable company. Talk to them and see what they can do. You’ve had rotten luck on this storm hitting right now. It’s unlikely you’ll get anything like this again on a reshipment.

 

[Kiki]

Come on 3:00!