Most of My mail order chicks were dead on arrival....

[Hummer]

Greetings to all from Georgia.

Just registered to this forum. I am feeling really sad right now. I ordered 14 chicks from Ideal Hatchery. They arrived today, all dead but 4. Out of the 4 that are alive only two look like they are fine - one of the other two is close to death and the other is real iffy. I am not sure about the conditions in which they were shipped.... They were suppose to have been hatched yesterday and arrived at the post office this afternoon - but spent at least two hours in the back of a closed mail truck - which probably would have been like an oven today. I am broken about it. I am a 45 year old Mother and I still cry like a baby over things like this. I am wondering if I should even attempt to get Ideal to replace the chicks - I certainly don't want anymore to die on account of my ordering them! I am going to call the post office where they first arrived to see what the condition of the chicks was at that time and then go from there to try to determine what went wrong. It has been years since I ordered chicks through the mail - but only lost a couple when I did - one shipment I received was 100% fine. If there is anyone out there ordering this time of year from Texas to Georgia or a similar location - I'd like to know if you have had the same problems, due to possibly the heat....? Maybe this is not really a good time of year to be ordering mail order chicks - even though the hatchery has them available.... Thanks for any input. Sad in Georgia

 

[b.hromada]

and

from S. Florida.

 

[hen-thusiast]

from UT! Sorry for you loss, we ordered ours in the spring, so I can't really help you with the heat thing. I'd guess that sitting in the closed mail truck didn't help things. I'd give Ideal a call and see what they have to say. Good luck!

 

[muell112]

I had a really iffy come this spring and she just needed to be force fed a lot of water - I really thought she was going to die and now she's fine. Sorry for the loss.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Glad to have you here!

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. The heat this time of year can be devastating for chicks shipped through the mail. That said, you could always try calling the hatchery and seeing about getting your order replaced. Sometimes they will do it for free.

Another choice would be to look around on BYC and see if anyone who lives near you would sell you some birds or chicks.

 

[georgialee]

Welcome to BYC!

Did you pick the chicks up at the PO or have them delivered? If they were delivered I would pick them up if you get the order replaced. I think the odds for the chicks would be much better. Also, you could call Ideal and see if they could send a replacement in the fall instead so the the shipping would be (hopefully) less stressful for them. OR (lol) you could get a refund and check out Craigslist. I found almost every breed of chick I wanted on our local craigslist.

I'm so sorry for your loss.