No chicks yet, gaaaahhhhh!!!!!

[SoCalClucker]

Placed an order last week from My Pet Chicken for 6 day-old chicks, to hatch yesterday and be shipped via USPS Express to arrive today. USPS tracking info says the box is still sitting in an Ohio warehouse. :-( MPC told me that USPS's tracking info is often quite delayed, and the fact that the mail hasn't come yet gives me SOME home, but I am sitting here on crazy pins and needles! Not to mention, it is almost 100 degrees outside, so it's not exactly hospitable for tiny chicks in a cardboard box.

Apparently paying $60 for USPS Express to ship live poultry means that, unlike everything else, they don't actually have to get it there overnight. You still pay for it, but you may or may not get it, no guarantees. How does this make any sense at all?

Is they do get delayed and don't arrive until tomorrow, will they still be (probably) okay? Maybe they're still coming today, and the system just isn't updating the box's location? I just need some hope, please, anyone, anything... this is more stressful than waiting for my own children to be born!

 

[KaylorFarms]

I'm sure they didn't update the tracking, when I got mine shipped it said they were in kansas city for a day and a half. But the next morning the post office called me and told me they were at my post office while the tracking said kansas city. I'm sure they'll be there tomorrow

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Placed an order last week from My Pet Chicken for 6 day-old chicks, to hatch yesterday and be shipped via USPS Express to arrive today. USPS tracking info says the box is still sitting in an Ohio warehouse. :-( MPC told me that USPS's tracking info is often quite delayed, and the fact that the mail hasn't come yet gives me SOME home, but I am sitting here on crazy pins and needles! Not to mention, it is almost 100 degrees outside, so it's not exactly hospitable for tiny chicks in a cardboard box.

Apparently paying $60 for USPS Express to ship live poultry means that, unlike everything else, they don't actually have to get it there overnight. You still pay for it, but you may or may not get it, no guarantees. How does this make any sense at all?

Is they do get delayed and don't arrive until tomorrow, will they still be (probably) okay? Maybe they're still coming today, and the system just isn't updating the box's location? I just need some hope, please, anyone, anything... this is more stressful than waiting for my own children to be born!

Next time request UPS. USPS is good for envelopes and that's even hard for them. Unless it's a bill, you will play the waiting game.

 

[SoCalClucker]

Aww thank you Leah, that gives me so much hope... I just found out USPS did come by today already, so it won't be today. But I guess tomorrow is better than Thursday, or never... *siiiiiiggggghhhh*

Is UPS even an option, Farmer Connie?

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Aww thank you Leah, that gives me so much hope... I just found out USPS did come by today already, so it won't be today. But I guess tomorrow is better than Thursday, or never... *siiiiiiggggghhhh*

Is UPS even an option, Farmer Connie?

You don't know unless you ask them. After all, you are paying for the shipping, not them. If they say no, ask them why not? We have had troubles with USPS in the past. And know now to look for alternatives. Especially on things so fragile as your situation. Good luck to you. I hope the best! BTW.. Good thread.

 

[SoCalClucker]

Update: after sitting on hold for 35 minutes, I got through to USPS. It was a very interesting experience. Apparently when a package that's "high priority" (i.e. this customer coughed up serious cash for Express shipping) goes mysteriously missing, they open an investigation to try and track down where it is. The way they do it is rather fascinating... it's the modern-day equivalent of shouting from the rooftops. They send out a memo to involved parts of the USPS system and hope that they get a response from someone who has the package in their possession. Interesting, eh?

For what it's worth, the employee himself was very nice and courteous on the phone. When I told him the box had day-old chicks in it, he made sure to note that on his memo. I'm hoping the package arrives in CA tonight, and is in my hands by tomorrow.

Farmer Connie, I could swear I read somewhere that UPS and FedEx will not ship live poultry. I'll have to look it up again. It had something to do with USPS doing it as a holdover from the old days, but the newer shippers not wanting to take on the responsibility. Hmmm...

 

[KaylorFarms]

Next time request UPS. USPS is good for envelopes and that's even hard for them. Unless it's a bill, you will play the waiting game.

UPS doesn't ship live poultry

 

[SoCalClucker]

They are.on their way here, should be within just a few hours! HOURS!!!!!

 

[KaylorFarms]

Great!!!

 

[SoCalClucker]

Okay I apolgoize in person for this MASSIVE mama update!!!

Basically, a batch of 12 fertilized eggs was shipped for a broody Orpington named Abda. I knew them being shipped = less make it, but okay. then, 2 weeks into 3, a spiteful chicken neighbor smashes the eggs and only 5 are left whole, but still contaminated with yolk and dirt and what else, while Abda starts to look very sad. I would have given up, but DH is a complete gem and says, why don't you order day-old chicks to come on hatch day, maybe it'll help her adopt them and hey, maybe we end up getting a few of our own hatches mixed in there too! So I did. They were supposed to arrive yesterday, but nothing. All night, nothing. And then this morning, they say I need to come down and pick up from the post office. I can't, I can't drive. So they will deliver, before noon. okay... at 12:05 they bring me the box. Whew!!! I open up the box and can't believe that these tiny little fluffballs could possibly have spent 48 hours in a box yet wtihin minutes, be cheepy running all over each other, hawking back Nutri-drench water like it's a good old Scotch, and happy as can be. They drank down tons of enriched water, had some hard boiled egg, and I decided to risk it, taking them out to Abda.

Abda is about as tame as they come. I lift up one wing to tuck a chick in and what do I find but one of her first "own" eggs, hatching! Big hole in shell, hole in membranes, I could see moving and breathing... I'm guessing that means MY HANDS OFF. In the meantime, all 6 day-old chicks are like Abda's new BFFs! They go diving into her layers of feathers and find themselves the most cozy, comfy places to sleep and if I lift a feather to peek, I get a MEAN stare from those tiny pipsqueaks!

I can't be happier. No idea how many of our own fertile egg clutch will hatch, but even 1 would be amazing, and then the fact that she took so intantly to mothering the mail ordered 6 that promised her... something... in exchange and warmth and all life skills.

Thank you so much for all the encouragement, I couldn't have done it with you! Will keep posting updates of the fluffballs and their new big fluffhouse once I figure out how to put up pics.