I order from Ideal and have never had a single loss. In four shipments.
As an aside, animal rescuers and rehabilitators do not use honey. People get mixed up and use raw honey, and raw honey contains bacteria that can kill an animal or infant/toddler or baby animal with a weakened gut/immune system. We avoid honey as a recommendation and avoid it's use in general. Many will survive it, too many already weak or young don't.
If you must use some form of sugar for quick rescue energy, agave syrup is now more widely available does not cause the same diabetic dehydration of other sugars. And Light Karo though as tough on the system as sugar, works quicker and digests more simply and is easier on the gut.
Sugar has been used for ages, most often safely. The others are just a tad safer when dealing with infant and dying animals.
The link to safe electrolyte concentrations is correct, pedialyte, the gator-aid dilution, and feed store electrolyte solutions can be diluted and used and in dehydration and heat stress - electrolytes are the major factor.
Without a proper electrolyte balance all the sugar and food in the world will not correct itself.
The temps here have been violently weird and with every five to ten degrees of heat, shipping becomes rapidly less safe.
Millions of chicks are shipped. It's generally the post office that loses them, miss sends them, misroutes them, or handles them roughly or leaves them in the sun or delivers them properly. Most make it. Some don't. Most letters make it from A to B but a surprising amount of mail is lost or destroyed. Sheer numbers.
I'm sorry you lost them. I'm sorry for the distress but in general the hatcheries try and the postal system works. I would use Ideal again but at this point I'm hatching like a demon and don't need them.
It's not normal to lose any much less a whole batch. I feel for you deaths in small numbers are bad enough. Hang in there.
As an aside, animal rescuers and rehabilitators do not use honey. People get mixed up and use raw honey, and raw honey contains bacteria that can kill an animal or infant/toddler or baby animal with a weakened gut/immune system. We avoid honey as a recommendation and avoid it's use in general. Many will survive it, too many already weak or young don't.
If you must use some form of sugar for quick rescue energy, agave syrup is now more widely available does not cause the same diabetic dehydration of other sugars. And Light Karo though as tough on the system as sugar, works quicker and digests more simply and is easier on the gut.
Sugar has been used for ages, most often safely. The others are just a tad safer when dealing with infant and dying animals.
The link to safe electrolyte concentrations is correct, pedialyte, the gator-aid dilution, and feed store electrolyte solutions can be diluted and used and in dehydration and heat stress - electrolytes are the major factor.
Without a proper electrolyte balance all the sugar and food in the world will not correct itself.
The temps here have been violently weird and with every five to ten degrees of heat, shipping becomes rapidly less safe.
Millions of chicks are shipped. It's generally the post office that loses them, miss sends them, misroutes them, or handles them roughly or leaves them in the sun or delivers them properly. Most make it. Some don't. Most letters make it from A to B but a surprising amount of mail is lost or destroyed. Sheer numbers.
I'm sorry you lost them. I'm sorry for the distress but in general the hatcheries try and the postal system works. I would use Ideal again but at this point I'm hatching like a demon and don't need them.
It's not normal to lose any much less a whole batch. I feel for you deaths in small numbers are bad enough. Hang in there.
