Well my first time around trying to get into silkies, I bought 2 dozen eggs. They arrived after 4 days in the mail badly beaten up and none hatched.... My loss....
I ended up driving about 4 hours away and getting 5 silkies that I love very much, but two of them are males. I decided I needed to add some more pullets to my flock. Since I've made the (expensive) decision to work with paints, I bought 5 silkie pullets, paint and off-color from paint. I won't even get into how much I spent - more than I really had, but we made it work. They are all over 3 months old and overnight express is suppose to be very successful I thought.
The high yesterday was 90 degrees where they were shipped from in the south, and here in the midwest it is 60 degrees today. They were in the mail about 22 hours when I picked them up. The box smelled dead. I don't know how that smell could be there so quickly, I'm guessing they sat in the heat for quite a long time before they were shipped. There were 6 sent in 2 small boxes. I'm guessing 3 in a small space in the heat was too much for them? I really have no idea, I don't have any experience with shipping chickens. The seller had sent one extra chicken - that is why there were 6. It was soooo sad to see two beautiful silkies dead.... Even though the other 4 look great, I'm so sad about the ones I couldn't help.
Not sure what to do, nothing I can do. Haven't heard back from the seller, but I did notify this morning, and send pictures, just because I know there are dishonest people out there. I don't know what I should expect, if anything.
This has all been very discouraging. I have no faith in having anything mailed. When I couldn't find what I'd wanted locally, I had hoped this would be a really good option.
The good news is I still have a nice little starter flock, so I'll move forward focusing on them.
Thanks for hearing me vent my thoughts.... Please share if you have any ideas on what went wrong with the 2 deaths. They really looked good, weird as that is, aside from being dead. They were stiff, they definitely died yesterday. I'd like to learn from this.
I ended up driving about 4 hours away and getting 5 silkies that I love very much, but two of them are males. I decided I needed to add some more pullets to my flock. Since I've made the (expensive) decision to work with paints, I bought 5 silkie pullets, paint and off-color from paint. I won't even get into how much I spent - more than I really had, but we made it work. They are all over 3 months old and overnight express is suppose to be very successful I thought.
The high yesterday was 90 degrees where they were shipped from in the south, and here in the midwest it is 60 degrees today. They were in the mail about 22 hours when I picked them up. The box smelled dead. I don't know how that smell could be there so quickly, I'm guessing they sat in the heat for quite a long time before they were shipped. There were 6 sent in 2 small boxes. I'm guessing 3 in a small space in the heat was too much for them? I really have no idea, I don't have any experience with shipping chickens. The seller had sent one extra chicken - that is why there were 6. It was soooo sad to see two beautiful silkies dead.... Even though the other 4 look great, I'm so sad about the ones I couldn't help.
Not sure what to do, nothing I can do. Haven't heard back from the seller, but I did notify this morning, and send pictures, just because I know there are dishonest people out there. I don't know what I should expect, if anything.
This has all been very discouraging. I have no faith in having anything mailed. When I couldn't find what I'd wanted locally, I had hoped this would be a really good option.
The good news is I still have a nice little starter flock, so I'll move forward focusing on them.
Thanks for hearing me vent my thoughts.... Please share if you have any ideas on what went wrong with the 2 deaths. They really looked good, weird as that is, aside from being dead. They were stiff, they definitely died yesterday. I'd like to learn from this.
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