Shipping 9-10 week old chicks

[mediazeal]

I have 2 cockerels I am planning to ship to someone who wants them. (yes it is way too far to drive). I ordered live bird boxes for them and I have talked to the express mail desk. They try to deliver overnight but say it can take 2 nights. The temperature guarantee is 32 degrees to 87 degrees.
I have been told to ship them with pine shavings on the bottom and cut open apples (seeds removed).

They are well feathered and have been in the coop for a week with night temps at high 40's to high 50's.

They are big chickens now so I can only ship one per box
Here is the box
http://www.fortune3.com/Shop@Horizon/cart.cgi?group=2437

Nervous mom here is worried about how many apples? Will the temp be too low and should I wait for them to be older to ship? will the apples be enough water content for 2 nights? should I put some crumbles in too?
suggestions?

It's travel to new home or freezer camp. I want to give them a good home and the one I am sending them too is ideal. Just new to shipping birds. Advice welcome!!

 

[pipermark]

I use to ship birds all the time overnight (yes it can take 2 days to get to some places), never lost one.

I never put apples or fruit in the box, why , they attract flies and insects, which will cause the birds more of a discomfort then being without water.

I would put in this green stuff that you get for baby chicks, but the name alludes me.

I would give the birds , begining 24 hours before mailing, pedeolyte instead of straight water, to help them through the upcoming stress ful period.

I would wait until close to the time the mail truck leaves our local post, so the bird was sitting as little as possible at our post office. In my case thats 2:00pm. If I were to bring the birds in before work, 8:00am , you can see that would add an additional 5 hours of stress that could have been avoided.

Well , thats all I got to say , have a nice day.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Quote:
I think the green stuff is called Grow-gel. When I recieved my silkies from across the country, there was slices of cantaloupe in the box. They seemed to be fine. Good luck with shipping!

 

[pips&peeps]

In my opinion they are too young to ship.

You can ship day olds and I believe older birds must be at a certain weight before your are supposed to ship them. I would have to look into the postal regulations. You really shoudl wait another 4 weeks.

Also, have you tried to see if there is another post office in a bigger town closer to the recipient that you can get the birds to overnight? They can do a hold for pick up at a different post office. It's quite simple.

 

[mediazeal]

I love this board. I so appreciate the great advice from folks with experience.

 

[pips&peeps]

Postal regulations state you can ship day old poultry express mail or priority mail. You must ship adult poultry express mail only.

According to their regulations those are the only two types you can ship; day olds and adults.

http://pe.usps.gov/search/jsp/searc...arser=Simple&querytext=(poultry)&dtype=2#hit0