Shipping chickens

[percoco13]

I know that eggs and day old chicks are frequently shipped through the mail. Does anyone have any experience shipping fully grown and mature hens. We are moving from Florida to Colorado and are taking our backyard girls with us. However, ideally I'd like to ship them ahead of time to a receiving friend until we get there- we are planning an extended road trip and taking them in the car with us and the large dog and cat is not an option! Any advice, stories, tips, experiences doing this would be greatly appreciated! I am thinking that they can be shipped overnight as live animal cargo- perhaps two to a box? We have 4-5 total we are bringing. Thanks in advance!

 

[1muttsfan]

Try doing a search with something like "shipping adult birds", and select "most relevant" as your search order. You will come up with quite a few threads.

 

[keesmom]

You can ship them but it will be expensive.

First you need a Horizon poultry shipping container or other USPS approved box. How many you need will depend on how heavy your birds are. I suspect you will need 2 unless they are bantams.

They must be shipped USPS Express. Now in many places Fedex is involved in the shipping between USPS sorting facilities. I know in some places you have to be sure a dry ice free flight is available before you can ship. You will have to talk to your local PO about it.

Express isn't always overnight. Depending on distance traveled it may be 2 days. FL to CO is probably 2 day. Cost could run around $250-300 for shipping, and another $50 if you need 2 boxes.

 

[percoco13]

So we shipped our 4 favorite hens, in the proper (expensive) box after much research and seeing nothing but good experiences. All 4 arrived in Colorado from Florida in about 18 hours, and they had all died. It is believed the post office on the Florida side mishandled the box! Terrible and unfortunate experience! I have some day old duckling being shipped to me in a couple of weeks and am not really anxious about it!