Tell me about your 2021 mail order chick experiences so far

[doughouse]

Our four chicks hatched and shipped yesterday, and now I'm doing that fun anxious thing where I check the USPS tracking info obsessively every 15 minutes. We ordered from Meyer--we had a good experience with them in the past, and our two orders from them arrived quickly (less than 24 hours for one and ~36 hours for the other). At this point in the day I imagine we're not getting them until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Who else has ordered mail-order chicks this year? How was the experience?

 

[JKHerdItAll]

They showed up this morning! When we opened the box at the office, we were pretty positive that 2 were DOA and the lady kept apologizing on behalf of USPS. They were cold and unresponsive and kinda stiff and didn't look like they were breathing. Just for kicks, I stuck them under the heat lamp and dropped a tiny bit of electrolyte water on their beaks. They both breathed! One started doing the death gasp thing and I was sure she was a goner, but I kept bothering them with another drop of water every few minutes. They both perked up! Now the death rattle one is hogging the food dish and the other is cuddling with another. I'm not sure they're in the clear yet, but for now, they're all alive

 

[karmical]

I ordered 4 chicks from Meyer. They shipped this Monday the 3rd and arrived Wednesday morning. All dead. So upsetting.

 

[JKHerdItAll]

I ordered chicks from Meyer in Jan or Feb for this past Monday’s hatch and I knew as I did it that it was probably a bad idea, but I couldn’t find anyone else with a low minimum order. I’m still waiting for my chicks - USPS says they’re guaranteed tomorrow by 3:30, but tracking hasn’t updated since Cleveland accepted them and none of the USPS people I called can find them. The 3rd person I called said they’ve been having FedEx help fly packages, but FedEx doesn’t use their tracking codes & there’s no way to tell where the chicks are until they are scanned somewhere.

 

[chickmamato7]

I ordered 3 Polish from Meyer this year. They shipped out Mon night and arrived Thurs AM. That was a day longer in transit than I experienced last year from Murray McMurray, but they are now healthy and active (and adorable).

Though the outcome was positive in the end, the experience was extremely frustrating. Tracking was useless. There were no notices after Cleveland, just a guaranteed delivery of Thurs at 3:30 that never got updated. After finally getting the call from my post office that they arrived on Thurs., I raced to the PO only to find a locked door and no way to get the attention of the postal worker who was wearing ear buds and failed to hear me knocking for 45 minutes (actually banging and yelling... acting like a crazy chicken lady trying to save her babies)!

Drove around the building looking for other doors to knock on or people to hear me, but finally gave up and returned home. Tried calling the PO by phone, but there was no answer-- just kept getting a recorded message. Tried complaining to the USPS customer service hotline-- recorded message there, too. Finally the guy at the PO called me back and asked when I was planning to pick up the chicks, because he was worried about them! Apparently they stopped chirping and he had to knock on the box to make sure they were OK!!

Very stressful experience for the chicks and me. I could have picked them up at our main post office on Weds night if I had been informed of their delivery with proper tracking updates. Instead, they sat in a cold box overnight and had to wait till morning to be delivered to my local PO, only to be left sitting again unnecessarily for several hours.

USPS really needs to get their act together. My chicks were weak and stressed when I opened the box. The heat pack was stone cold and there was no Grow Gel available for them (just a sealed package of it in the box). I'm lucky they survived and it took a day of constant attention to get them over the hump.

 

[pony007]

Good experience overall for me. I ordered from Meyer, hatch date march 8th, got them on the 10th. All were happy and healthy, except 1 little dark Brahma who had fallen upside down in the little cardboard pouch for the supplement they provide. She was cold, I had thought she was dead, but on the way home I held her up to a heater vent and by the time we got home she was full of life and cheeping her head off. So 15/15 are still alive and thriving. I ordered more for august, here's hoping all goes well for round 2.

 

[JKHerdItAll]

I’m down to 2 of 6 chicks from Meyer’s Monday May 3 hatch that arrived Thursday morning. These last gals have been the most active this whole time, so I think (pray) they’ll be okay.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

It's been a mixed bag for me this year. Ordered 5 Cream Legbar cockerels and 15 CL pullets from McMurray hatchery along with a 2 RIR pullets, 2 Whiting True Green pullets and 2 Dominique pullets.

First, I was delayed 2 weeks because they didn't have enough chicks hatch. No big deal, I was prepared to wait. But when they finally shipped, I was shorted 7 CL pullets! They were replaced by free males, I think White Leghorn males.

The problem with this is that I asked for no substitutions but they were essentially substituting male White Leghorns for the female CL. They did not call or ask if I would like to wait another couple weeks (which I would have).

I called them and asked for them to send the other 7 on a different week, which posed a bit of a problem because CL are sold out for the rest of the year. It wasn't until I reached a supervisor did they agree to send a make-up order.

But now, I am wishing I hadn't because every single one of the CL is fantastically slow growing, have droopy wings and are in general lacking in vigor. 3 from the first order died within 72 hours. The same thing occured with 2 from the make-up order. Another from the make-up order was the same size at 3 weeks as a day-old chick. My surviving RIR "pullet" (after I lost the other one to some incidents with a scrub jay), turned out to be a cockerel.

Very disappointing.

On the other hand, I am pleased with Cackle hatchery so far. I ordered 25 Buff Orpingtons (straight run) and they sent 27. All arrived on time, within 2 days of shipment. No birds have died, and it looks like most of them are pullets.

I also ordered 10 goslings from Metzer farms. I am pleased with the goslings themselves, but the shipment was very stressful! I did not receive my goslings until the 4th day. Tracking said "In Transit" with no updates. Amazingly, all of the goslings were alive upon arrival, though two have passed since then.

It's a bit ironic, because the chicks from Cackle and McMurray were delivered within 2 days to Southern California coming from the Mid West, but they couldn't get the goslings from Northern California to southern in time! The goslings themselves are doing awesome though, every one is growing at an incredible pace and they have such personalities.

So there, that's my (long) post about my experiences so far this year.

 

[Floof]

I ordered 16 chicks from strombergs (before I realized they source theirs from privett) and they all arrived alive. I had 1 die in the first 24 hours, a male welbar, and then lost a female unexpectedly from unknown causes at almost 2 weeks old. They had shipped Monday and I got the call Thursday morning if I remember correctly.

 

[B_Chickle01]

My very first time raising chicks ever I didn’t lose not one.. this year after having a lot more experience and knowledge i’m losing them left and right. My shipment of D’Uccles from Hoover’s is by far the worst. They were late getting to us and holding on by a thread.