Tell me about your 2021 mail order chick experiences so far

[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.

 

[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.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

I got a shipment from Meyer of ducks and geese and they're all doing great. Shipped late on a Monday and arrived by Wednesday. Post Office let me pick them up before they even opened.

 

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

I ordered 25 icedlandic chicks from WI to MT. Took just under 72 hours. This was in early April.

26 arrived happy and full of energy. 1 pooped out for no apparent reason.

 

[Sueleewebdesign]

I ordered 4 week old pullets from Murray McMurray and they left on the truck yesterday according to USPS and should have arrived today by noon. It's now 1:43 PM so I'm obsessively refreshing the USPS tracking page as well. I tried to call the post office but no one answered and when I called the customer service line there is a 70 minute wait. :-( The temps here today are in the mid 90s and super humid so I'm worried about them now.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I ordered 4 week old pullets from Murray McMurray and they left on the truck yesterday according to USPS and should have arrived today by noon. It's now 1:43 PM so I'm obsessively refreshing the USPS tracking page as well. I tried to call the post office but no one answered and when I called the customer service line there is a 70 minute wait. :-( The temps here today are in the mid 90s and super humid so I'm worried about them now.

Not sure where you are, but I ordered 4 week old pullets from McMurray last year and they got to me in Texas in 2 days healthy and happy

 

[RLockhart68]

Ordered from cackle hatchery this year after a bad experience with welp last year. (They put the wrong phone number on the box, when the PO called them to get the right number they said it was the number they had for my account, thankfully the postal worker delivered them to me, checked my account and it was correct on it, no tracking info was provided)
Ordered 20 turkey poults for April 12 hatch. Shipped late Monday night from Lebanon MO and arrived at my post office Wednesday morning. 24 happy healthy chicks. Lost 2 in the first 24 hours. Completely my fault.
Ordered 25 meat chicks. No ship date choice given. Didn't know that they partner with a hatchery in PA would have ordered directly from it. Got email order confirmation with a ship date of April 3. Actual ship date was April 4 (not a big deal) took the same amount of time for the chicks to get to NY from PA as the turkeys from MO. 26 happy healthy chicks arrived Thursday morning, all still alive.
One more batch of meat chickens come end of June from a PA hatchery. We'll see if they are better than cackle

 

[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.

 

[Sueleewebdesign]

Not sure where you are, but I ordered 4 week old pullets from McMurray last year and they got to me in Texas in 2 days healthy and happy

Good to know, I'm in Central Florida so it's a bit warm this time of year too.

 

[Chicken Mom Peg]

I ordered 25 chicks (5 each silver, golden, and white capped black Polish, 5 Crevecouers, 5 mottled Houdans) from Murray McMurray. They sent an extra polish and 1 free chick. I got the text they shipped on a Tuesday night. The tracking didn't update. I made several calls to the post office no help. They finally arrived at the post office on Friday. When I picked them up 5 were already dead. Over the first weekend I lost 8 more. I cleaned pasty butts and gave honey/ water like murray mcmurray suggested. I have 7 left of 27 chicks from that order. I got a refund for most of the dead ones.

I placed a new order with Meyer hatchery (25 assorted rare breed layers) figuring they were closer and shipping wouldn't take as long. The text came on Tuesday that they shipped. They sent 2 free chicks as well.