We received our chicks on Thursday that had been sent on Monday. Unlike past years when the PO would call us at 5am, no one called this time. About 10am I asked my husband to drive over to the PO to see if something was there for us. Sure enough, there they sat cold and on the floor.
Were they peeping? Making any noise at all? If not, it’s possible they thought they were already dead, and were maybe reluctant to call you just to give you a box of dead animals? In a way, you can’t blame them.
If they were cheeping, then I’d be heading down there with one of the revived
, to speak with the postmaster. I’d let them see the little life that was nearly extinguished by the careless handling of their workers. Unfortunately, there’s no question about whether someone gives a ___ about animals when applying to work in the postal system. Sadly, there’s probably more than a few that are annoyed by the noisy chicks they have coming thru their facilities.
Actually, I think I’d go down either way. That way you can show him that in the seemingly lifeless box of “live animals” there were indeed living chicks. Explain that even if they think the chicks are dead, they really need to still call the addressee, because there’s a chance that some are in shock but still alive. For them to have a shot at survival, they need to be placed in a warm area, and given to the owner ASAP, not left on a cold floor for hours.
Hatcheries hatch eggs on a schedule to meet their orders. So how do they fulfill all of these back orders when they can finally ship?
They set extras for each hatch date. They have to in order to account for those that don’t develop, the ones that don't hatch on time, the ones that don’t survive the hatch, those that are obviously deformed, and of course, to replace the ones lost in shipment. It also gives them extras to add to small orders & to raise for sale as pullets.
Was it the 72 hours in cold temps with less care than the USPS has given in the past? Did I just get a bad batch? Even though my brooder set up has not changed from past years...am I doing something wrong? The one tonight had been acting perfectly normal all day, doing what chicks do. It had a full crop when I found it. We have nipple water feeders so I know it did not drown. There was no blood or other signs of "fowl play." The heater is on and plenty warm but the chick was at the opposite end of the brooder where we keep the food and water. What is going on?
I'm sad for what these little birds have gone thru.
The cold temps probably didn’t help things, but many others got their chicks without many losses, so it surely not the whole reason. They could’ve been handled roughly by any worker or workers along the journey, The crate the box was in could have fallen off of a conveyor in transit... or the truck taking mail from the airport to the sorting or transfer facility could’ve broken down. Or there could’ve been a delay unloading the cargo from the plane or from the trailer.
Keep in mind, that the semi driver’s do not load their own trailers, & have no idea what is back there. Likewise, the workers moving cargo from the planes to trucks. And often the environment is loud and they wear mandated hearing protection, so they aren’t even gonna hear any noise coming from a crate.
Even if they did... it’s not like they can rip into a crate, or crates, searching for something making noise. The best they can do is try to get it the whole crate moved to a slightly protected area. It’s not up to the workers to make decisions as to what gets prioritized... the computerized system is supposed to manage that, and as far as any given worker knows, the animals are moving thru the system exactly the way they’re supposed too— quickly & efficiently.
Substituting their own judgement could end up causing exactly the problems everyone thinks they ought to be solving! For all we know, some of the complaints I’ve seen about boxes of chicks being lost”— “how can no one know where they are?”— Could be due to a worker thinking they can help protect someone’s chicks, only to have their efforts end up causing a crate to not get put on a flight, or a truck, or whatever... thus delaying things and causing problems.
Your brooder set-up, if it’s been successful in the past is probably fine. It never hurts to double check that the thermometer is still calibrated, and that parameters are still set properly.
It‘s possible (maybe even probable) that your unexplained chicky death was due to a congenital problem, or from something that was in no way related to your care or due to shipping. Some chicks will die no matter what you do. Even in perfect circumstances, some chicks do not thrive and will simply fall over dead with no warning at all!
