VERY UPSET ...Shipping of chicks through the USPS~

[mypicklebird]

I was a part receiver of a shipped batch of 100 meat bird from the east coast to the west coast that got stuck in the big east coast snowstorm a few weeks back- it took *5* days to arrive. There were only a couple dead in the box, and about 10% were lost over the next few days. Sad for the deceased chicks- but when thinking about the faster metabolism of meat birds- 3 days for day old chicks is should not result in starvation. If chicks arrive in 2-3 days and there are unusual numbers of dead chicks- something else happened. Like the box was on end and they crushed each other, or it got too hot or too cold. It is a bummer when you don't know where your package is, but they are amazingly tough when you think about what the package goes through to arrive at a destination. Being able to track the box would not have helped the situation, unless you are prepared to drive to the intermediate station to get the box.


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If they are born on mon they need to eat by tuesday. I don't know........would one day of no food kill a baby chick. Or were they born sunday, shipped monday and it would be 2 days. i am curious now.............

Just hatched chicks live on the yolk for 3 days. They don't have to eat or drink within 24 hours.

 

[mstricer]

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WHY would they ship on a saturday, I would request another day. For one usps is only open till noon on saturdays and not on sundays, So that would be stupid to except that as a delivery day, they will already be sitting somewhere in the cold for 2 days before they are shipped out of the first stop. You should stop that shipment. I know that where I order my chicks (Meyers hatch ship days on tuesday wed and thursday, so they arrive on time) (I pick up since I live close) Last year I ordered from Mt healthy and they arrived in 2 days. If your chicks are sent on a Saturday chances are they will be DOA and that would be sad.
Edit I got it wrong on Meyers ship date they are shipped so arrival at your post office is tuesday wednesday and thursday.

 

[mstricer]

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PLEASE RE-READ MY POST! ... my complaint is NOT the shipper, and NOT the post office!!!

You do say with the post office

 

[asher]

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That's exactly what Asheville did for me as well. They do not do that when I get day olds in, but always have for my Express packages.

What to do? Don't order when it's so cold or don't mail order at all, if it concerns you. Although, I will say, Monday and Tuesday were both above freezing, at least here (not sure about Asheville), but it was still super cold for little dibbies.

You were guaranteed Express mail, but check and see what guarantee that was. I know we only get 2 day guarantee down here. It will tell on the receipt when it was guaranteed by, but even then, they will only refund your express shipping cost. I think the hatchery has to refund for your birds, not the P.O, but I am not positive.

Fed Ex airplanes are used, I believe, for longer distances, to get them there quicker so they would have/could have taken even longer to get there.

Also, if you are looking to get more marans and not order in the mail, there is a breeder in Leicester that has marans. Let me know if you want his contact information. He does not ship, but you're not very far at all.

 

[daps2000]

I'm glad some of you understand ... THANK YOU ...

I did pick it up at the main office ... instead of waiting yet another day to get to me ... the times between AL ... and arrivel at NC is my concern ... who knows what they went through ... and I've learn my lesson ... the little baby's are doing great that made it ... and I'm thankful for that! snif ... sniff! Adding salt would be posting the very upsetting pictures I have! I just don't want to look at them again! So I'm sure that no one else wants to either!

Service Type: Express Mail PO-Add

Shipment Activity Location Date & Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arrival at Post Office ASHEVILLE NC 28810 02/24/10 4:42pm

Processed through Sort ASHEVILLE NC 28810 02/24/10 4:42pm
Facility

Processed through Sort BIRMINGHAM AL 35203 02/22/10 7:56pm
Facility

Acceptance GADSDEN AL 35901 02/22/10 4:12pm


Reminder: Track & Confirm by email

Date of email request: 02/22/10

 

[mstricer]

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That's exactly what Asheville did for me as well. They do not do that when I get day olds in, but always have for my Express packages.

What to do? Don't order when it's so cold. Although, I will say, Monday and Tuesday were both above freezing, at least here (not sure about Asheville), but it was still super cold for little dibbies.

You were guaranteed Express mail, but check and see what guarantee that was. I know we only get 2 day guarantee down here. It will tell on the receipt when it was guaranteed by, but even then, they will only refund your express shipping cost. I think the hatchery has to refund for your birds, not the P.O, but I am not positive.

I appeicate my mail carry, I think they do a great job and have never yet had a problem. My mail lady even brought my chickies to me before she did her other runs. I think that was very nice of her. Go ahead call me a suck up, I will be that, since I will be ordering some meaties from Pennsylvania in a few weeks. Go Postal carriers some of us truly appeciate you.

 

[asher]

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haha Some of us rock. Some of us don't. Sometimes things happen or go wrong, just like with any other job. It's rotten, but, unfortunately, it happens and it's very rarely done intentionally.

 

[daps2000]

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That's exactly what Asheville did for me as well. They do not do that when I get day olds in, but always have for my Express packages.

What to do? Don't order when it's so cold or don't mail order at all, if it concerns you. Although, I will say, Monday and Tuesday were both above freezing, at least here (not sure about Asheville), but it was still super cold for little dibbies.

You were guaranteed Express mail, but check and see what guarantee that was. I know we only get 2 day guarantee down here. It will tell on the receipt when it was guaranteed by, but even then, they will only refund your express shipping cost. I think the hatchery has to refund for your birds, not the P.O, but I am not positive.

Fed Ex airplanes are used, I believe, for longer distances, to get them there quicker so they would have/could have taken even longer to get there.

Also, if you are looking to get more marans and not order in the mail, there is a breeder in Leicester that has marans. Let me know if you want his contact information. He does not ship, but you're not very far at all.

THANK YOU ... but I hatched 4 ... Drove last week to GA (which I should have done for the the little bitties) and picked up Three ... and now I have 8 more ... so that is 15! ... I'm happy with that ... and I'll be hatching my own in the future ...

ON A VERY HAPPY NOTE: my 3 I picked up from GA ... they where from 12 eggs that got shipped to HI .. and back ... 2 weeks in the hands of USPS! ... the shipper couldn't put them in the trash ... so in the incubator they went ...and 5 hatched!

REALLY ... I'm not upset with the PO ... and ASHEVILLE PO is was great ... very understand to my needs ... below is my 3 Hawaiian baby's AND ... 2 of my Americana baby's from my hens ... that did not ship ...!!! <smile>

 

[asher]

hahaha You sound about as crazy as me! ;-)

Too bad you didn't know about having some in your backyard before doing all of that driving!

If you ever need his information, pm me and I'd be glad to pass it along.

Best wishes with your biddies!

 

[firedove]

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McMurray always ships on Saturday and although your local PO is not open late on Saturday or on Sunday, mail is still moving on those days. I can pick up McMurray chicks at the Keene USPS site on a Sunday night if they are nice enough to let me since that is the last stop before Fitzwilliam, my local PO. I didn't find that out until after I received my chicks last February but I received them on Monday morning at my local PO and only had 2 losses out of 29 chicks, one crushed and one failed to thrive. I've had a similar fatality rate with one batch of chicks hatched here, the other chicks in the bator messed up one chick who tried to hatch and one chick failed to thrive after a difficult hatch. Chicks die sometimes, it's just a fact, they are fragile creatures.

Shipping in winter is hard because of the cold, in the summer they get too hot on the trucks and dehydrate and die. Shipping chicks is never perfect but for every one horror story there are hundreds of successful shipments, if there wasn't they would have stopped it by now.

My tips for shipping chicks:

If you hear there is going to be bad storms between you and the shipper when your ship date comes up, cancel or postpone your order. Big hatcheries will have more of those same breeds some other ship date. With private deals it's up to you, if you don't want to risk the chicks just pass and find another person selling at a better time.

and

Never pick a ship date that preceeds a holiday weekend

Also, talk to other local chicken keepers, chances are someone has experience with shipping in chicks and can tell you how the PO in your area handles these shipments.

And, just a side note, kinda off topic, if you are buying chicks from your local feed store you are most likely still buying chicks that were shipped through the mail, just the feed store employees get to deal with any losses so you don't have to.