WARNING: Cackle Hatchery

[MysteryChicken]

I've never had problems. Mine were shipped with a glob of grogel in the box as a form of food/water during their trip. It's usually mostly gone by the time they get delivered.

 

[MommyGirl]

Last year I ordered 8 chicks from cackle hatchery that took 5 days to get to me and I thought they would all be dead but Thanks to cackle hatchery six survived the trip because they had thrown in a heat pack, gro gel, and even some chick crumbles in the box. They even sent an extra chick. Three chicks were dead but by no fault of the hatchery. My chicks sat 3 days in Atlanta post office. No storms or any reason just typical usps! And cackle was very pleasant with me when I called to tell my story and gladly refunded me for the chicks I lost. I call the survivors my miracle chicks and I’m so thankful of cackle hatchery for the way they were packaged and for reimbursing me for the lost chicks. Will definitely order from them again! That’s just my story though. I posted the story last year on here about those little miracles that still have me smiling!

 

[MMWV58]

Hello everyone. Please learn from my horrendous experience and be very weary about ordering from Cackle or any hatchery for that matter.

I was hesitant to order any birds ever, but I saw forum after forum and many reviews stating that this hatchery was reputable. I decided to go against my better judgement and ordered 4 ducks and 4 buff orpingtons, thinking that because the hatchery was 4 hours away, I wouldn't need to worry. FALSE.

My birds shipped at 4:30pm on Monday. Tuesday morning they are received in Kansas City then go off into the ether. They sat in warehouses for FOUR DAYS before arriving Friday morning. There were three already dead (one of them was an extra buff) and the rest of the birds were on the edge of death.

The box was crushed. The birds WERE NOT GIVEN any kind of liquid or solid sustenance. I had been in contact with the hatchery every day since they shipped and they told me they had been having lots of issues with USPS. Yet they still shipped the birds with no food or water knowing full well the shipment would take a long time. They claimed they were not allowed to overnight ship. They paid a whopping $6.15 in shipping to my $27.

I lost another duck this morning. She was in horrible shape all day yesterday. She was in a state of extreme shock and nervous system overload. At least she was warm and fed when she passed, unlike her sisters.

I spoke to them about it and they claimed they will take this to the owner, meanwhile I hear in the background a conversation with another customer who lost all their birds. This is a common occurrence and they are wittingly shipping live animals through a failing system and not taking any precautions to prevent death of the animals. The animals are not given "live animal" labels and ARE NOT EXPEDITED. I was promised they would be, and that is not the case.

I have never had a single problem ordering chickens through the mail. Never lost a single one never had any arrive dead or sick. 3 years ago my daughter ordered some geese and ducks and they arrived in perfect condition. I’m sorry you’ve had problems but I think it’s really odd.

 

[fowltemptress]

I can tell you right now my wife goes out of her way to give any shipped fowl water, Period.

Wait . . . she's opening people's mail? Does her boss know this?

 

[Klutch]

My post office notifies me when my chicks arrive, I go there inspect my shipment and have a witness on the condition of the chicks.

 

[EggsNearby]

@Trashpanda13, I am sorry to hear about your experience. Sometimes, things happen. In my case, we have ordered multiple times from Cackle, and everything went smoothly. I think my last order from them was for 200 White Leghorn chicks.

 

[FlockVillemaire]

TrashPanda, the USPS killing birds in shippment has been a perennial problem - going back decades. USPS doesn't own its own planes. Every time there is a national weather event, back ups ripple thru the system, and the post is the first to get deferred.

USPS is also, for all practical purposes, the only option. and USPS ses the rules on shipping live birds (well, Congress does, thru its gov't monopoly, the USPS).

See also:
https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm#ep203303

Yes, Congress sets the "rules", but with the slow & painful death of this once honorable public service in mind! They've required USPS to pay ahead retirements for unborn workers!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes, Congress sets the "rules", but with the slow & painful death of this once honorable public service in mind! They've required USPS to pay ahead retirements for unborn workers!

That's not actually tue, and has veered far farther into politics than I want to engage on this AM before my second cup of coffee. Moreover, BYC isn't the place for such.

If you mean that Congress mandated that the USPS use the same generally accepted accounting principles regarded unfunded liabilities as other publicly traded corporations, then yes. The Pensions of existing workers (and obligations of existing retirees) are included - those not yet born are not.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Last year, I ordered twelve bantam surprise hatching eggs and Cackle Hatchery apparently sends out their hatching eggs at a strange time. I think it was Thursday when the eggs were shipped, but because of that they ended up sitting somewhere for two days over the weekend going nowhere and losing hatching rate for no reason when they could have been working on getting here. It took much longer than it should and only two eggs hatched as a result. One of the chicks was shrink-wrapped, I had to help him out and it turned out that the problem was him having a deformed leg. The poor shipping is not Cackle Hatchery's fault but they should not ship hatching eggs (or chicks) out on a day so close to the weekend.

 

[Coops Dad]

Wait . . . she's opening people's mail? Does her boss know this?

Live animals is the grenade in the game of paper/rock/scissors - it beats them all. If a cop can violate your fourth amendment rights by breaking into your car to free an overheated dog, there should be no quarrel about opening a box containing chicks to render life saving aid.