WARNING: Cackle Hatchery

[fowltemptress]

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.

They can go 4 days without food or water. If they're stuck beyond that in an office far away, I get it, and some post offices even offer stuck chicks for free to anyone who will come take them, which is awesome and I fully support that. But if I get an opened box of chicks after they've been only four days in transit, I am raising hell.

 

[TexasBlues]

 

[Logar]

Usps is the only shipping service that allows for live animals

This is not true. Reptiles are shipped nearly exclusively through fedex. And this doesn’t apply to anything. My dad has toured multiple FedEx facilities for business reasons and has told me how there were chicks running all over the place during one of them.

 

[Logar]

And to me at least, neither cackle or USPS should be blamed. How do you think cackle is supposed to provide food and water? That is going to lead to dead chicks a lot faster than not providing them. Water splashes and gets the food wet. The wet food then molds and with high humidity from the water, spreads quickly and creates air quality issues leading to sick birds that will arrive dead.

And why do you think USPS is to blame? They do everything they can to get things out as quickly as possible but with the combination of not having their own planes and having outdated processing systems then it creates delays. And USPS has been working on fixing issues but with how big USPS is it takes lots of time and money.

 

[Coops Dad]

They can go 4 days without food or water. If they're stuck beyond that in an office far away, I get it, and some post offices even offer stuck chicks for free to anyone who will come take them, which is awesome and I fully support that. But if I get an opened box of chicks after they've been only four days in transit, I am raising hell.

True, 3 maybe 4 days under optimal circumstances but the stresses of shipping in heat and humidity aren't optimal by any stretch. If I ordered chicks and found the box was opened in order to ensure they arrived alive, I'd call the manager to THANK the carrier for their care and compassion.

It's not a letter from my lawyer, stockbroker or estate planner. It's keeping a living thing alive. What underhanded thing do you think the postal carrier would have done- swapped their barnyard mixes for the shipment of Cackle's colored egg collection? I'd rather get an opened box of living chicks than a sealed box of dead or dying ones.

 

[fowltemptress]

Something I wish USPS would do - as it is, and I could be wrong so someone correct me if I am, there doesn't seem to be any standard operating procedure for dealing with chicks that are stuck too long in the mail. At the lab the techs had action plans for hypothetical emergencies. In the case of an inability for people to be able to care for the animals, procedures were set up so that everything could be euthanized and nothing had to suffer unduly. I think something like that as a last resort should be set up. A  last resort, mind you. Before that, I feel effort should be made to offer the chicks to anyone in the local community, but only if the chicks won't get to the destination within the acceptable time window. There is no excuse for anything to be opened within that window, unless it's the owner opening their own package.

As far as hatcheries go, it doesn't feel right when they get blamed for deaths obviously caused by transit delays. Ordering chicks by mail is just one of those things where you need to be aware of the risks.

 

[Logar]

correct me if I am, there doesn't seem to be any standard operating procedure for dealing with chicks that are stuck too long in the mail.

The thing is that the way USPS runs, packages aren’t actually seen by a person 90% of the time. The processing machines scan the bar codes and make shipping updates available while sorting the packages. It can’t differentiate between a package of chick food and a package of live chicks.

 

[Kimmylovesfluffychickens]

True, 3 maybe 4 days under optimal circumstances but the stresses of shipping in heat and humidity aren't optimal by any stretch. If I ordered chicks and found the box was opened in order to ensure they arrived alive, I'd call the manager to THANK the carrier for their care and compassion.

It's not a letter from my lawyer, stockbroker or estate planner. It's keeping a living thing alive. What underhanded thing do you think the postal carrier would have done- swapped their barnyard mixes for the shipment of Cackle's colored egg collection? I'd rather get an opened box of living chicks than a sealed box of dead or dying ones.

Don't forget that being shipped during flash freezes is also a problem, our local feed store lost most of their Cream Legbar chicks due to being shipped during a flash freeze last year. Not sure what could've been done but it was something that can happen during the spring months on the north eastern coast. Take for instance the large winter storm we had in April this year, very cold and knocked out a large area of power throughout my area. I am glad I got my chicks before the storm and during a warming trend, but my chicks had to huddle for warmth during the power outage. And when chicks huddle they can smother each other which during a freeze enroute can likely add to the death toll when shipping live chicks. So if my carrier was to open any boxes of freezing chicks to give them a warmer place to stay I would be glad they did it.

 

[El Padre eGGers]

My first batch of chicks, all 6, arrived at my local USPS, within 3 days of being shipped. Hatched and shipped on Monday. Received on Wednesday. All 6 poor little chicks were deceased. No apparent damage to the box. No overly cold temps and they had a heat pack. I would have had my spirits raised to have seen that the box was opened and someone tried to help. I did not order from Cackle but a reputable hatchery with good reviews.

It definitely made me very very anxious, nervous and questioning whether to order shipped chicks again. The hatchery I ordered from was great, replaced the entire order and the second set of 6 chicks arrived, healthy, active and thriving. Definitely made me question some of the handling while en route. That being said, the USPS employee at the pickup counter was the same gentleman for batch #1 and #2. He was truly invested and happy to give me a 'chirping' box the second time around.

Was it the fault of USPS while chicks were en route? It could have been, I wasn't there to witness it. Could they have been mishandled? Maybe by someone who didn't know better? I don't know, I wasn't there. Guess my point is, they are people too and make mistakes, but not the fault of the employee working the counter at my local USPS.

I definitely consider taking the day trip drive to pick up chicks for any future order. Save my nerves for the three day wait constantly checking a tracking number online!

 

[pennyJo1960]

I admit I had a Dad that was a Mail Carrier 50 years ago.
Life has changed so has shipping.
Has anyone said buy chicks local? I have bought hatchery at the local feed store.
Ask folks on your state thread anyone have peeps ?