WARNING: Hoovers hatchery

[No Coop No Problem]

That's fair. Personally I prefer to pick up live animals in person when possible. But that's not an option for everyone and live animals have been shipped since the advent of the postal system.

I do not believe that the post office would continue to ship day old chicks if the mortality rate truly were as high as 11% in transit or 50% within the first week. As for the cruelty of shipping I suspect we may have to agree to disagree a bit there. Is it the best opinion, probably not. But I suspect it's far from the cruelest thing hatcheries do.

Cackle's Saipan Junglefowl have 80-100% mortality rate. If you look at the reviews it's common for every single chick to die in transit

 

[gimmie birdies]

I order most of my chicks from Meyers. I only had a problem one time, it was late Oct. and I ordered 15 there was no heat pack. It gets cold here. 5 looked dead on arrival. I put them on a heating pad right away, and gave every one a sip of warm yolk water. I also gently massaged their little heads. Only one of the 5 died. I always give arriving chicks yolk water. If I do order in cold weather, I will request a heat pad, even if it costs more.

We have had a really cold cold snap recently and I saw hatcheries were not shipping in that very cold spell which was a good thing.

 

[lagrange chicks]

That’s too bad. This comment probably won’t be accepted well by the byc community, but I think shipping hatchery chicks is extremely cruel.

x2

 

[Cheems]

A lot of really good discussions going on here, and I definitely should have done a bit more research into the hatchery beforehand and considered the weather, I think shipping chicks when done correctly and at the right time can be relatively safe, but some of these hatcheries are just trying to make a quick buck and it’s sad they don’t care about the lives of the birds they sell

Even if I were to order chicks again through the mail at a correct time I’m never going to order through a hatchery that doesn’t care about the live animals they sell, and I think it varies wildly between hatcheries

 

[lagrange chicks]

When I was planning on getting chicks I thought I would just go to the hatchery 30 miles away and pick them up, that was not an option. So instead of shipping from a hatchery 30 miles from home I ordered from Farm and Fleet which would get chicks in every Friday for a couple months from Cackle Hatchery which are loaded in a truck and delivered as day old chicks. I do believe any breed cackle hatchery offered was available at the store as long as you pre-ordered, and you could pick the Friday you would want them. It was a freak occurrence the truck broke down and my chicks came a day late but all survived. This in my opinion was just a better option than shipping.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

Thats terrible! I'm sorry.
But, its not really their fault. It's too cold to be ordering chicks right now. Every year there's scores of posts complaining about every hatchery. It's not the hatchery, is the shipping through cold fronts and negative temperatures. They don't bounce back.
Imo, Hatcheries shouldn't be offering chicks until the beginning of March for non retail orders over a certain distance.

It really isnt.i have dead and dying during summer, we were hitting 100 or over by the end of May..I have zero issue with Nov- March orders. I only order from hatcheries that use heat packs and allow the use of heat packs..

Also all my hens go broody from december through may not goes broody from june through September, why, if they sit on a clutch they cook them..

Meyers always includes ample heat packs same for cackle

 

[Perris]

That article is dated August of 2020 - during the height of the Covid pandemic, when postal disruptions were at their highest. I doubt those numbers are anywhere near accurate today.

If the numbers were from the 90s the excuse is invalid. Compare this
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...imals-die-on-way-to-abattoir-in-us-every-year : "Approximately 20 million chickens, 330,000 pigs and 166,000 cattle are dead on arrival, or soon after, at abattoirs in the US every year, analysis of publicly available data shows. A further 800,000 pigs are calculated to be unable to walk on arrival...Only one piece of legislation governs US animal transport: the 28-hour law, which was first enacted in 1873. The law states that animals must be unloaded, rested for five hours and given food and water if the journey is longer than 28 hours. It does not cover birds". This was from 15 June 2022.

If you believe in capitalism, the solution is in the buyer's hands. Support small(er) scale local producers who care most about their animals and/or customers, instead of using the cheapest option, which will be a huge corp probably a long way away who care most about their dollar.

 

[Cheems]

If the numbers were from the 90s the excuse is invalid. Compare this
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...imals-die-on-way-to-abattoir-in-us-every-year : "Approximately 20 million chickens, 330,000 pigs and 166,000 cattle are dead on arrival, or soon after, at abattoirs in the US every year, analysis of publicly available data shows. A further 800,000 pigs are calculated to be unable to walk on arrival...Only one piece of legislation governs US animal transport: the 28-hour law, which was first enacted in 1873. The law states that animals must be unloaded, rested for five hours and given food and water if the journey is longer than 28 hours. It does not cover birds". This was from 15 June 2022.

If you believe in capitalism, the solution is in the buyer's hands. Support small(er) scale local producers who care most about their animals and/or customers, instead of using the cheapest option, which will be a huge corp probably a long way away who care most about their dollar.

I definetely agree that the shipping some animals go through is very cruel, however I think you have to consider not every hatchery is reaching crazy high mortality rates when done correctly

and agreed, ive never bought from a big hatchery like this before and it was the wrong decision. I think next time im going to be considering better hatcheries or even just hatching my own eggs which is my normal solution

 

[CedarLane]

I am thankful for Townline Hatchery in Michigan. Chicks usually hatch on Monday and arrive Tuesday or Wednesday (or very rarely on Thursday). I've had really good success with their chicks. I would be reluctant to order from an out-of-state hatchery.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

I read enough stories on this forum to know that I didn’t want to order chicks from a hatchery.

“One study of long airplane flights revealed that when chicks were delivered to their final destination at 72 hours old (which includes the time spent at the hatchery and all transport times), 11% were dead-on-arrival, and almost 50% died within 7 days. This same study showed that even chicks who were delivered within 48 hours of hatch could have a high mortality rate of 2% dead-on-arrival and 18% dead within 7 days.”


https://fortune.com/2020/08/20/baby-chicks-are-dying-in-the-mail/amp/

I find the numbers hard to believe. I have ordered and started about 100 chicks this last year, I had a total loss of 3 , twice with bantams mixed with standard and then a very small leghorn with standard chicks.. I have lost plenty when I bought from TSC ( and I started them the same way I would do shipped chicks) once they arrive I haven't lost any chicks .