What Breed Should I Get?

[MotherOfDuckens]

Kudos to you. Seriously. I'm not sure I could remain calm after a shipment like that. Awful. Just awful.

I've had a bad shipment, too, from MPC. I went in on an order with a friend. They shipped large breeds with bantam and swore to me that everything would be fine. It wasn't. The bantam (my order) were trampled nearly flat. And the shipment must gave been rough because half the remaining large breeds (my friend's order) died the next day. I swore off ordering then.

And, honestly, I thought about canceling my order because of that bad shipment. But they are only shipping birds this year because of COVID. I took a chance and was lucky. Metzer is in CA, so I am willing to drive for them. But I won't order chicks for shipment again. I will find breeds I want through breeders.

Oh no, that's horrible! I can't even imagine.

I understand the need to ship. I scoured the entire state looking for a local breeder. It's really hard to find certain breeds. I would have driven to Holderreads, but they didn't have any available at the time and I needed them sooner than later. I would still love to take a day trip down to OR and get some Holderread adults the next time duck fever hits.

 

[Texag87]

I keep reading the shipping horror stories and have decided if the time comes for more ducks, I will drive to Ideal to get them . Or, I could get another incubator and hatch some more. We came out good the last time we hatched for ourselves. One drake four ducks. When we hatched for a friend, we got three drakes and one duck. Duck math always seems to come in to play with hatching.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I keep reading the shipping horror stories and have decided if the time comes for more ducks, I will drive to Ideal to get them . Or, I could get another incubator and hatch some more. We came out good the last time we hatched for ourselves. One drake four ducks. When we hatched for a friend, we got three drakes and one duck. Duck math always seems to come in to play with hatching.

Yes, I won't ship again.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

View attachment 2523080

Dang! I missed it yesterday! - Had migraines…
Beautiful babies!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Dang! I missed it yesterday! - Had migraines…
Beautiful babies!

I hope you are feeling better today!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I thought the postal regs required 3 days or less.

Correct! The USPS internal regulations state that packages containing life poultry must be prioritized. And there are many hatcheries that won't send out live birds during critical periods of time, like in the Thanksgiving week or around Christmas to avoid mishaps due to the higher volume of packages. I thought Metzer was one of them.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Your husband finding out about the 4th duckling is not bad. In 2018 I sent my wife to TSC for 6 ducklings. She came home with 9.

I always carry that duckling poop jar with me when i go to Rural King…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I got Pekins the first time I raised ducklings. And it was crazy how quickly they grew. The others didn't nearly seem to grow as fast after that.

Yes, Pekins, White Layers and the Golden 300 grow like inflating party balloons❣

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Kudos to you. Seriously. I'm not sure I could remain calm after a shipment like that. Awful. Just awful.

I've had a bad shipment, too, from MPC. I went in on an order with a friend. They shipped large breeds with bantam and swore to me that everything would be fine. It wasn't. The bantam (my order) were trampled nearly flat. And the shipment must gave been rough because half the remaining large breeds (my friend's order) died the next day. I swore off ordering then.

And, honestly, I thought about canceling my order because of that bad shipment. But they are only shipping birds this year because of COVID. I took a chance and was lucky. Metzer is in CA, so I am willing to drive for them. But I won't order chicks for shipment again. I will find breeds I want through breeders.

Remember: MPC is not a hatchery! - I call these companies »shipping agents«. They don hatch any of "their" poultry, they only forward your order to a hatchery. If you place the same order twice with MPC you may get birds from different sources.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yes, I won't ship again.

I had three shipments with a total of 28 ducklings and only one was injured.
If you order directly at a hatchery there is a very high chance that your birds will arrive safe and in good health. It is similar to air travel:
Every crashed airplane is in the news for days and your hear the number of deaths over and over… All while airplanes crashing and killing everybody on board are the exception and not a regular occurrence.
And it is the same with poultry shipments, we only here the "doa" horror stories, but nothing about the countless packages that arrive without a glitch.
See also this article from CountryLiving:
»How Newborn Baby Chicks Travel Across the Country to Get to Your Backyard«

EDIT: Be very, very, very THANKFUL to the U.S Postal Service for offering this service! It is very unique to the United States! I am not aware of any other postal service in the world offering shipping of life chicks for little money!