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That irks me. Lots of places ship without packing peanuts and have no more problem than Ideal getting the delivery there alive. They just want to pawn their unwanted roos off on you. The more I hear about Ideal, the more I really dislike their practices.
Please consider ordering elsewhere. I haven't heard one bad thing said about MyPetChicken and there are lots of other hatcheries, too; some may even be much closer to you for less shipping time.
Sorry, but I'm going to disagree with you here.
Last year, June of 2010, I ordered 14 pullets from Ideal (my second order with them). I asked that no packing peanuts be included. They didn't charge me the shipping insurance, which wouldn't have been much anyhow, maybe $2-3. They included extra straw. The chicks arrived absolutely fine. One turned out to be a roo sexed as a pullet, but that just proves Impy has been a sneaky little devil from the start.
I love my Ideal flocks. My brahmas from Ideal are now over 3 years old. All have been healthly, all are still alive except for the one girl I lost to a hawk and one that died of a heart attack during a heat wave.
The point being, Ideal is no worse than any other hatchery. They all must ship with packing peanuts or charge you a kings ransom for special handling if they don't. It's all about ordering chicks at the appropriate time of the year. You want chicks in January? You best be expecting some PP if you want them to arrive alive.
And by the way, MPC is NOT a hatchery. They are a middleman. They get their chicks from Meyers, from what I understand.
I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with, Gris. They told susanah she needed the packing peanuts to get her birds to her safely, but your comments show clearly that she doesn't need the packing peanuts. She's not the first to make this claim, either. I believe Ideal probably has good birds and can get them to you without great loss and I believe they probably try to get you exactly what you order with only minimum incorrect sexing (which is to be expected of any good hatchery), but I find it very irresponsible if any of their employees are telling customers they risk losing their chicks if they request no packing peanuts. Do you disagree that it is irresponsible to lie to customers to get them to take unwanted chicks? I haven't ordered from Ideal myself, but it is my understanding that if you are not familiar with packing peanuts, you'll get a surprise, because they don't notify you in advance that they include packing peanuts. I find that practice irresponsible, too. I would rather order from a hatchery that can do everything Ideal can do and are more responsible about sticking just to the order or at least clearly notifying customers of possible additions prior to checkout.
