When shipping goes wrong...a sad story...happy ending!!

[ChooksChick]

Estes Farm Hatchery shipped out a gazillion birds on Monday to us and our local feed store. We were getting chicks for customers who just wanted some laying hens, and a little something for ourselves- nothing much.

You'd think HUNDREDS of chicks in several boxes together, going to one location would stick together, but while I picked up our Cackle order yesterday and lay eyes on the Estes order for the feed store, our Estes order was missing.

The sometimes ship Tuesday, as well. Nope.

Today I call all over kingdom-come with the help of Miss Charlie at Estes and Steve at the Kansas City Express hub, and I find that someone in Springfield shipped our birds in the back of the big trucks. it was 4 degrees last night, and the night before. These birds couldn't possible be alive.

Springfield, your PO will be getting a piece of my mind later.

Charlie at Estes has a new batch coming out to us today. She was stellar and bent over backward to serve us. I'm delighted. I consistently get good service from them in this way, and I won't forget it!

Steve helped by searching for a box of birds he wasn't even sure was there!

Thanks to both.

Poor babies stuck in the frozen tundra. I feel awful for them. I will be delivering an earful for your eulogy.

 

[Amyable]

 

[MagsC]

 

[Happy Chooks]

How awful. I'm sorry.

 

[catfish/okie]

I feel bad for all them little chicks. Some of my birds that I got from Orchlens farm store came from Estes are very good birds. The person who loaded them birds in the back of that truck should have to pay for that shipment. The folks from Estes took a loss for this. We all have had a real winter this year and it aint over with yet. There may be quite of few incidents like this this spring. Anyone keeping chicks in a garage or shed please make sure you install a new bulb in your brooder. Its been cold all the way down south of Austin Texas this year. Oklahoma has probably been at least 10 degrees below almost every day since Christmas this year.

 

[gritsar]

This may tick some people off and I'm sorry, but IMO it's still too early in the year to ship chicks. Temps. are fluctuating all over the place all over the country.
I'm waiting till May to get chicks. I want them to arrive live.

 

[Lu King]

I'm sorry about your chicks.

Shipping companies should be aware that they are dealing with live chicks and should take precautions to see the chicks arrive safely....no matter what time of year.

 

[rancher hicks]

With all due respect to all, it should not be a problem to ship chicks. Not w/ today's technology. We can blame the "system" for many things but not how we do our jobs. The fact is someone screwed up. Unfortunately as time goes by some w/ not understand the word , Priority.
There is no excuse for this happening. Policies are set in place but sometimes they are ignored, to the detriment of innocent chicks. RIP chickies.

 

[gritsar]

Chicks can't be hand carried from the hatchery to your door. It's just not feisable with the number of chicks shipped. At some point they are going to be sitting on a cold tarmac at some airport or in the back of a cold shipping van. That's where the problems start.
How hard is it to wait if it means a better outcome for the chicks?
That's all I'm going to say on the subject, to avoid having this thread locked.
To the OP - I'm sorry for the loss of the chicks. Any life lost is sad.

 

[ChooksChick]

You won't believe this: since we found the birds, we had to go get them, right?? In a huge, crazy building in the BAD part of KC.

So Alison went. She sent pics, which I'll post soon.

She had to call from a room lined with mirrors and wait for them to speak to her, and when she finally got the birds, the majority of them were alive!!!

That's a testament to the way they were shipped, right? And a huge testament to the robustness of the birds Estes produces, too!

I'm uncertain as to how this all happened. I'm more uncertain as to how they lived, and how many will still be in shaky condition.

I'd delighted there are any alive and thrilled that all those little lives weren't lost.