WARNING: Hoovers hatchery

[AinaWGSD]

Something like 11% die during shipment and 50% perish within a week.

Where do you get these numbers? I don't have any statistics handy myself but those numbers sound far to high to me. I feel like if that were true they probably wouldn't allow shipping through the usps. I have only ordered chicks a handful of times, but I have rarely lost more than one or two during shipping and have never lost shipped chicks more than 24 hours after delivery

 

[TexasBlues]

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/

 

[BigBlueHen53]

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/

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.

 

[TexasBlues]

ok

 

[TexasBlues]

Those numbers are actually from a study in the 90s. The article is about events that happened in 2020. Regardless those birds still died during transport.
I’m okay if you don’t think it’s cruel. To each their own.
I’m fine saying the numbers are 1% die during transport. It’s still cruel IMO for an animal to die slowly in a box.
And it’s not really smart IMO to spend your chicks first days traveling cross country. I’d rather have mine relaxing in the brooder and eating their first meal.

 

[Cheems]

Those numbers are actually from a study in the 90s. The article is about events that happened in 2020. Regardless those birds still died during transport.
I’m okay if you don’t think it’s cruel. To each their own.
I’m fine saying the numbers are 1% die during transport. It’s still cruel IMO for an animal to die slowly in a box.
And it’s not really smart IMO to spend your chicks first days traveling cross country. I’d rather have mine relaxing in the brooder and eating their first meal.

a lot has changed since the 90s, and I think those numbers would be wildly vary between what hatcheries you use, I’ve never had any birds die through the mail up until this point, I had a duck injured (lived out a long and happy life) but nothing had died because the hatcheries had used proper methods

If you look at all hatcheries then I think numbers like that COULD be true, but from my own experience and from what I’ve seen with others, the numbers don’t seem to be that way from good quality hatcheries

I think shipping birds can be to a point where it’s considered pretty safe (nothing is truly safe) it’s just up to the weather and hatcheries

If you don’t mind me asking, where do you source your chicks then?

 

[NatJ]

I agree that the whether is definetely the biggest issue that made things go wrong here, but the fact they didn’t include a heating pack and fix that problem is in my opinion is cruel, I assumed heating would be included and so I didn’t question it too deeply

Most hatcheries do NOT include heat packs. They try to pack the right number of chicks in the box, so their own body heat keeps them warm. That is a big reason for the 15-chick minimums and 25-chick minimums. Some decades ago, it was common for hatcheries to only ship in multiples of 25 (so every box had the same number of chicks, every time, no matter what mix of breeds they might be.)

 

[TexasBlues]

a lot has changed since the 90s, and I think those numbers would be wildly vary between what hatcheries you use, I’ve never had any birds die through the mail up until this point, I had a duck injured (lived out a long and happy life) but nothing had died because the hatcheries had used proper methods

If you look at all hatcheries then I think numbers like that COULD be true, but from my own experience and from what I’ve seen with others, the numbers don’t seem to be that way from good quality hatcheries

I think shipping birds can be to a point where it’s considered pretty safe (nothing is truly safe) it’s just up to the weather and hatcheries

If you don’t mind me asking, where do you source your chicks then?

Eggs

 

[ShrekDawg]

Eggs

That’s really vague. Your own or you buy eggs somewhere orrrr???

 

[Chikenshiken]

Most hatcheries do NOT include heat packs. They try to pack the right number of chicks in the box, so their own body heat keeps them warm. That is a big reason for the 15-chick minimums and 25-chick minimums. Some decades ago, it was common for hatcheries to only ship in multiples of 25 (so every box had the same number of chicks, every time, no matter what mix of breeds they might be.)

Is there a reason they don’t use heat packs? Just wondering, is there a chance of chicks overheating? And I know some or really most duck hatcheries I’ve seen had a minimum of 2 ducks per order and that doesn’t seem like enough to keep completely warm but correct me if I’m wrong! I’ve never ordered from hatcheries before but I was planning on.

Also on the topic of your poor babies being shipped in bad weather…

Then when they finally do ship the chicks out, they shipped them without a heater pack, it’s the winter and I don’t know what they were expecting, 9/15 chicks arrived dead and the rest dying, maybe 1-2 chicks were acting normally?

this is really irresponsible of the hatchery. Shipping in good weather should be in the responsibility of the sender rather than the person ordering who, like you, probably doesn’t know any better! This is a huge thing in the reptile and fish community that people will refuse to ship pets during cold peaks and will inform the receiver of that! Rest in peace to the chicks who didn’t make it, I’m sorry for your loss. Rather you agree or disagree about sending pets through the mail we at least must agree this is unacceptable to be sending chicks in cold weather!