I saw a story on AgDay the other morning about shipping chicks through the mail. Apparently package deliveries are no longer being done by the U.S. Post Office but have been subcontracted out to FedEx. I don't remember hearing about this BUT the point was FedEx does not ship live birds. So now a lot of mail-order hatcheries are wondering how they will be able to deliver those little peeps in the spring or if the businesses will just go under. This story said FedEx was considering shipping chicks for a surcharge of about $50 PER ORDER. I don't know about you but that's WAY steep for me.

Anybody heard anything about this? I'm going to see if I can find anything else on this subject and will post if I find anything.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2001

Answers

Its all part of "guaranteed routing confirmation" . Live cargo cannot be shipped unless the routing and delivery can be confirmed to ensure safety of the cargo. Apparently some live cargo has died enroute with the previous shipping protocol due to handling errors and animal rights advocates(SPCA, Humane Society, etc.) spearheaded the campaign to ensure safe live cargo shipment. I asked our Postmaster, who explained to me that the Postal Service has been restructuring live cargo protocol since September 1st on a need volume basis, establishing guaranteed routings to the large volume routes first. Of course with recent events, this may take longer than the 3 to 4 months he predicted in Sept as the USPS will undoubtly be taking more precautions to avoid any health risks associated with live cargo shipments.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2001

If mail irradiation becomes the norm, nothing live will survive the process anyway!

I would suggest raising your own chicks. We did it this year for the first time. We split the chickens into 3 groups, all dual purpose purebreds with one rooster each. We saved the eggs for a couple of weeks and put them in a $25 incubator. If you need more variety, just trade locally.

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

David, where did you get the $25 incubator? I would like to hatch out some more chicks this spring, before the rooster I have been swearing I would kill since we got him is now getting old and may check out on me just when I need him most!

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Sheepish, Jeffers carries a low cost still air incubator for around 25 dollars, you can call 1-800-JEFFERS to request a catalog. They, and KV Vet Supply, have the best mail order prices anywhere!!!

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Hey Annie, thanks! I used to get their catalogs but haven't purchased anything for 2-3 years so I must be off their list. Maybe it's been longer! You are right... good prices!

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Why not build your own incubator and save some bucks? We built them in high school science class from plywood and a couple light sockets.

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

I never get chicks in the mail anymore. Mama gets pretty pissed at me if I ever try such a thing!

JOJ (humor) (?)

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Jay: details? We didn't build incubators in the Seattle Public School System (or maybe I was absent that semester!) Seriously, if you have some design ideas, could you please share them?

JOJ: Mail order chicks have been a big part of our N.W. history! ;-) I think there was even a stupid teevee show about them in the '70s...and a Perry Como song as the theme: "The Blueist Skies You've Ever Seen are in Seattle." Or something silly like that.

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Oh yeah - that's the one that had Bobby Sherman in it! He was soooo dreamy! (Hey - I was maybe 12; give me a break!)

I will miss the variety of chicks available if the mail order hatcheries go under, which I expect they will if they can't ship chicks via air. One of Sharon's friends has some Silkie banties that I am going to try talk her out of a trio when I go back over there. They are excellent setters and mothers, as are most banties. What I am worried about is racial purity - like for the 4-H kids to show chicks. I only have one rooster, a barred rock; but my hens are barred, white and buff rocks, austrolorps and rhode island reds. While I like striped chickens, I also like looking at a barnyard of mixed birds; and I'd been promising myself some brown leghorns.... Oh well, I think Brad in ME has some brown leghorns, and he and Maggie said they'd make some clam chowder if I wanted to drive up....

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Maybe we will just go back to the Wells Fargo Wagon???

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Sheepish, we bought a Hovabator incubator on sale from a fairly local feed supply. It's a national brand, available through Nasco etc. It has a real temperature controller and you probably couldn't make one for less $. It's a piece of plastic ****, it's a pain to clean, but it works fine for hatching eggs.

There were a whole bunch of posts on this subject on Countryside back in April or thereabouts.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

thanks...I'll check out CS archives.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Checked out the CS archives. Thanks for the lead.

I am still not quite sure about how much to turn the eggs. Is it just enough to prevent the embryo from sticking to the shell or do you have to do a complete turn every so often or?

Thanks for your replies.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Speaking about incubators...I have one I bought from Nasco last spring. I put in 42 bantam eggs and 36 of them hatched with no problems. Then I "stole" 6 eggs from my Mallard's nest. 4 hatched, again no problems, but 3 of those ducklings have messed up wing feathers. You know, when the first three or four feathers kinda turn outward? The Mallard hatched out 11 perfect ducklings!! What do you think I did wrong with the duck eggs?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

sheepish, turning eggs is a debatable issue with lots of different opinions and experiments done. There was an article in CS Mag. a couple of years ago about not turning at all. I tryed not turning and was unhappy with my hatch rate and the amount of abnormalities that I experienced. I turn three times a day. Once when I get up, once about 8 hours later and once before I go to bed and I am happy with my hatch rate and the health of the chicks. I always mark them with a pencil a big X on one side so I will know when I have turned completely.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Marcia, did you keep a good moisture level?? Ducks need more moist air than chicks. I have a bowl of water next to the incubator and wet my hands before each turning and then sprinkle the eggs. I have never had wing problems.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

So Diane, the point is to completely rotate the eggs within a day? Like within every 12 hours, make sure they've been turned *all* the way over?

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Diane, I thought I did...but maybe I should have kept more water in the chambers below the eggs. Or maybe I'll try sprinkling them once a day toward the end of the hatch(??) My incubator has an automatic turner.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

sheepish, I just mark them so I turn them over each time. I am sorry, but I truly don't know what the whole point of the turning is, except I do see my broody hens turning theirs.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Thanks. I think I read somewhere that turning them keeps the sac from sticking to the shell. I was just wondering how much one had to turn them to make sure that it was done correctly. Trial and error I guess.

btw, we are down to getting 1-2 eggs/day from 18 hens!!! Freaking out here....

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

I'm in the same "boat", Sheepish. I've been feeding so much good stuff to my layers to get this moulting thing over with...and they just keep taking their time. REALLY frustrating...especially when my egg customers are calling me everyday!!!!

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Our egg numbers have been way down for a couple of months now! We haven't figured it out. They are not even finishing all the feed we are trying to give them. They're not hiding the eggs, because we've kept them locked up to check on it. I think we'll try playing soothing music to them next!

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Wow, mine are way down also. Maybe we should post this over on one of the "conspiracy" forums. ;>)

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

My husband says that my "girls" need a male stripper (in the form of a rooster...of course!) to get them going again. Think it would work :-)?? Sure would be cute, though!

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

No kidding!? I thought my gals were done moulting, still a few stragglers, though. Besides the nest boxes, I've looked in both barns for eggs. None there. I thought they might be eating them....no evidence, plus they get oyster shell free-choice. I have locked them back in the poultry yard. We have added some additional light for them. I have tossed them greens and "trash" from cleaning out my vegetable garden (all safe.) I know these gals are now 2.5 years old, but this still seems like a low egg rate. Hmmmm. Suspicious, eh? Do you guys use commercial scratch?

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

I use free-choice layer pellets...they seem to waste less with the pellets. I also feed black oil sunflower seed and scratch feed occasionally. Plus I give mine complete freedom every day for at least a couple of hours. Just can't seem to please 'em!!

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

We mix layer crumbles, all grain and hen scratch. They have free access to the feed and also free-range from breakfast till dark. They also get to fight the pigs for the household scraps and slop.

We've just butchered the bigger roosters, and the egg numbers are up a bit. In the next couple of weeks the turkeys and other extra roosters will go too. Hopefully the reduced competition for the choice feed will help with egg numbers.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001