Live chicken mailing?!

[fairfarmhand]

2 hours ago, Selkie said:

I don't know all the available options, but assuming I wanted chicks and the only way I could get them was to have them shipped this way, then I would not be getting chicks.

I agree that feed stores are not a good option, either - at least not where I live.

Yeah I get it. I don’t order often and I usually try to include A few birds of breeds that have a tendency to hatch out their own eggs. This means that for a few years at least, I can raise my own chicks, or mama hens can, rather than having to buy them. It’s cheaper and I feel better about it than buying/shipping. 

[Forget-Me-Not]

I live in a pretty rural area, and had no idea this was a thing until I was at the PO one day and one of the postal workers was telling me about a pallet of baby chicks who arrived dead 😕. I think it was because we were having a heat wave.  

[sweet2ndchance]

2 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

There are breeds of chickens that don't hatch out their own eggs? Where do the chicks come from?  Is there a chicken equivalent of the stork?
 

Some chicken breeds are breed specifically not to go broody. They won't sit on their own eggs because they lack that instinct. Other chicken breeds that do still have that instinct will hatch out those eggs or they can be incubated. The advantage of a breed that lacks the broodiness instinct is higher egg production. Chickens don't lay eggs when they are broody. There is no point in a broody hen if you don't have a rooster to fertilize the eggs so some people prefer breeds that don't tend to go broody.

[Miss Tick]

14 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

There are breeds of chickens that don't hatch out their own eggs? Where do the chicks come from?  Is there a chicken equivalent of the stork?
 

"Hatch out" meaning they will sit on their eggs until they hatch. As opposed to "hatch out OF" which is the crazy scenario you have in your head. 😄 Chickens only sometimes get that special motherly feeling that will keep them sitting on eggs long enough for the eggs to hatch, and some never get it.

Edited August 22, 2020 by SusanC

[fairfarmhand]

3 minutes ago, sweet2ndchance said:

Some chicken breeds are breed specifically not to go broody. They won't sit on their own eggs because they lack that instinct. Other chicken breeds that do still have that instinct will hatch out those eggs or they can be incubated. The advantage of a breed that lacks the broodiness instinct is higher egg production. Chickens don't lay eggs when they are broody. There is no point in a broody hen if you don't have a rooster to fertilize the eggs so some people prefer breeds that don't tend to go broody.

And sometimes you can have persistently broody hens. I don't need four clutches of eggs hatched out each summer, but my little cochin hen thinks I do! It's annoying to talk her out of sitting on eggs.

The alternative to broody hens is an egg incubator, @CuriousMomof3

[fairfarmhand]

2 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

So, if you have the not broody type of hens and you have a rooster, then the hens will make tea, but then just let the eggs die if you don't snatch them and put them in the incubator?

If you snatched them and put them in the frying pan, would they be the same?  Or do you need to keep the rooster away if your goal is quiche or fritatta?

Clearly, I should be studying chickens with my kids instead of astronomy because there is a lot I don't know. 

We eat them either way, fertile or not. Some people don't like fertile eggs, I can't tell the difference. Only if they are brooded do they start developing an embryo.

[sweet2ndchance]

13 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

So, if you have the not broody type of hens and you have a rooster, then the hens will make tea, but then just let the eggs die if you don't snatch them and put them in the incubator?

If you snatched them and put them in the frying pan, would they be the same?  Or do you need to keep the rooster away if your goal is quiche or fritatta?

Clearly, I should be studying chickens with my kids instead of astronomy because there is a lot I don't know. 

You don't necessarily have to snatch them lol. They are ok to gather for a few days to get enough to put in the incubator or wait for another hen to go broody.

Fertilized and non fertilized eggs taste the same, lol. Most people never know the difference.

Edited August 22, 2020 by sweet2ndchance
Misspelling

[fairfarmhand]

Just now, CuriousMomof3 said:

OK, now I'm going to keep pestering you with questions.

If hens lay eggs, rooster or no, how do you know which eggs to put in the fry pan and which to put in the incubator (assuming you have a rooster, I'm not quite that clueless)?

If you have a rooster, chances are that they're all fertile. So eat whichever you want and hatch whichever you want. Roosters are very.....frisky.

[sweet2ndchance]

If you are aiming for a certain breed, you usually sequester the roo and a couple hens of that breed together. You know not to eat eggs from that pen.

If you are hoping for barnyard "mutts", you don't really know until they are far enough along in the incubation process to candle the egg. Or you'll know when the smell of rotten egg begins to permeate the incubator or the chicken coop if you are letting a broody hen hatch them out for you. Rotten eggs can either be infertile eggs or chicks that failed to thrive.

[Ausmumof3]

3 hours ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

OK, now I'm going to keep pestering you with questions.

If hens lay eggs, rooster or no, how do you know which eggs to put in the fry pan and which to put in the incubator (assuming you have a rooster, I'm not quite that clueless)?

You can eat the fertile ones they just have a little white dot.  Unless they’re at temp they don’t grow anything.  You put whichever come from the chickens you want to breed in the incubator because if your roosters any good they will all most likely be fertile.  With some of the really fluffy but breeds like pekins you have to trim feathers or they won’t be fertile.

[Liz CA]

18 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Ok I just read that due to the mail delays people have been having chickens turn up dead.

so is this really a thing?  I’ve heard of people ordering chickens by mail before but I always assumed it was just a phrase to describe some other kind of shipping I guess.

 

Yup, years ago we were one of those chicken ordering people. We got together with another family and ordered a batch from a hatchery. Ours all arrived alive and well. I would not do it uncertain mail delivery times.

[Donna]

We received chicks through the mail from the hatchery. The post office called us that Easter morning to have us come pick them up so they wouldn't spend an extra day at the distribution center.

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, Donna said:

We received chicks through the mail from the hatchery. The post office called us that Easter morning to have us come pick them up so they wouldn't spend an extra day at the distribution center.

Yeah our post office calls us right away to come get them too.

[Guest]

On 8/21/2020 at 4:11 PM, happysmileylady said:

Somewhat related...

When I was a kid, we used to leave near Sea World Ohio (which is now closed.)  The park was only open in the summers, and shut down in the winter, so all the animals would be transported back and forth each spring and fall.  They came by special transport via......FedEx.  Well, actually not FedEx....the name of the company was Flying Tigers, which is a cargo shipping company that FedEx bought.  My dad was an aircraft mechanic for Flying Tigers (and then FedEx after they purchased Flying Tigers) and every spring, my family would all go to the airport in Cleveland and we would get to sit in the hanger and watch them unload all the animals.  I am not talking just small animals......they shipped the whales up that way too.   

..........because I know it sounds crazy to ship killer whales via Fed Ex...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1990-02-13-9002132802-story.html

 

Fed Ex brought the Giant pandas from China to the Memphis Zoo. They had their own special plane and support crew. According to my friend who works in animal shipping, it was a horrible clean up job after they arrived :). Fed Ex's main center here gets some really incredible exotics, but usually my friend doesn't have to deal with them, because the zoo animals, Sea World, etc provide their own support staff. She has gotten to feed and walk some pretty impressive dogs, though. 

[Acorn]

I just read the script from the broadway musical “Come From Away” about diverted planes when US closed airspace 9-11-01. I hadn’t heard the story of the stranded bonobos at the time. One is still at a nearby zoo, and her later offspring was named Gander in appreciation of the people in Gander, Newfoundland, CAN.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Acorn

[kiwik]

On 8/22/2020 at 1:41 AM, Ausmumof3 said:

So do they go through the sorting machines or what?  I just can’t imagine chickens getting through our mail alive.  
 

we have transport companies that specialise in moving chickens etc around the country.  It’s expensive.  If you want a rare type you either pay the cost for the proper animal courier or you order fertile eggs and incubate your own or you drive there and pick them out yourself.  A lot of which is not happening right now with border closures.

Just checked.  In NZ you can post bees, leeches, silkworms or other harmless insects.  Definitely not day old chicks or lizards (we don't do snakes).  Given how slow Rural Delivery is they would probably all die.  I think eggs can be shipped though.

[Moonhawk]

On 8/21/2020 at 5:36 PM, sweet2ndchance said:

You don't necessarily have to snatch them lol. They are ok to gather for a few days to get enough to put in the incubator or wait for another hen to go broody.

Fertilized and non fertilized eggs taste the same, lol. Most people never know the difference.

I believe you, but here's my now-funny story about eating fertilized eggs.

One time I accidentally bought fertilized eggs. Didn't notice it on the box, just bought a dozen of what was there. A couple days later I was eating breakfast and was surprised at how good they tasted! I remarked on it to DH that they were some of the best eggs I ever had.

He said he was surprised I had bought fertilized eggs, but was glad that I was enjoying them so much. I said, "...What?" And he showed me the box.

I was pregnant, and spent the rest of the morning crying, lol.

I now always check the box to make sure it doesn't say fertilized (though I haven't seen it again? I coincidentally changed where I shop, too) and double check the box in the fridge whenever I taste especially good eggs. lol

eta: oh, and DH's favorite way to compliment my breakfast eggs is now "these are good enough to be fertilized!" 😕  lol 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Moonhawk