off line due to post office due to call

[Deleted]

I must get off line my babies are 40 miles away in route to local po and the line must be cleared.

1. Brooder set up - use fresh sand
water dish ready and already warmed by the light (2 of them
2. Food both chix starter ready for the heathy ones and a mash some one told me to try of chix starter with uncooked egg yolk and electit water added to a soup gross. but ready

3. Hatcher lined with sugar water ele dish warmed and ready --hope not to need but I plan on keeping it up and read for the first 2 days ( bad luck last time --this time will be better)

4. 2 kittens ready for 50 new squeaky toys (they can see them they can hear them but they just can't reach them

[Kathy]

Best of Luck to you and your new chirpy babies!! ;D

Don't you just love hearing all those little cheeps???

[Deleted]

Oh, I am so jealous! Please post some pics when you get them home! What fun...new babies...

[Deleted]

Disregard that announcement. They would have been here if MM had remembered to SHIP them. All that work to make sure everything was set up. I do not sleep much the night before a shippment or for the next two days after a shippment. I must say things happen but I did not like being hung up by the lady (I got her name) when she checked and came back on the line to inform me that they were not lost in the mail but that they failed to fill the order (not a special breed order but left over pullets any breed) that they would arrive next week. I do not know about others but I plan my brooder space and time my orders and hatches in order to meet the needs of the chicks so this really throw me off. And people wonder why I start so early -- I just want chickens as many breeds as I can get till I find the ones that work the best for us in Alaska.

[auntieemu]

That is aggravating. We time our hatch for similar reasons. No matter how well organized a person is, another person can totaly blow their schedule. It's kind of like housekeeping. You can have the place looking really nice and 2 minutes after DH walks through it is a shambles.

[Kathy]

I'm sorry they didn't arrive; that has to be frustrating. I've had chicks lost and that's really nerve wracking!
Gee, you would think they'd have notified you at least!

But the good news is at least they weren't lost in the mail! Maybe the weather wll be better next week-no avalanches or earthquakes.

[bobclark]

now I feel like I better call privett to make shure mine are on time they said it would be a wed hatch and I will get them fri. I better call wed after noon to see if they got shipped

sorry to hear your chicks didnt get shipped on time

[Deleted]

I will call to confirm that the order will go out on sat. I never thought that I should check that the order is where it should be. Since I am the one who is on a time frame I will add that step to my prep list. I am not being funny and I am not unset anymore One just learns something every day.

[Kathy]

I wonder if some of the delays in shipping and keeping in adequate stock to fulfill orders is due to all of the avian flu discussions? Maybe more folks are getting chicks while they can or else the hatcheries are not hatching as many so they don't have a surplus.

[bobclark]

you may be right kathy.

[Deleted]

Glad I called as there was something on the commputer which would have ment another wasted week. In stead they upgraded to to ordinmental layers instead of an outdated unitended special accidental left on the website from last year to Jan when I ordered. It was funny ordering an item that they did not know that they had. I was to receive any pullet could have been all leghorn even female cornx would have in their right to send me it was a risk that I took. I have faith it will work out. I really want to try as many breeds as I can to see what is best. At least with pullets I can sell the eggs while I learn about the breed.

[Kathy]

I used to get the assortments-they were always nice healthy chicks and it was so much fun figuring out what they all were! And oh my, were all those striped, spotted & solid colored babies cute!

[Deleted]

Bob you and I have some thing in common. Set backs with chicks.
MM jan 30 del LATE Lots of DOA

MM Feb order (Replacements Delivery forgotten at hatcherY

MM next week Volcano acts up and Since I knew that ment no Plane I informed them + another week delay

MM 4th week I got them and extras

The same week I was to recieve Ideal 105 chicks (22 ish with out my note made it) Late delivery

Next week replacement for them miss shipped or something

Next week box insured 103 sent 5 breathing Late box opened all around

Next week WE opted to wait and to try shipping on MONDAY to see if flight conection were better

Next week THEY wanted to change the order for me (to colors I was trying to avoid) Delayed to the deadly Wed ship date

Brings us up to this week
LATE again 80 shipped 20 moving (15 of those do look good) Insured box DAMAGED By post office 60 dead. YES my beloved buff are DEAD ---BARRED and PART seem to be the ony rocks that live for me from IDEAL

Yes I made the call to them
My options with them seem to be keep trying or I get to fight the post office. My problem is those from Ideal were males or straight run (for future breeding) I am so late on getting pullets to sell as started pullets for this year and my hugh brooders are taking up so much space for being so empty.
Personally I would rather give up on the assorted rocks and assorted cornish And get my assorted heavy layers
BUT I CAN NOT DO THAT per the lady on the phone.

So I will keep getting 5 to 20 chicks from Ideal till I end up with the total I ordered. Afterwhich I will not use them again. Even though I really like the fact that I can have a list of what died I would rather guess what is alive.

I need to find a hathery in oregon or washington. I am going to try Belt and Priviett next.
On a bright note our hatching is going great. A black silky just hatche 8 Jap buffs and I claim 90 percent hatch rate but It is really highter but half are mutts right now.
The Only feed store just got birds so I have 1 bronze and 1 white turky 2 silver rooster and 1 delaware rooster and one cornish x for my son to work with.. note last year most of my pullets from the feed store changed their sex so now they are roosters (and they did not even have to go to Sweden for the sex change opperation) --Learn later that quite a few people ended up with rooster not pullets from the feed store. With the luck we are having now-- Now that I want some one to be a male it will be all hens. Note I have more faith this year as to the real sex as they were marked this year VS in pens.