When shipped eggs or birds are damaged or DOA.

Written by Clucky Nugget, author of this article and creator of Backyard Poultry Guide.

If you ever bought chicks or adult fowl online, you may know the risks of buying birds when some may pass, or get lost during shipping. In this article there will be some different topics between breeders, and hatcheries. Whichever you choose to go with, here's what to do if you receive chicks, or adults that are DOA.

When USPS is at fault

In the instance that the breeder or hatchery is not at fault for damaged boxes or dead birds it's good to let your local post office be aware of what happened but in most cases USPS will not handle these types of incidents due to packages and birds not being insured. This is the biggest risk when purchasing birds or eggs from places that require shipping to get them to you. 

From the breeders

Most small scale breeders are happy to send out photos and videos of live birds in the boxes or the condition of the boxes before being shipped out. This way you have the ease of knowing that your breeder took appropriate measures ensuring the birds will have safe travels. This also may help promote the breeder when sharing quality reviews.

Having these photos in messages may back up a breeder if they ever receive backlash if one of their packages does end up looking bad when received by the customer. This can help prove that the breeder did not purposefully send out damaged packages, sick, or dead birds. Unfortunately there is the occasional Bad Egg breeder who sends out sick or injured birds or sending them in the wrong boxes. Good Egg Bad Egg, the facebook group exists for good reason to share when the good, and bad happens. 

Unfortunately even if the breeder did their best shipping birds things still happen, usually they cannot refund or replace what the shipping company damaged, they usually aren't making profit off birds like hatcheries.

What to look out for in a good breeder

An excellent breeder will always be happy to send you photos of their birds in the shipping boxes or how the box looks before leaving their care. If they are a reliable breeder but ship directly through a website rather than from 1-1 conversation you may not be as lucky to receive photos of the birds going out. 

Delays. It's perfectly normal for delays to happen. A great example with adult fowl, some breeders ship adults in cooler temperatures, early spring, early winter. This is especially important for breeds that don't do great in super hot temps. If for some reason a bad storm comes in the breeder may not box up and ship birds out until the storm passes which may delay shipping. Make sure to stay in contact to be kept up to date if there's any delays. Good breeders will inform you of delays.

Buying from a hatchery

When buying anything from a hatchery, you should read up on their shipping and return policies for each one you purchase from, some may have different policies. Notify the hatchery if chicks are DOA to receive a replacement or refund. In most cases hatcheries may refund the deceased chicks if they are unable to meet the required shipping minimums they follow.

Hatcheries as well even have delays, they may delay shipments if the temps are too low or too high. Hatcheries may also delay shipments if chick availability numbers aren't filled per order. For example you order 5 Brahma, 5 Legbars, and 5 Welsummers, for a 15 chick minimum, they may wait to ship out your order if they are still waiting for a breed to hatch. Occasionally they may notify about replacements needing to be made or refund you if the availability isn't met for those breeds at the same time.