Had an order come from McMurray today, approx. 1100 chicks. Arrived at the Sweetgrass (US) post office at around 9am, which is when the delivery truck usually shows up... Waited till 9:30, they were running a bit late, no problem. I see a blue 4 door ford truck unloading parcels from the back...cant be??! Yes, UPS delivered my chicks from Great Falls to Sweetgrass, a 2hr 20min drive IN THE BACK OF A PICKUP TRUCK! -14 and blowing snow! You can only imagine that the chicks are not fairing to well..... Will be up early and on the phone tomorrow! Not to mention that ALL the holes in the boxes were poked out, fairly common knowledge that hot air rises, and flows out the top!...

Is that UPS or USPS? Sounds more like USPS to me.

Oh my gosh Ty, that is terrible. And so un called for and inhumane. I would be on the phone with UPS or USPS, whichever it was and report animal abuse. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to know you don't put babies in the back of a pick up truck, even in above zero that is crazy, and they did it at -14! I woudl like the driver to sit back there for 2 1/2 hrs at road speed and see how he feels.

Hopefully your order was not a complete loss, but I do know that it can affect them for quite some time from getting chilled, even the ones that did survive the trip... Poor things.

That is just terrible!! I can't believe it's their first chick delivery - inexcusable - and what's up with McMurray for releasing the chicks to that kind of transport? Unbelievable!

Definitely inexcusable on the one drivers part. Mcmurray would have had no clue as to how its shipment arrived. See my post in useful info on couriers for some insight.

He Ty, you must have been there just before I came.
The post office guy told me that someone had just picked up an order of 1000+.
I was already thinking, maybe it was Ty

Well, I didn't have that many, but I have also many dead ones. I think it's the last time I ordered from them. The hatching date on the box was Feb. 3, today it's the 6th.!
That's to long already and than delivered like that I'm not happy.

Chicks are doing very poorly right now, still. Like Jayme said, once they are chilled, its a tough road back. Ill be lucky if I end up with a 40 -50% survival.

Very irresponsible - the lady driving the truck had NO concern whatsoever, for the chicks or the parcels clearly marked FRAGILE, throwing them off the truck and landing on the metal trolleys, I could not believe it, almost wanted to video tape the whole thing.

Anna - I seen you driving south! haha. I though, na, couldn't be... lol I was there at 9am, waiting for the chicks to arrive...

OMG!
Im so freaking ANGRY to read this!

The woman should be fired and far far worse! Call the SPCA down there on that one and Ride McMurray's butt about it. This is a total outrage!!!!!! HOw HORRIBLE for her to basticly intentionally freeze baby chicks, any animal at all!!!!

I wonder if McMurray has a FB Page. I will be all over that dang thing if they do. I dont care if it is "not thier fault" They need to know about this screw up. For our shipment they sent out babies on a day that the postal planes didnt fly, that added another day of the chicks sitting somewhere.

Loosing a few chicks is to be expected Having 500 chicks die because of somenes stupid and callous decision is action worthy, everyone in that hcain needs to pay, the driver, the person who decided to deliver that way etc etc etc.

I am beyond angry. I can't believe people. That is just so wrong on so many levels. I would love to put that woman in the back of that pick up. Is she that stupid or that incompassionate? Please Ty make sure you let Mcmurray know exactly what happened to those chicks. I am totally disgusted. Lou

Shameful, too bad you didn't video it. Youtube is an amazing thing!

Not a happy start of the day, more dead chickies
It's now 40% dead ones and there will follow a few more.
I know the way they got to Sweet Grass was the death-blow, but what is your opinion about
the time between hatching and delivery. Isn't 3 days not already to much for those little ones.
If they didn't ship them in the weekend it may save a day.
Like Ideal, they ship on Tuesday, you can pick them up on Wednesday.

I just looked at the tracking #, it could have even been worse, expected delivery by...FEB 7!
And by the way, it was delivered to Billings MT, isn't that way south of Great Falls? The ttracking doesn't mention Great Falls at all. It came from Billings straight to Sweet Grass.

I'm getting a very sick feeling........

Priority Mail®
Delivered
February 06, 2012, 11:30 am
SWEET GRASS, MT 59484
Expected Delivery By:
February 7, 2012


Delivery Confirmation™


Arrival at Post Office
February 06, 2012, 9:37 am
SWEET GRASS, MT 59484

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
February 05, 2012, 8:04 am
BILLINGS, MT 59101

Depart USPS Sort Facility
February 04, 2012
SAINT PAUL, MN 55121

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
February 04, 2012, 6:20 am
SAINT PAUL, MN 55121

Shipment Accepted
February 04, 2012, 2:15 am
SAINT PAUL, MN 55111

Electronic Shipping Info Received
February 03, 2012

wow that is very sad and discouraging for sure...I hope that if you let them know the disastrous results they can avoid this in the future....but really tough on the chicks and you guys right now.

I had a Cackle order miss a plane before so it was 3 days by the time I got them. My only losses were all 4 sultans. They must have either been weaker or perhaps a slight touch older than the others, but ALL of my other chicks, around 30 or so, (Ameraucanas, Dominiques, Lakenvelders, Speckled Sussex, Sultan, can't even remember what else) did well. They were hungry and thirsty, never saw chicks learn to eat and drink so fast in my life, but they did well.

I am so sorry for you Ty, It is inexcusable to treat babies this way. And no we should not blame McMurray in any way . They should be able to trust a large shipper like USPS. If I were you I would threaten the USPS dept that if they don't refund you for your entire loss then they will have to explane to the proper authorities why they did treat these critters so inhumanely. I can see why some hatcheries won't ship this time of the year because you can never be sure that there won't be some thoughtless driver involved that could do something like this. Chicke are supposed to be able to survive for up to 72 hours without food and water from the time that they hatch so it is not so much the time as it was the way that they were treated. Good luck.