12/01/2025
THE USPS IS GOING TO KILL MY BUSINESS IF SOMETHING DOESN’T CHANGE!!!😡
For over 25 years, I’ve only had trouble once when I sent a pair of Blue Eared Pheasants to Massachusetts. They were found in a parking lot in the back of a mail truck for 9 days. It was a miracle that they survived.
But last January I had a disaster when I sent birds to 10 people, a week after the New Year. I thought that I was doing the right thing by waiting well after the Christmas mail to clear out of the way, but that didn’t matter.
5 of the people got theirs on time to a day late. Those birds were okay. The rest took anywhere from 5 to 10 days in the mail with most people at least losing bird or two. The one that took 10 days was 4 pairs of Elegant Quail and 5 Mountains. The Elegants were all dead of course, and the 5 Mountains were alive. $1000 loss just for that one order and probably at least $500 gone from the others.
Things were going well this fall. I started shipping in October with only 1 or 2 a day late but the birds were all good. The last two weeks have been a disaster.
I sent four Mearns males to Florida on a Tuesday, the week before last. After the third day, they sat in Missouri, way off course for 2 or 3 days, then showed up in Florida on Sunday, but 2 hours away. Luckily there was actually one guy who was conscientious and drove the 2 hours to deliver them the same day. They were weak, but all survived for about 6 days in the mail. It used to be that when I sent to Florida, most of the time they arrived the next day, sometimes 2. What the hell were they doing in Missouri?!!
Then last week I sent out a bunch on Tuesday. A couple pairs of Valleys to North Carolina never got there. This is 6 days later. Those I’m sure are all dead. No sign of them anywhere.
There are others that I sent out that day and have only heard back from one person who got theirs. I’ve been calling the other people with no answers so far. I sent a big bunch to Ohio and am keeping my fingers crossed that they got there. One box to Oregon got sent back to me for no reason.
I can and will get the Postage refunds back but lost the birds and boxes. The people at my Post Office are good, and most on the buyers’ end are good too. The trouble is between here and there.
They hire just anyone off the street nowadays and they just don’t give a s**t. They’ll leave boxes of live birds right there for days and not even make an effort to get them off to their destination. A lot of the time they don’t even scan them along the way, which makes it impossible to track.
I want to continue to raise birds but this makes me want to turn this into nothing but a hatching egg farm from now on.
Most everything will be laying in May and I don’t intend to hatch many now. The common stuff will always be here but the Mearns, Mountains, and Elegants start getting booked up fast and a lot of people miss the boat by calling me too late in the season. Last season wasn’t the best laying season and I came up short on a few people’s orders of Mearns. I should have one hell if a lot more eggs this year, having a lot of new birds with some brand new bloodline.
People all over the globe are pre-ordering, so don’t miss out!
