I was wondering if there was much of a reaction to the article about shipping day old chicks through the U.S. mail? The article seemed unbalanced and one sided. Many of us around the country take advantage of this wonderful postal service. Chicks born have everything that they need to survive for several days. They do not need water or food. That’s how nature designed them. As soon as they arrive, I place mine in a prepared cage that has the right food and clean water source. I dip their beaks into the water to get them started.
The success rate that I have had, over decades of using the post office, is about 95%. That’s as high, or higher, than when the mother hen hatches and raises her chicks. I never eat my chickens, but I do eat their eggs. A chicken can lay 250 eggs a year. Imagine if each one hatched and began laying in six months. The world would be carpeted with chickens.
Chickens are the ideal recycler for kitchen waste, and all the other items that one grows but doesn’t eat, for one reason or another. They take something that would be hauled off to a landfill, and turn it into a fresh, wholesome, nutritious egg.
There is nothing more homey than to arrive and see the chickens out scratching through the dirt for bugs. They eat ticks that carry Lime Disease and help keep the fly and moth populations down. And, they are so easily pleased. “Oh! A bug! A Bug!” and all the other chickens come to look and see. Chickens are an important part of a sustainable lifestyle. The post office is an important part of that cycle.
Randy Nauert