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Shipping FAQs
- How do you ship live birds?
We have many years of experience with shipping live birds, and always excercise the utmost care for your new friends. Also, we work exclusively with the US Postal Service, who share our sense of gentleness and care for the birds. All orders you place with us will be safely air mailed to you, and we fully guarantee live arrival.
However, there are risks on shipments of live poultry. While issues such as illness and death are rare, they do happen. Based on our experience, approximately 99% of birds get to their destination promptly without any problems.
The main thing we need to be mindful of when shipping the birds is their temperature. On some orders we may need to include a special heated box, which will keep as few as 2 birds safe during shipment. Also, we may tape up some of the air holes on our poultry boxes, such that the heat will be retained in the box while still allowing your birds to breathe fresh air.
- Why don't you ship to Illinois, Hawaii, or Louisiana?
We must be consistently monitoring the general perfomance level of the US Postal Service to ensure that our birds are shipped in a humane and timely fashion. Unfortunately, we've noticed that the local Postal Services in Illinois and Louisiana do not move shipments fast enough to maintain acceptable success rates.
We do not ship to Hawaii because it requires extensive permitting and costly inspection processes.
If you place an order which includes live birds for IL, HI, or LA, we will simply cancel the order and issue you a full refund, if applicable.
- What are Warming Chicks?
Warming Chicks are extra birds which we will sometimes include free of charge on smaller orders. If you have no use for them and cannot find anyone who does, there are several ways to safely get rid of them. The most common is by simply posting an ad for free chicks on Craigslist.org.
- What is this Heated Box?
The Heated Box we use is a special, insulated box with a heating device in it that will keep as few as two birds safe and warm during shipment. We automatically will use it on most orders of 10 birds or less, and it's cost will be reflected in as a "Small Order Charge". Please note that while we can sell most duck and goose breeds with a heated box, we cannot send chicken or turkey orders in a heated box.
- How do you determine the shipping price?
The shipping price has three factors in it - our packaging and handling charge ($6), the USPS Postage rate (determined by weight of the birds), and the heated box for smaller orders.
- How long will it take to receive my birds
Birds will usually hatch about 2-3 weeks after you place your order. They will ship the day they hatch, and you will receive them 1-2 days later. You can check you exact shipping date in about 3 days, by logging into your eFowl.com account, clicking My Account in the upper right, and checking the order comments.
- How does the Live Arrival Guarantee work?
We guarantee you will receive at least the number of birds you have ordered in the correct breeds. Immediately upon receiving your birds, please examine them and count any dead birds. If you did not receive at least the number or birds that you ordered in the correct breeds, please let us know by email (service@efowl.com) within 24 hours. At this point, we will either offer you a refund or in most cases another shipment.
- How do I receive the birds?
Your birds will be routed through your local Post Office. We recommend you contact your Post Office and let them know you're expecting live poultry and ask them to call you upon their arrival (we include instructions on the box for the Post Office to do this as well). This way, you can pick up your birds, rather than wait to have them delivered, significantly reducing their travel time.
- Will I be able to track my order?
No, you will not be able to. We do not currently insure the shipments, and do not receive tracking numbers from the US Postal Service. We are currently working to add the package tracking capability.
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