Where Does My Pet Chicken Ship From? Common Questions About the Company, Answered

Poultry company My Pet Chicken is based in Georgia, but it ships from Ohio, California, and Tennessee. My Pet Chicken ships only within the United States. For three to 14 chicks, customers in Alaska and Hawaii pay a flat rate of $75 for USPS Priority Mail Express shipping and special packaging. 

Can My Pet Chicken Ship to Other U.S. Territories? 

My Pet Chicken only ships birds within the 50 U.S. states. It doesn’t ship to American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or the Marianas. 

Who Owns My Pet Chicken? 

Traci Torres is the founder and CEO of My Pet Chicken. She and her husband, Derek Sasaki, started the business in 2005 as a website that offered helpful info about backyard chicken care. In 2006, My Pet Chicken started shipping live poultry and selling chicken care products. 

Today, the company sells over 500 products, offers countless free resources to chicken owners, and ships rare poultry varieties all over the country. My Pet Chicken has excellent reviews from customers and is considered a reputable place from which to purchase birds.

How Do Chicks Survive the Shipping Process? 

In the first 72 hours of a chick’s life, it is still getting nourishment from the yolk it absorbed in the egg. Therefore, newly hatched chicks technically don’t need to eat or drink for the first three days of their lives, although they’ll definitely be hungry and thirsty by the time that period is up! 

Poultry hatcheries ship day-old chicks — and ensure they arrive within 72 hours — for this reason. The birds don’t need to eat or drink during transit, making it safer to ship them. Any water in their container could easily spill and lead to hypothermia. Chicks could, theoretically, eat during shipping, but they would need water to go with it. Shipping containers also have a lot of holes that would allow food to spill out inside the truck. 

What Happens If a Chick Dies in the Mail?

My Pet Chicken offers a 100% live guarantee on its chicks, with only around one in 100 birds dying in transit. If you do happen to receive a chick that didn’t survive its journey, contact the company within 48 hours of getting your shipment to receive store credit or a replacement. 

Why Can’t You Order Chicks Year Round? 

Poultry companies like My Pet Chicken and Meyer Hatchery tend to only ship chicks from spring through fall. There are a few reasons for this, including:

• Cold weather: Shipping chicks during winter would be dangerous for the birds. They would need supplemental heat lamps in the truck to stay warm, which could pose a fire risk. 
• Molting: Chickens start molting in the fall. Losing and regrowing feathers is an energetically taxing process, and many chickens will lay fewer eggs as a result. 
• Egg availability: Chickens lay the most eggs in warmer months. Many breeds slow down their egg production in cold weather, and some stop altogether. 
• Egg fertility: Chicken eggs are usually more fertile in the warmer seasons, meaning more eggs will hatch. 
• Holidays: The holiday season is a hectic time for USPS. To avoid shipping delays posed by the huge volumes of holiday orders on the road, many hatcheries do not ship birds around winter holidays. 

Does My Pet Chicken Vaccinate Its Chicks?

My Pet Chicken offers a vaccine against Marek’s disease for all of its baby chickens, and you can select it during checkout. Marek’s disease — which causes blindness, paralysis, and death in affected birds — is one of the most common disease-related killers of backyard chickens. Unvaccinated chickens that contract the illness experience a nearly 100% mortality rate. 

When Marek’s disease strikes an unvaccinated flock, up to 60% of the chickens may be affected at one time. In contrast, fewer than five percent of birds in a vaccinated flock will fall ill with the disease. It’s a very good idea to choose vaccinated chicks for this reason. You’ll be protecting your pets against an insidious disease with no known cure. 

My Pet Chicken doesn’t offer the vaccine for other types of birds, like geese and ducks, because only chickens can get Marek’s disease. My Pet Chicken also does not vaccinate its chicks against coccidiosis. However, if you’re concerned about your birds contracting coccidiosis, you can feed them medicated chick starter to give them an upper hand against the disease. 

What’s the Minimum Number of Chicks My Pet Chicken Will Ship?

There are no required minimum numbers of chicks per breed — instead, it depends on the season. You can order as few as three chicks from April to November. From December to March, you must order at least eight chicks to ensure the birds stay warm. Although they have a heating pack in their shipping container, they still need body heat to stay snug! 

Why Does My Pet Chicken Only Ship Through USPS?

Only the U.S. Postal Service can ship live baby chicks — UPS, FedEx, and other private carriers will not mail them, although they can ship other live animals like reptiles and feeder insects. Therefore, My Pet Chicken ships its birds through USPS.

Does My Pet Chicken Sell Fertilized Eggs? 

My Pet Chicken ships fertile poultry eggs for hatching, including chickens, quail, and ducks. You must order at least six eggs and they can take up to three months to arrive, depending on availability. The eggs come bubble-wrapped in a box lined with newspaper. 

My Pet Chicken guarantees its hatching eggs will arrive intact and ready for you to incubate. If you receive any broken eggs, take photos of the damage and contact My Pet Chicken within 48 hours of getting your shipment. 

Importantly, no poultry company can guarantee all of its eggs will hatch, since Mother Nature always makes the final call! Your incubation conditions — including temperature, humidity, and length of incubation — play a critical role in whether the eggs will hatch. Under normal conditions, chicken eggs hatch in 21 days in an incubator or under a broody hen.