Shipping Birds - Questions, Answers, and Links

[Trees Gray]

From the Horizon web page:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showpo...29&postcount=1

Thank you for sharing that very informative post, Jennifer.

[Lovebirds]

Below are the steps that you need to take to ship a bird. One of the moderators might want to make this a sticky or add it to the current sticky on shipping........or not.....whatever. Anyway

1. Ship only on Monday or Tuesday. If shipping to a location that is near you, Wednesday is possible. Never ship a bird on Thursday or Friday. NEVER.

2. Bird must be shipped in USPS approved shipping box. These can be purchased from the following.
http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/69-82.html
http://www.globalpigeon.com/gps.php?...showprod&id=56
http://www.siegelpigeons.com/catalog-postal.html
http://www.jedds.com/Products.asp?Ma...CategoryID=765
http://hm-e.net/

3. Call the main Post Office in YOUR town and ask them to either give you the number for the Express Mail office for your area OR if they will, tell them that you want to ship a bird/birds from YOUR zip code to the person recieving the bird's zip code and ask them to call. The Post Office will then either call the Express Mail office and set up the shipping OR give you the number and let you set it up.

4. Have a specific date that you want to ship. Call and arrange this shipment at least 24 hours in advance, but not more than 48 hours. Weather and flights can change.

5. If YOU call the Express Mail office, you should be able to give them the two zip codes (from ??? and to???). They should be able to either tell you right away if you can ship the bird or be willing to call you back as soon as they find out. HERE, my Express Mail office will call my main Post Office and tell them that I will be shipping a bird on such and such date. Whether all Express Mail offices do that, I don't know. Once you find out that the bird can be shipped, it would be best to go ahead and call your Post Office and let them know.

6. Sometime prior to shipping, go by any post office and pick up EXPRESS MAIL Mailing Label 11-B. Fill it out prior to taking the birds to the Post Office.
(Get a hand full, in case you mess up. The label should be CLEARLY printed with NO mistakes)

7. Find out from the Post Office what time their Express Mail truck arrives. Have the bird at the Post Office at least 1/2 hour before the truck arrives. If possible, there is no sense in taking the bird to the Post Office early in the day and having it sit there until the afternoon. Of course, if that's the best you can do, then it won't hurt the bird.

8. Shipments now are not guaranteed next day delivery. The Post Office will give you a 2nd day delivery, however, in MANY cases, the bird will arrive at it's destination in 24 hours or less.

9. Along with filling out the label, write CLEARLY the telephone number of the person recieving the bird ON THE BOX.

10. It's in the best interest of the bird, that the person recieving the bird, call THEIR local Post Office once the bird has been shipped to let them know that they are expecting a live shipment. If possible, the person recieving the bird should inform the Post Office that is ok to call them when the bird arrives and they will come pick it up. The Post Office does have to deliver the box to you, but the guarantee time on the label will either be 12:00 noon or 3:00 PM. It's possible that the bird could wind up riding the postal delivery person's route for that day. Depending on weather, that could be dangerous and the bird should actually be picked up and gotten out of the box as soon as possible.

11. NEVER ship a sick bird or one that is injured, unless of course the injury is permanent and the bird's injury is something that it will always live with.

12. The day the bird is shipped, keep food and water in front of the bird all day long.

13. Check the weather between your location and where the bird is going. The Post Office has guidelines on temperatures for shipping birds, but it's been my experience that all of the postal workers are not aware of the guidelines. So, it really up to YOU to make sure the bird can be safely shipped. If temps are below freezing OR above 85 degrees, you're best bet is to wait until the weather warms up or cools off, which ever the case may be.

14. NEVER put food or water in the box with the birds. For the most part, the birds will be in the dark and wouldn't eat or drink anyway. And of course, water would just leak and cause the box to become wet and that wouldn't be good.

15. Some personal guidelines that I follow are listed below.
A. never ship more birds than the box is meant to hold. (the Post Office is supposed to check on that, but most don't. If you tell them there's 2 birds and there's really 3, they'll never know. BUT. DO NOT overcrowd the birds to save a few dollars.)
B. Never ship two cock birds together in a box unless the box is divided in half. Some two bird boxes come with a divider. Some don't. If there isn't one with the box, make one. There's always the possibility of them fighting.
C. Never ship a mated pair of birds without a divider UNLESS, they are presently together at your location. If the pair has been separated and are thrown together in a box, there's a good chance that the cock will beat up on the hen.
D. NEVER take a pair of birds off of a set of eggs and ship them. If you are planning on shipping birds that are on eggs, take the eggs away from them a couple of days before shipping. If you don't, the cock MAY try to drive the hen back to a nest that obviously she can't go to.
E. NEVER ship baby pigeons under 28 days old.

NOTE: If anyone has anything that should be added, let me know and I'll do an edit on this post so the information is in one place.

[Trees Gray]

UPDATE -information given by karijo:


I just wanted to let you know I ordered 5 D-I-Y Horizon shipping boxes for $5 each, plus $17.02 parcel post shipping. Total including shipping $42.02!!

That's cheaper than anybody else I've seen.
The boxes are DIY, they include the little filter papers which you glue in with elmer's glue.
(Or for $1.50 more each box you can get them with the filters already glued in)

The $5/box price is for orders of 1-14 boxes, the more you order after that the cheaper they get.

http://poultry2.tripod.com/id3.html

You email them at cdmejm@msn.com to place an order.

[Trees Gray]

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showpo...41&postcount=1