McMurray hatchery has been given notice it will no longer be able to ship poultry as of Aug. 15th. Please log onto their website and click the link to write your representative. This is not a hoax, they have sent out emails and it's at the top on their website. Thank you.

HannahH: Thanks for the heads-up!! This is on their website, with an explanation of what has happened and what people can do. They suggest writing to US Representatives and Senators, but I wonder if calling Northwest Airlines (which is refusing to carry poultry anymore) could help, too. This policy on the part of Northwest is supposed to take effect August 15, so it's important to act in support of the hatcheries immediately. It sounds like this will affect the mail-order portion of all hatcheries sooner or later, making it necessary to pick up all baby chicks at a nearby hatchery, if you are lucky enough to have one.

There are enough registered users of The Classroom at The Coop to have an impact on this situation if we all contact the people and offices that can bring pressure to bear on the issue. Write or call today. Even one call tells politicians that others are thinking the same thing. If several calls come into the same office, they get noticed in a hurry. Members of congress want your address when you call or write so they can send responses to you in the mail.

Let them hear from the poultry world today!!!!!!!!!

where to locate your representative in congress:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

To see if your congressman is on the House Agriculture Committtee, Transportation and Infrastructure, or Small Business Committees,go to
<http://clerkweb.house.gov/106/mbrcmtee/cmtees/standing/SC.HTM#1> and scroll down to the committee listings. Be aware that the list has not been updated since the last election.
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We have just left a message on the general customer comment page at the Northwest Airlines website at
<http://www.nwa.com/cgi-bin/gen_general.pl>
Here is what we said:

As a customer of Northwest via the USPS, I want to protest the decision by Northwest to refuse to carry live birds for the USPS as of August 15. We raise poultry and depend on various hatcheries to supply us with day-old chicks. Because we live in a remote section of the country, there are no hatcheries within several hundred miles of our farm. If we can't get chicks by mail, we will have to go out of business. Because we supply eggs and broilers to customers in our area, they also will be affected by this decision. Please reconsider your decision in light of the economic impact it will have on our already-stressed farm communities, and resume carrying day-old poultry for the hatcheries.
The urgency of this situation requires an immediate response. Thank you for your reconsideration.
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Man! What awful news! Hey, can someone please tell me the REASON why they won't allow the shipment of poultry any more? I'm really curious.

Hi Sunni, from what I can find out, Fed-Ex is taking over the "Eagle Express" dept. of the USPS. I guess that means the airlines have lost their contract to fly mail (or part of it anyway, Fed-Ex has planes, USPS is not allowed to have their own planes). The airlines probably figure if they lost the contract, then they aren't going to carry ANY live animals anymore. I could be wrong, this is what I've been reading. Fed-Ex doesn't ship animals period. Go to the McMurrays website, click on that action link, make your voice heard, and read what it tells you there. By the way, Continental Airlines is still shipping poultry, so I emailed them a thank you. Not all the hatcheries have access to Continental tho.

I am interested in the USPS not having their own planes, while I never mail baby chicks, I send older birds (comply with the regulations that young birds should weigh 9oz--most of mine are 10-12 weeks at the youngest, and are just barely weight of 9oz, so prefer them even a little older for overnight delivery. Besides, I know a little more about their quality as they get older. For second day delivery I want my birds to be 4 months or older, as a possible delay means no food or water for quite a long time. Since the box (approved N.E.S.T)is fairly dark, it just means a long night for them, and they are 'stuffed" with food before boxing for the PO. ) It is my understanding that they leave my town on a USPS plane for a major hub,(with the outgoing mail, and Expressand Priority Mail, where they then go out on regularly scheduled airlines. But maybe these small planes are under contract to the USPS and not owned by the service. (In winter, these small planes are not really warm, as is the cargo area of scheduled passenger planes , so I have to check the temperature to the hub city.--where the birds are then okay for the rest of their journey.) They do not leave my town via Delta, United or Northwest, who all have schedules from the local airport. Horizon also lands here, but does not carry animals of any kind--cannot take your dog with you!

This is certainly a major dilema and it sounds like it will be solved. CJR

Hi CJR, checked out a lot of stuff about this and it does appear that USPS does not have their own planes. Don't know why, the thing is, the airlines that have contracts to ship US mail are supposed to ship ALL US mail. Now it seems they (the airlines) are making up their own rules. Fed-Ex doesn't ship live animals tho. Guess the airlines figure if Fed-Ex has the contract now for Next Day Air, and doesn't ship critters, then they don't have to either. And I hope they can figure this mess out. I wanted to ship a full grown bird out and my PO told me they don't do that!