LARNED — At Big R Farm and Ranch Store in Larned, head receiver Carol Stephenson is worried. On April 2, a shipment of 15 live ducks from the store’s Hoover’s Hatchery supplier in Texas was expected to arrive later in the week.
On Wednesday, April 9, the ducks, which were to be delivered by the United States Postal Service, still hadn’t shown up.
That same day, a shipment of 100 young chickens left the Hoover’s facility in Pennsylvania. The shipment arrived Monday, and Stephenson, whose duty it is to receive in shipments to the store, was dismayed to learn that out of the 100, nine had survived.
“When we opened the box, there were all these dead chicks, which had apparently frozen to death,” she said. “The live ones we found were underneath the dead ones, huddled together to keep warm.”
Each year, the Larned store receives chicks and ducks in shipments every two weeks from Hoover’s beginning in mid-February to May. While Stephenson said she expects that some will not survive the trip, this year has been especially bad. Out of the 700 chicks received so far, she estimates that at least 30% have died en route, including this week’s shipment. So far, the ducks have fared better, but the mortality rate is still higher than it was last year and in prior years.
Hoover’s credits the store for birds lost due to shipping, but Stephenson said she cringes every time a late shipment arrives. “They are supposed to get here within 72 hours, and this year it has been almost a week,” she noted. “That’s at least five days without food or water in the back of a truck with no heat. They are supposed to get here alert and chirpy, not flat and stinky.
“It’s not our fault, and it’s not Hoover’s fault,” she said. “It’s the fault of our mail service, and I wish something could be done. It’s just a really sad situation.”
Big R, which is headquartered in Colorado, has four other stores in Kansas and the store in Ulysses has experienced similar problems with late deliveries, Stephenson noted.
Increased demand for poultry
With store-bought egg prices expected to increase by at least 40% this year, there has been an increase in demand for poultry by citizens seeking to raise their own birds. Egg prices have reached record highs in recent weeks, with some areas of the U.S. seeing a dozen go for $10 or higher. Much of the price jumps have been blamed on bird flu outbreaks, which have killed millions of chickens and caused poultry producers to kill millions more to stop the spread of the infection.
That’s led to fewer birds, which in turn has led to fewer eggs, leading to rising prices, shortages in supermarkets and egg surcharges in restaurants.
In early March, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested that people concerned about the price of eggs should consider having chickens in their own backyards.
“We also want to make it easier for families to raise backyard chickens,” she wrote as she explained her five-part plan to reduce egg prices.
The USPS has imposed a surcharge of between $7-$15 on top of $0.20 per pound on day-old poultry. The surcharge covers all live animal deliveries this year, beginning in January to cover additional costs associated with live animal handling. The surcharge also covers perishable foods.
Meanwhile, the Hoover’s organization issued an apology to Big R on Monday, noting that problems with USPS and FedEx last week not only affected its shipments, but the entire industry. Hoover’s spokesperson Tony Halsted said that many shipments across the country were not loaded onto planes and birds were delayed by weather issues in southern states.
“We are reviewing losses right now, but ensuring that this does not happen again as we are meeting with 10 senior officials from the government today (Monday) about this and other shipments this season.”
Halsted said that the company is seeking at least 10 different drop points, to get ground delivery as much as possible “until they can get this balanced out.”
Checking local outlets
The Great Bend Tribune also checked local poultry outlets Tractor Supply and Bomgaar’s in Great Bend. Employees said their tanks for poultry sales were empty on Tuesday awaiting future shipments. Tractor Supply noted that they expected a shipment to arrive Wednesday or Thursday and a Bomgaar’s shipment was expected, not this week, but soon. Staff at both stores noted that Hoover’s was one of their suppliers.
While neither store has experienced increased mortality from past years with their poultry shipments, both said that they were trying to keep up with an increased public demand in response to higher egg prices. In a normal year, Bomgaar’s manager Steve Titus said, the store receives 500-600 chicks a week. “They are usually gone in a week to 10 days. Right now, you could get 1,500 in and they’d be gone in 2-3 days.
“Every once in a while there is a glitch in the system, but we haven’t had any issues this year,” he said. “Bomgaar’s has 180 stores, so it’s a little hard to fathom the scope of the thing.”
Titus chuckled at the thought of an upcoming chicken shipment. “We are out for deliveries from any hatchery we can get,” he said. “People that are looking to raise chickens as a source of eggs need to realize that it’s going to be 7-8 months before they get an egg. They are going for $4-$5 a bird, and feed is around $12 a bag,” he said. “You can put quite a bit of money into it.
“With all of that, maybe $6 a dozen doesn’t seem so bad.”
