Montana poultry farmer claims Postal Service delay led to hundreds of dead chicks

In the three years she’s been buying chicks, she’s never had a problem. The chicks can survive 72 hours in the mail, and that was easily accomplished when the chicks were flown via airmail from Iowa to Billings and then shipped on ground transportation from Billings to Missoula and then to St. Ignatius.

But recently, she said, the USPS began flying all airmail cargo service to Great Falls instead of Billings. And because Great Falls doesn’t have the same type of processing/distribution center as Billings, that cargo has to be trucked from Great Falls to Billings. Then, it goes to Missoula and then on to the Mission Valley. The time the chicks were in the mail increased to about five days, and that’s true for poultry farmers all over western and central Montana.

For the chicks inside the boxes, the extra few days has been deadly.