Duckling disaster / turkey trauma

I just spoke with the nicest woman on earth at McMurray Hatcheries. She sounded genuinely horrified that our ducklings and turkey poults haven't arrived. She shared my sadness for the poor little birds that are likely dead or dying in the wrong post office, somewhere out there. She said they'll try to find out what happened.

I want to emphasize that we have had a really good experience with McMurray overall. Their customer service is fantastic, and our chicks arrived in extremely good condition. I would still recommend McMurray, because I honestly don't believe the turkey/duck situation is their fault.

In light of the discouragingness of the mail problem, the s.o. and I had contemplated the idea of asking for our money back and leaving the turkeys and ducks 'til next year. But the empathetic woman at McMurray seemed eager to make things right for us, so I went with the flow. A new shipment of ducklings and poults will go out a week from tomorrow.

Maybe the extra time will be a blessing. I suppose the bright side is that we will have more attention to devote to these vibrant, wingy little chicks, who are so full of good cheer. They can now fly--not enough to bounce themselves off the chicken wire at the top of the brooder, but definitely enough to pounce on each other from above.

In unrelated news, we are set to pick up a nuc of bees from our instructor tonight! Send good buzz, please.