[feelingbroody]

I'm horrified to hear these birds were in transit for well over 24hrs in a box.  Did they have water because if they didn't I'd be surprised they survived at all?  How old were they?  Are they showing any signs of illness such as sneezing, runny noses, eyes, depression, drooping wings, in activity etc?
HF

Grrrrr this makes my blood boil, poor hens, that breeder needs reporting!!!

[u looking at me]

Yes unfortunately there are the ones that just don't care, thankfully not too many.  Anyway all the others appear to be fine and have now thankfully are losing the nervousness they arrived with

" No one should be having live animals delivered by courier when there are so many other alternatives."  I won't be using couriers again only because this experience has not been a good one, however I was a bit confused by this comment as I thought that was the whole idea of Bird Couriers, to move birds throughout country,countries and most of the time very efficiently and inexpensively (according to other forums)

[hillfooter]

The RSPCA' s http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/farm/livetransport/factfile rules for the commercial  transportation of poultry say,

["b]Poultry[/b]
No maximum journey time. They must be provided with suitable food and water if journeys last more than 12 hours...............................................................................

What systems are in place to enforce these laws?Anyone transporting animals for commercial purposes has to carry documents stating the animals’ origin, ownership, place of departure, destination and the expected duration of the journey. All transporters must also hold either a ‘short journey’ (for travel of 8 hours of less) or ‘long journey’ authorisation and hold a valid certificate of competence. They can only get this certificate if they’ve had certain animal welfare-related competencies assessed by an independent body. If transporters break the rules, EU Member States can theoretically apply penalties including withdrawal of their authorisation, which would prevent further trading.

Any vehicle used to transport animals on long journeys must also be inspected and ‘approved’ by the authorities before it can be used. All EU member states are expected to carry out checks on vehicles and animals during transport and at the end of journeys. The European Commission is meant to supervise this.

Unfortunately, these laws alone are not always adequate to protect animal welfare.

* More information is available on our downloadable Live transport information sheet June 2008 (PDF 122KB)." 

Note this may not be applicable in a legal sense to small scale courier transportation I don't know.  However the thing to note is that commercial poultry in transport for over 12 hours must be provided with food and water.  I'd suggest this was a very basic requirement.  In this case it is not clear this was done though we don't know for sure.  I do know that when we transported our 3 pigs a matter of a few tens of miles and 40min or so journey times we still needed to complete lots of documentation on their welfare.

Generally if the welfare rules are obeyed there shouldn't be a problem as Ulam suggests.

HF