View Full Version : Delayed due to chickens??
A relative of mine recently flew from Orlando to Gatwick on British Airways.
The flight was about 1 hour late departing Orlando, and the reason given for the delay was that an error had been made when the cargo was loaded onto the aircraft and a load of chicks had been put into an unheated hold.
They then had to be unloaded and put into the correct area.
I was wondering why chickens would be flown from the USA to the UK, and is this a fairly common thing to have on aircraft?
The only reason that I could think of for doing it is if someone had purchased a load of rare breed chicks and wanted to breed them in the UK.
Chicks less than a day old are a common commodity transported by air, even attracting special rates, but they do require special handling.
wiggy
17th May 2013, 12:47
ExXB
+1
I've certainly signed for consignments X,000 chicks in the past - fortunately I didn't need to do a headcount but they certainly had to be in a heated hold.
http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/farm/welfiss_chick_transport.pdf
No_Speed_Restriction
17th May 2013, 13:57
I suspect fowl play.
Coat,.....door,......gone!
Hotel Tango
17th May 2013, 14:28
Coat,.....door,......gone!
Chicken! :p
DaveReidUK
17th May 2013, 15:48
the reason given for the delay was that an error had been made when the cargo was loaded onto the aircraft
The delay was caused by a consignment of eggs having been loaded previously, whereas of course the chickens should have come first ...
PAXboy
17th May 2013, 16:23
Why did the Chicken cross the pond? :}
Oh, is that my coat? Thank you so much, then I'll be on my way ...
Tightly packed chicks in boxes have been known to overheat significantly in transit and have been rumoured to arrive cooked as sandwich filling......................
PAXboy
17th May 2013, 19:28
Which crossed the Atlantic first - the chicken or the egg?
Oh yes I'm on a roll tonight. Or am I in a chicken roll?
Many thanks for the info which I've passed on to the person concerned.
angels
21st May 2013, 09:12
I'm amazed that chicks are regularly air freighted!
A sudden (serious) thought. It's known that air travel has sped up the spread of human diseases, so what if some of the chicks have avian flu?
Prseumably air travel can spread flu this way as well, or are there health tests on the things? Avian flu is pretty inefficient at jumping to humans -- at the moment....:uhoh:
angels
Does the flu virus transfer from mother hen to chicks? Unlikely that the chicks are ever around adult chickens - there certainly is no reason for them to be.
Chicks are born with much of the egg yolk intact which allows them to live without feeding/water for a day or two. Hence the shipment by air, ground transport would not work for anything over a couple hundred kms.