Usps Shipping Policies
All customers ordering through our online store must initial during purchase to agree to the polices on this page. We strongly recommend that all customers read over this entire page before ordering birds. Exceptions to our policies will not be made because customer did not read the policies before placing an order.
Please note as of 10-20-25 we have made changes to our "Live arrival Guarantee". Please read over changes in the Live arrival Guarantee" section below.
We do not ship outside the continental USA.
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All of our USPS shipping is done using "priority express mail". This is the USPS's fastest service. Using this service birds will arrive in 1-3 days depending on the connections available.
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October-March orders that are placed thru our online store will normally ship the following Monday after they were placed (this excludes orders for pinioned birds)
If that Monday is a federal holiday (postal services closed) your birds will ship on Tuesday. We will not ship any orders on weeks that the post office will be closed on a Tuesday, Wednesday ,Thursday or Friday. This includes but is not limited to ,the week of Thanksgiving possibly the weeks of Christmas and New years. For these and other holiday weeks shipping is delayed to the next Monday.
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Orders placed in August and September will have a 30-60 day wait before shipping This is to allow temperatures to fall to a safe temperatures for shipping birds. When ordering in August or September (and often early October) you will receive an email within 72hrs of placing your order that contains your orders shipping date. This date will be subject to change depending on the weather.
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We reserve the right to delay shipping due to unsafe temperatures, holidays, or any other reason that we feel may cause unsafe shipping conditions for your birds.
Usually delays are 1 week or less.
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When placing your order please make sure your shipping info is correct.
If shipping info provided by the customer is incorrect no refunds/replacements will be given
NO EXCEPTIONS
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If the postal services in your area are being affected by a serve weather event (example, hurricane, flooding, wild fires etc,) please do report this to us so we can adjust your shipping date accordingly.
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We often print shipping labels the weekend before your orders actually ships. You may receive an automated email from the company we are using to print your label once the label has been created. This does not mean your order has already shipped, it is only a notification that your label has been created and your order is shipping soon.
Orders that were paid for through paypal invoice outside of our online store, will be notified of shipping date on that invoice.
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Pinioned birds will require time to heal before shipping this is normally 1-2 weeks. If you have ordered pinioned birds through our online store, you will receive an email with your shipping date within 72 hrs of placing your order.
To help with order accuracy please do not request birds to be pinioned in separate emails or in the note to sellers section, please instead use the 'pinion my birds" listing when placing your order. If pinion fees are paid separate from the order for the birds that will be pinioned the fee will not be charged at the discount rate that the "pinion my birds' listing offers in the onlinestore.
Please note orders for pinioned birds can not be changed and are nonrefundable, no refunds will be given should customer choose to back out of a sale for pinioned birds.
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Orders for non pinioned birds can be changed or cancelled by the customers. 10% cancellation fee will be applied to all refunds. Because of the special preparation required for shipping live birds any request for cancellation or changes must be made at least 48 hrs prior to shipping date.
Tracking # will be e-mailed after the birds are sent. These emails are usually sent by 5pm the day of shipping. These emails are only sent to the email address provided to us when you placed your order.
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Please make sure you provide us with a phone # that the post office can reach you at once your birds arrive. If a phone # is provided it will be placed on your box. If phone # is not provided we will still ship your order, however you will need to give the post office your phone # when you contact them prior to receiving your birds.
Please plan to pick up your birds up from the post office.
We recommend that you contact your post office to let them know that you are expecting a shipment of live birds, and that you would like to be contacted as soon as they arrive. We do not recommend allowing the birds to be delivered to your address, this can cause delays in delivery and will void your "live arrival" guarantee. If your post office does not call you on the day your birds are expected to arrive please do call them. We recommend that you do not rely on any type of postal app or tracking to see if your birds have arrived, as theses can be slow to update or even incorrect.
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Customers are solely responsible for knowing and complying with any regulations set by their state, county and/or any other relevant party that may impose rules pertaining thier birds.
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Our farms NPIP # and federal paperwork if needed for that species will be attached to the outside of the shipping box. If you need any other documentation please inquire as to if we can provide it before placing your order. Additional documents can not be sent after your birds are received.
For more information please visit our "Permits and Regulations" page.
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Please only use email for correspondence about your order, it helps us keep things much more organized. We will not guarantee any request made to modify orders that are sent through any channels other than email. Our email address is MallardLaneFarms@gmail.com
When emailing please include your order #
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Shipping fees are charged at a flat rate, this rate is the rate that we will be charging to ship your order , it will not match the postage sticker on your box.
We ship only in USPS approved shipping containers, at this time Horizon and FeatherEx are the only manufacturers of these that I am aware of. The price of the properly sized Horizon shipping or FeatherEx container is included in our flat rate shipping fee. For more information on Horizon boxes please visit. horizon boxes http://www.hm-e.net/
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We feel that the post office provides us with a very valuable service, in transporting our birds, we do not ask the post office to refund postage for deliveries that arrive later than scheduled.
Please keep mind that the USPS does not keep packages containing live birds in a climate controlled environment throughout shipping. Temperatures inside inside a metal truck trailer can quickly reach deadly levels on a hot day. For this reason we will not ship birds when the temperature is expected to be above 80 at any point in the birds trip. Please be patient when we have to wait for safe shipping temperatures. Your birds arriving safely is our top priority.
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These birds ship best in cold weather. Shipping birds in cold weather is NOT a problem for the birds. It is always warmer in the shipping box than the birds would be outside.
We will ONLY delay shipping for winter weather if conditions are forecast to be serve enough to cause delays within the postal service.
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USPS shipping prices
Approximate shipping prices per pairs of average sized ducks.
The following prices are approximate and may be more or less depending on your particular order.
1 pair $99-$110
2 pair $169-200
3 pair $260-$300
4 pair $360-$400
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4 pairs of average sized ducks is the maximum amount of birds that can be shipped in one box.
"Live Arrival Guarantee" for USPS shipments
We guarantee all live birds to arrive alive and well for 3 days (72hrs) from shipping date/time.
For example birds mailed Monday at 1pm are guaranteed to arrive alive and well til Thursday at 1pm.
However we can not guarantee an order shipped on Monday at 1pm that does not arrive until Friday at 10am.
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The majority of our orders will arrive before the live arrival guarantee expires. However later arrivals can and do sometimes happen. Unfortunately we have no control over the USPS and at this time they are the only commercial carrier that will except live birds. There are risk involved in shipping live birds, if you choose to have birds shipped, you are accepting some of those risk.
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**If any bird arrives at your post office DOA within 72hrs of when we sent the bird, we will refund you the price of that bird. We do not offer replacement birds. However your refund can be used towards the purchase of a replacement if available.
The following conditions and exclusions for refunds apply:
Birds must be picked up from the post office no later than 3 hrs after they are available for pick up. Delivery or attempted delivery to an address will void your "live arrival guarantee"
--IMPORTANT --Birds must be checked before you leave the post office.
If you have any losses you will need to file PS form 1000 (7530-02-000-9931) with your post office. --IMPORTANT-- This will need to be done at the time you are picking up the birds, two copies of this form need to be turned in to the post office, you will keep one copy.
Please then e-mail a copy of the form along with photo of the bird to us within 12 hrs of the time you received the birds.
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All conditions above must be met to quality for a refund.
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All shipping charges, health papers, or other fees are non refundable.
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We do not offer any additional guarantee for after the birds are picked up from the post office ,our farm or other place that you may receive your birds. We recommend that customers read over our Care Info page for information on how to care for your birds. A certificate of health from our vet is available at customer expense. Cost of health certificate is $85.00 for 1-50 birds, $185 for 50-150.
In the event that a bird arrives alive but there is an obvious problem customer must notify us with 1 hr of receiving the bird. Pictures may be required. Any situation of this nature will be handled on a case by case basis. Birds being very scared or nervous should not be reported to us as a problem as this is normal behavior for these birds.
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Cosmetic things such as feather damage, males not being in full color or other things that do not affect the birds health are not guaranteed. Most birds will be wing clipped. We strongly urge customers not to order live birds from us that you intend to use to for taxidermy proposes.
Please make sure that you understand our shipping policies and the conditions of our "Live Delivery Guarantee" before placing your order. If you have questions please e-mail us at Mallardlanefarms.@gmail.com or fill out the form below.
Sexing Policy
We estimate that we are about 99% accurate when vent sexing our birds. Our policy for any birds that a customer believes to have been miss sexed is as follows: Customer may return that bird to us for a replacement. Bird must be returned to us alive and healthy for us to provide a replacement. Returns can be sent thru USPS express mail or returned to us in person. Customers pays all expense for returning the bird, we will pay all expense for sending the replacement. (If a replacement is unavailable we will send a refund for that bird.) Before seeking a replacement it is important to consider that wild waterfowl do not breed as easily as domestic birds do, lack of breeding success in species that the sexes look identical is not a positive indicator of a same sex pair.
Additionally DNA sexing can be requested for any birds that we sell. Cost for this service is $59 per bird. DNA sexing is considered to be 99.9% accurate.
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Pinioned Birds Policy
If you ordered pinioned birds and think your birds are not pinioned to pursue any type of compensation you will need send us a photo of the bird/birds with its wings spread out. NO EXCEPTIONS We strongly recommend looking at your birds wings before releasing them.
Please keep in mind wild birds that can fly almost always will fly away and not return upon release. When the birds stick around for a while but then begin disappearing one by one over a period of time, this issue is almost certainly related to predators and not that the birds flew away.
Refunds and Exchanges
Because of the nature of the items we sell we do not accept returns or exchanges or give refunds except under the terms of our "live arrival guarantee" and the sexing replacement policy, which is explained in detail in the sections above.
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