Shipping Live Animals with USPS
While USPS allows for the shipment of certain live animals like bees and day-old chicks, Pirate Ship unfortunately doesn't offer the Special Handling services you need to ship them in accordance with USPS policy 😔
Properly shipping live animals like bees and day-old chicks
Due to their fragile nature, you must declare any shipments of bees and hatchlings as “Live Animals” prior to creating labels. This allows USPS to properly identify and flag these shipments for Special Handling. You’ll also need to be aware of certain guidelines and conditions, which include:
What service you use to ship (for example, a queen honey bee gets to enjoy the regal benefit of air-based services like Priority Mail, while her royal subject drones can only go via ground service 🐝)
Avoiding temperature extremes which could harm the animals, restricting shipping them to certain months of the year, and shipping only during certain periods of their life cycle (e.g., chicks must reach their destination within 72 hours of hatching - so you may want to opt for an overnight service like Priority Mail Express 🐣)
Special Handling fees that will apply
To ship live animals with USPS, you need to go to a Post Office
Sorry we can't help you out with this type of shipment 😢 But to make sure your animals remain safe, you'll need to go to your local Post Office to purchase the postage.
Shipping Live Animals with UPS
UPS is more accepting of shipments containing live animals! Still, they restrict these packages to certain animals and reptiles. Here are types of animals UPS accepts:
Amphibians (All) – Examples: frogs, salamanders, toads
Cephalopod (All) – Examples: squid, octopus, nautilus
Crustaceans (All) – Examples: crabs, crawfish, lobsters, shrimp
Fish (All)
Insects (Limited to beneficial insects only) – Examples: bees, butterflies, crickets, lady bugs
Mollusks (All) – Examples: clams, mussels, snails
Reptiles (Limited to the following): Lizards, such as chameleons, geckos, iguanas, monitors, and flying dragons
Turtles, such as freshwater turtles (excluding snapping turtles), land tortoises, and sea turtles
Worms (All)
NOTE: Like USPS shipments, Pirate Ship doesn't offer any Special Handling service for UPS packages. So, if you need to send a shipment with UPS containing any of the above animals, we still suggest visiting your local The UPS Store® location and doing it through them 👍
Also, UPS carrier liability does not cover shipments containing live animals, since UPS considers them perishable commodities. UPS says the following regarding not providing coverage for live animal shipments, which you can read here:
"Any package containing a live animal shall be considered a perishable commodity and will be accepted for transportation solely at the shipper´s risk for any damage or loss arising from the perishable nature of the item. UPS shall not be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages."
Additional Resources
Have any questions? Feel free to chat with our support crew for a helping hook 😎