Mailing Babies, Chicks & More!

FUN FACT FRIDAY! 

Believe it or not, the USPS ships a lot of living things. Here are some of the things that we could find (with, of course, USPS Domestic Mail Manual references)

* BEES: honeybees and queen bees (ref: DMM 601.9.3.5)

* BABY CHICKS: newborn chickens, ducks, emus, geese, guinea birds, partridges, pheasants (only during April through August), quail, and turkeys (ref: DMM 601.9.3.2)

* BIRDS: No restrictions on birds except weight — they cannot be over 25 lbs. The most common birds shipped are pigeons and chickens. (ref: DMM 601.9.3.4)

* SCORPIONS: For medical research only; double-boxing required (ref: DMM 601.9.3.6)

* COLD-BLOODED BABY ANIMALS OR INSECTS: baby alligators (under 20″), chameleons, frogs, lizards, newts, salamanders, toads, and insects and earthworms. Crickets are perhaps the most often shipped insect under this category. (ref: DMM 601.9.3.3)

You’re probably wondering, “You can’t really ship babies!” And, you’d be right. Now you can’t. However, soon after the Parcel Post service was created, many parents managed to mail their children to relatives. In 1913, an 8-month-old baby in Ohio was mailed by his parents to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away. The baby was safely delivered by a local post office delivery employee whose carrier route serviced the area. The cost was perhaps only 15 cents for the service.

One 5-year-old girl named Charlotte “May” Pierstorff was sent 75 miles over Idaho mountains to see her grandmother. 53 cents worth of stamps were placed on her coat to evidence parcel post payment, although her parents had to stretch the mailing regulations a bit by stating that they were mailing a very large baby chick (but not to worry – May’s uncle was the railman on the train postal railcar). May’s story also became a modern children’s book called “Mailing May” by Michael Tunnell. (ref: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1717855.Mailing_May)

Not surprisingly, Postal regulations were soon changed to prevent American citizens from mailing “parcels of humanity”, although the practice seems to have been lingering in rural areas dispite Postmaster General Albert Burleson’s 1914 directive to postmasters not to accept “human mail”.

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URL Reference 1: https://facts.usps.com/fun/#
URL Reference 2: https://www.echopress.com/news/the-vault/yes-you-used-to-be-able-to-mail-your-children# #
URL Reference 3: https://pe.usps.com/archive/pdf/dmmarchive20070514/601.pdf
Image Credit Reference 1: https://facts.usps.com/fun/#
Image Credit Reference 2: CRST OpenAI
Image Credit Reference for mailing children: United States National Postal Museum archives