As I'm having a hard time finding a duck breeder/hatcheyr et cetera locally though still looking), I think I'm going to order my ducks through the mail. That is, the feed store will order them for me. They do khaki campbells in runs of 6 - all the ducks we need for our egg-eating family. Two questions: In my reading, it seems that poultry through the mail need lots of bodies (more than 6)to stay warm and alive. Should I be concerned about this? And I sometimes read opinions that mail order poultry can be low-quality stock, and it's better to deal directly with a farm/hatchery. Should I be concerned about this as well? We don't want to show the ducks, just eat their eggs, and hopefully have some fun. Thanks, Sean

-- Sean Reagan (rougan@rcn.com), March 13, 2002

Answers

Sean

I have ordered chicks and ducks through mailorder for years....lived in MA until recently, and local sources were non existent.Never had a quality problem....yet :) If you order your ducks for summer delivery, heat should not be a factor. Perhaps your feed store is combining orders with other folks? By the way, I'll be ordering my ducks/chicks for end of June. Live in CT now, but work in MA If you are close enough, maybe we can work out a co-order. I'm ordering from Ideal. cause they have ducks with crests!!(they look soooo cute)

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), March 13, 2002.

Oooops,,,I'm ordering for the end of April....got June on the brain.

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), March 13, 2002.

The minimums for ducks I've seen vary, either 12 or 15. We go with 12 as our minimum for mail order. To be honest I've only mail ordered ducklings 2x. Once from within the state and they came through just fine. The other time from the west cost and the duckings came they were chilled, some dead and we lost most of them. It could have been just that particular order, who know but we would use caution before ordering from that far away again.

If you want ducks for eggs, I would suggest looking at a commercial hatchery that has lines of ducks specifically for eggs. I wouldn't say mail order is necessarily lower - quality. I haven't heard that, although sometimes the birds may not be show quality birds. I would check around the poultry boards and such to check how other people's reports on hatcheries.

-- Trisha-MN (coldguinea@netscape.net), March 13, 2002.

Sean, the low quality people talk about as far as I know, is show quality vs. production quality stock. Which means, if you order your birds from a place that doesn't say specifically exhibition quality, you MAY not be getting anything wonderful for the show ring. They might also be pretty good, but it's less likely than if you order from a place that sells show stock. To most people, backyard stock is fine and they wouldn't recognize the difference, anyway.

As for the number of birds, yes, you need more than that to provide warmth. Don't worry about it, buy the extra birds. You WILL lose some. Nearly always happens. They might get squeezed too hard by a child, snapped up by the dog or cat, get trapped in a funny position somewhere and can't get out and chill or suffocate. They could be hit in the road, eaten by a snapping turtle, grabbed by a hawk or fox. And then there are the ones that die for no apparent reason. So with the best intentions in the world you could start with 15 and get down to 12 pretty easy. Why do you think the duck sits and hatches 12 eggs every year? Because in nature they tend to lose a bunch of them. If you have an ideal place to raise them you won't lose many, but unfortunately if you want them out of doors, they can't ever be totally safe.

And also, you say you want them for eggs: you buy 6 straight run birds and you might end up with five drakes and one duck. Go with the larger number, and if worst comes to worst, you can sell some in the local paper in a few months after cherry picking your stock. Might even make a couple of dollars on it.

Ducks are wonderful fun, don't short change yourself on them! They are by far (to me) the most wonderful poultry out there.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), March 13, 2002.

If you are getting straight run I would get more than six. Last year we got 6 straight run rouens and received 5 female and one male. It could just as easily been the other way around. We got 5 pekins and again only one male. We wanted them as meat ducks so we actually wanted more males since they get bigger. We have had no problems with ordering by mail but we have only done so twice. As for quality, it depends where you order them from. We ordered from hatcheries that were within a state or two of us to cut down on transit time. Our ducks and geese turned out beautiful and healthy however I am not a poultry judge nor do I have a copy of the breed standards for my birds. Since I wanted them for meat and eggs and not show it didn't matter.

This year I want to get some breeding stock so I am mail ordering from Holderreads Waterfowl in Oregon. On the various waterfowl and poultry news groups, discussion lists, etc. I have heard everyone raving about Holderreads stock. Their small catalog must list about 2 pages of ribbons and awards they have received. Obviously they cost a little more but not as much as I thought.

Mail order is not a limiting factor in quality. It actually opens a wider market to you - well beyond your local hatchery (if you have a local hatchery).

-- Mark Lewis (mark_lewis@bradycorp.com), March 13, 2002.

Last year we mail ordered ducks. We live in central maine and ordered them from California. They were hatched on Monday morning and Tuesday evening at 4:30 p.m. our postmaster called saying they were at the post office. They all arrived alive and very healthy. We didn't loose any and ended up giving 5 drakes (we had to order 12 - - straight run) to a friend who has ducks. I don't know what the changes in the post office regulations have done to the mailorder of poultry but our experience last year was wonderful! (The ducks we didn't give away are in our barn right now!!)

-- Mary R. (cntryfolk@ime.net), March 13, 2002.

We've mailordered a dozen ducks twice. They sent 13 each time, and they all came through healthy & fine. But do not order straight run! You only need one drake, and if you do straight run you may get 9 males and 3-4 females -- NOT a good ratio. I don't know if you eat meat (or would eat ducks you know personally), but that is certainly a good way to utilize the extra 6. When your feed store orders them, they will be ordering by the dozen, then selling the extras you don't want. We ordered from Strombergs in CA, and they were fine to work with. They have a "Golden Hybrid" which apparently are prolific layers. All ducks are great -- get whichever appeals to you. Rouens don't lay very many eggs though.

-- snoozy (bunny@northsound.net), March 14, 2002.