Bantam duck breeders?

hello friends. Spring will be upon us soon and my fiance and i have decided on a bantam breed for our next duckling. We're thinking about mini appleyards, aussie spotteds, etc (the breeds that tend to be quieter than calls)

I know that Holderreads has a lot of them out in oregon, but there are some problems with getting ducks from there. We live in alabama, and we're not too keen on long distance shipping (we've had a BAD experience with a different breeder). Another BIG issue is they don't sex them and the minimum is 10. We NEED female and only want one more. I could get 10 ducklings if someone else wanted the rest, but i run into the sexing problem. I need a female and i don't have the means/space to raise 10 ducklings until they are 4-6 weeks old.

So i have two possibilities...

Find another breeder/hatchery closer to the south so i could pick one up (somewhere that sexes, within 6-8 hours from alabama).
----or-----
Order them from holderreads and find someone from the forum who can sex ducklings in my area. If anyone could sex the ducklings, they could have all the rest of the ducklings for free. If they don't want them/or not all of them, i'd give the rest away for free to whoever wants them...

So, can anyone help? do you know of a breeder/hatchery that has bantams and sexes? maybe even one in the south? does anyone in alabama or near by sex ducklings? I could drive the duckies to someone's area and pay them to sex them for me. Would anyone in/near alabama be interested in my extras ducklings?

Any and all info is greatly appreciated!

anyone?

Good Luck...I didn't get very far in my bantam duck research. Lots of UK breeders but didn't find much here in the US.

i found that too... All the lists i find for for the UK. I know lots of people raise calls... but all the other bantam breeds are sooo hard to find.

Any info anyone can give me would be awesome!

I breed call ducks in Mixed color, and gray. Im not sure where you would find one female duckling. Ive never came across a place that sexing their bantam ducklings. If you want, in the spring you could try eggbid and see if there are any young female bantam ducks for sale, or you could try to hatch them yourself.

Do you have a certain breed you would like?

Here is a picture of one of my gray call hens, and another picture of a couple of my mixed call ducks.

Nettie -

There are certian areas of the country that do not accept "lives" either in Priority or Express delivery due to the carriers restrictions. Live animals are shipped USPS but some portions of the shipping may use FedEx.

Seeing that you are from Alabama, as an example, (taken from the latest info I have) if your zip code begins with 350-352, 354-359 or 362.......FedEx will not transport Priority lives through there, they also do not ship Express lives to zip codes 356-358..........this may be the reason you have a hard time getting birds shipped to you. If you check with your postmaster, they can give you a conformation on whether you can get birds shipped to/from your location.

I like your choice of the Australian Spotted Ducks, at some point I too want to raise them. I currently raise the Holderread brand of Mini SA which are also called Silver Bantams. One other bantam breed to consider is the Black East Indie.

giffy
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GiffsFarm

Quote:
The top picture looks just like my mallard female?

If only you were closer lol. I am great at sexing ducklings but we only have indies and calls and we are even farther that Holderreads in Oregon.
Maybe look up bantam duck breeders or a poultry associtation in your area, there should be someone that can sex ducklings. I dont know how far Minnesota is from you but I think Strombergs sells other bantam ducklings.

Quote:
The top picture looks just like my mallard female?

She is a gray call duck. Gray Call Ducks have the same color pattern as mallards do. Sometimes they are called Mallard Calls.

Hi Nettie
Austrialian Spotteds look so beautiful, and they are supposed to be very friendly. They are also reputed to be excellent brooders. I was considering them at one point and had found a couple of hatcherys that might give you more options.
funnyfarmhatchery.org is in Oklahoma sells AS eggs as well as ducklings. In Arkansaw there is Poorridgerranch.com sell Austrailian spotted. Hope you find your duckling.