Metzer Farms quality...

@tevyes dad lol. I was looking for Metzers reviews and here you are! (PS: to Metzers.... These ducks are pretty famous on BYC!) I have 2 pekins that my neighbor gave me, to keep company, the duck that was originally dumped in our pond. What exactly is the ordering process and shipping process? I live in farm country, so I can't imagine that our post office would have a problem. My concern is distance. Will ducklings travel safely a long distance? (Maine)

caesargirl said:

@tevyes dad lol. I was looking for Metzers reviews and here you are! (PS: to Metzers.... These ducks are pretty famous on BYC!) I have 2 pekins that my neighbor gave me, to keep company, the duck that was originally dumped in our pond. What exactly is the ordering process and shipping process? I live in farm country, so I can't imagine that our post office would have a problem. My concern is distance. Will ducklings travel safely a long distance? (Maine)

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lol right back. I don't know if they are famous, they waddle around one webbed foot at a time just like all ducks

I just posted here a couple days ago because I am now prepping for my 4th shipment and have nothing but good to say so I figured I'd give them a plug If you have any concerns, I would just call them even if you aren't ready to put an order in yet, they are always super helpful. You can order on line or on the phone. They always hatch/ship on a Monday and you can look under the various breeds to see if they are available on a specific Monday. My understanding is this:

Monday: pack and ship through PO to FEDEX.
Tuesday: FEDEX ships them to the appropriate city and gives them back to the PO
Wednesday: If you are lucky the PO calls you, otherwise they route them to your PO
Thursday: If you didn't get them yesterday, you get them today.

So it is more important how your local PO works then how far away from California you are. It used to be fairly critical that birds arrive Wednesday because their yolk sacks would be completely depleted by then, but now they ship with grogel which gives them both nutrients and moisture. Out of my shipments 1 arrived on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday (our local routing is kind of messed up - if i send a letter to my neighbor, it has to go to a city 100 miles north of me). All my birds were fine with their grogel. For a good idea of what to expect arrival day, I would call your PO, they know when the various trucks come in and other people / your feed store has ordered day old birds before so they know the story. For example, they call me here at 4-6am to come pick the ducks up which is MUCH earlier than they are open to the public.

I am looking forward to seeing your pics on the other threads

I just hatched 6 ducklings from Metzer Farms from 12 eggs that I purchased (they sent 13) They were packed beautifully in foam inserts, clean and arrived quickly. Ashley was a delight to deal with, I had lots of questions as these are my first ducks.
The last one had to be helped out and it's a BLONDE, I'm not sure if a white Swedish exists or it's an "oops" but I'm thrilled with the hatch rate and will buy hatching eggs from them again. I would never think to buy chicken eggs from a hatchery (I breed silkies) but Metzer is a class act! Love their informative website too and happy they are only one state over

ChinoChix said:

I just hatched 6 ducklings from Metzer Farms from 12 eggs that I purchased (they sent 13) They were packed beautifully in foam inserts, clean and arrived quickly. Ashley was a delight to deal with, I had lots of questions as these are my first ducks.
The last one had to be helped out and it's a BLONDE, I'm not sure if a white Swedish exists or it's an "oops" but I'm thrilled with the hatch rate and will buy hatching eggs from them again. I would never think to buy chicken eggs from a hatchery (I breed silkies) but Metzer is a class act! Love their informative website too and happy they are only one state over

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Adorable duckling!! Congrats!

I think Metzer farms produces very healthy and fine-looking birds. Of course they are not always show quality, which they state on their website. As with any breed of animal, if you want show quality, you buy from a breeder that shows and specializes in the breed. But if you want some fun healthy pets with personality and great productivity, Metzer provides just that.

I love my Metzer birds. I can't say that I would order live chicks from them again, or any hatchery for that matter, simply because I prefer to hatch my own chicks and have them imprint on me. But I ordered from them at first to make sure I had healthy sexed birds, and that's just what I got. Their accuracy in sexing was 100%. It's funny how my Metzer birds always seem to stick together in my flock, while the mutts that I hatched often wander off in their own little mini-flock. My Metzer WH's, buff, Cayuga, and fawn/white runner are fairly calm and much more prone to eating out of my hand than the mutts I hatched that imprinted on me. That still baffles me lol. The only flighty bird I have from Metzer is my chocolate runner, but each duck has their own personality. She is still gorgeous and produces lots of pretty green eggs.

There is alway risk involved when shipping live chicks. In my first shipment, one of the six ducklings arrived dead, which was very sad. Metzer customer service is stellar, and they agreed to replace the duckling. I ordered two additional ducklings as travel buddies. Then, through no fault of their own, that shipment was delayed in transit for several days due to winter storms. None of the chicks survived, and the post office called us that Saturday asking if we really wanted a box of dead ducks delivered to our doorstep. That was very disheartening. Once again, Metzer replaced the three birds, even though it wasn't their fault the shipment arrived late. The second replacement arrived in time and all were healthy, but I decided to forgo ordering live chicks in th future. That is my personal decision, and the majority of people have no problems with their orders. Metzer does their best to ensure the birds arrive safe, but it's never guaranteed.

There was a small issue when I ordered the first time. I had ordered a blue Swedish, which I was most excited about because they're so dang beautiful. But the day my order hatched, Metzer called saying there was a mixup on their website, and they weren't actually scheduled to hatch any blue Swedish that day. I was disappointed, but they let me choose a replacement, my fawn/white runner. Then, when I elected to order the travel buddies for my replacement, I seized the chance to order another blue Swedish. She was very pretty (and holy schmoly was she LOUD, I kid you not she had her adult quack at two weeks!) but I only had her for about six weeks before my ducks ganged up on her and plucked and drowned her :/

I'm off topic now... Anyway, Metzer produces fine birds. I am very happy with mine

Thank you for your kind words.
Tevyes Dad is spot on with the description on how they are shipped.
I do not know if ChinoChix hatched Blue or Black Swedish eggs. Interestingly, about 15-20% of the Black Swedish ducklings that hatch are "blonde" or Pekin appearing. I thought we may have had something strange going on so I contacted Dave Holderread (waterfowl genetic expert) and he was not surprised. It has to do with the genetic background of the Black Swedish. So those white Black Swedish are put in our Mixed Duckling boxes destined for feed stores. They are perfectly healthy, just the "wrong" color.
Glad you are enjoying your birds!!
John

Metzer's ducks are beautiful and productive! They may not be show quality, but they are beautiful and unique in my eyes! I ordered 8 female, and 2 male Welsh Harlequins in October, and all of them arrived safe and healthy along with an extra free drake. I think it's smart to include a free bird because it makes up for any lost along the way, or a happy customer if they all live. It's also a smart way to get rid of excess drakes since the majority of people are ordering hens for eggs. Even though the Welshies are supposed to be silver phase, I ended getting a gold phase girl, and she's absolutely beautiful!

Here's some pics of my Metzer birds:





That's the gold girl flapping her wings:



And two of the girls are laying already at 5 months! They lay an egg a day in morning:

I've gotten 4 double yoker eggs from one of my metzer birds. Not sure it that counts as good quality, but I have to say, they sure were tasty!





Double yoker next to regular sized egg:

DiamondSwan said:

I've gotten 4 double yoker eggs from one of my metzer birds. Not sure it that counts as good quality, but I have to say, they sure were tasty!

Double yoker next to regular sized egg:

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I got tons of large double yolkers from my Metzer birds as they began to lay. Their early eggs also often had large blood spots. I had to candle each one before selling them because people really dont like seeing blood in their eggs lol. After a few months they started laying more normal eggs, and now a year later I rarely ever get large double yolked eggs and I haven't seen a blood spot in months.

PotatoWaffles said:

DiamondSwan said:

I've gotten 4 double yoker eggs from one of my metzer birds. Not sure it that counts as good quality, but I have to say, they sure were tasty!

Double yoker next to regular sized egg:

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I got tons of large double yolkers from my Metzer birds as they began to lay. Their early eggs also often had large blood spots. I had to candle each one before selling them because people really dont like seeing blood in their eggs lol. After a few months they started laying more normal eggs, and now a year later I rarely ever get large double yolked eggs and I haven't seen a blood spot in months.

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Ah neat! My eggs have blood spots in them too, but we don't really mind. Ours are 6 months old and started laying about a month ago. What's weird is we get like 3 eggs for a few days, then all of a sudden there's 6 or 7. We have 8 Welsh Harlequin hens, and 3 drakes.