Metzer Farms???

Hello, has anyone here ever ordered from Metzer Farms? I just ordered 2 swedish blues, 2 cayugas, 2 fawn and white runner, 1 blue runner, and 2buff ducks.
Do they often arrive dead, and if they do will they ship you new ones?

I ordered my geese and ducks from them. All arrived at the post office happy and healthy. My gander was smaller than the geese but now is the biggest. I ordered 3 geese and 7 ducks. We received 3 geese and 8 ducks. They will replace the ducks if they die in the first 24 hours after arrival. A lot of others have had great experience with them as well.

Hi, I ordered Welsh Harlequin Ducks, and American Buff Geese from Metzers. All of them arrived happy and healthy (I did order the grow gel, which helps a lot), and they even sent me an extra duckling. I'd think your birds should arrive just fine. They would reinburse you for any that don't make it for sure -- I don't know if they would be able to ship replacements. Usually it is only one or two that have issues, and that is too few to ship through the mail.

flockman said:

I ordered my geese and ducks from them. All arrived at the post office happy and healthy. My gander was smaller than the geese but now is the biggest. I ordered 3 geese and 7 ducks. We received 3 geese and 8 ducks. They will replace the ducks if they die in the first 24 hours after arrival. A lot of others have had great experience with them as well.

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Perfect! Is it bad to order them when they are hot? I live in Oklahoma and it is really hot here.

I'm a pretty new duck owner and I've only had birds shipped once, I got 3 runners from Metzer, a chocolate, a black, and a fawn and white. They arrived just fine, when I spoke to them on the phone they said that they have been shipping birds for 30 years and have good success. I think they recommend opening the box in front of your postal carrier in case any do arrive dead, you can get them replaced or your money back. But I think that would be unlikely.

Just a reminder that they are a hatchery, so their birds will not be of show quality. I love my girls, but my fawn and white is very light and her markings are very flawed. I just have the one fawn and white so it may just be chance that I got one with poor markings. My girls also don't have great stances or the real long necks seen on show quality runners. All that said I am still very happy with my experience with Metzer, and would have no qualms recommending them to someone looking for hatchery or production birds.

We ended up loosing our chocolate runner to an Aspergillus infection at 6 weeks, but the other two are healthy, happy and a joy to have. They are 10 weeks old and are just going through their first moult to adult feathers:

I ordered from them and one ended up dying....they refunded me back onto my credit card because I wasn't planing on making another order....

I haven't ordered from them, but I know others have and they really like what they got as well as their customer service. However, I strongly recommend arranging for pickup at your local distribution center and not your post office. You should save a day off shipping if you do that and lessen the risk of death. Many post offices have closed in the last year and some distribution centers have closed or changed as well and may add an extra day to shipping which might be a problem.

I also recommend anyone ordering from any place that is more than a day's shipping from northern California to get the gro-gel in case of shipping delays. They generally don't need to eat the first two days, but if there are any delays, it could be a lifesaver. Metzer's always ships early in the week, so any delays would be the PO's fault and not the hatchery's.

As for it being hot, it might be good to wait until the weather cools down. If anything happens to slow down or delay the truck, it could be a disaster. Last year, dozens of baby waterfowl died when a truck was delayed for inspection and couldn't leave because of a brake problem. They're not allowed to remove the seal on the cargo area and remove the birds and they could overheat and die. But, such mishaps are rare,

I ordered from them when I was in Florida. All 10 + 1 runners arrived fine. I did get the gro gel because I was literally across the country. 4 did end up dying but I think that was due to my inexperience (I hadn't had ducks before) but they did refund 3 (those died in their guarantee time). I was VERY happy with my runners. They stood very upright and the markings were good one also went broody and hatched out 11 of 14 eggs over the course of 4 days.

desertdarlene said:

I haven't ordered from them, but I know others have and they really like what they got as well as their customer service. However, I strongly recommend arranging for pickup at your local distribution center and not your post office. You should save a day off shipping if you do that and lessen the risk of death. Many post offices have closed in the last year and some distribution centers have closed or changed as well and may add an extra day to shipping which might be a problem.
I also recommend anyone ordering from any place that is more than a day's shipping from northern California to get the gro-gel in case of shipping delays. They generally don't need to eat the first two days, but if there are any delays, it could be a lifesaver. Metzer's always ships early in the week, so any delays would be the PO's fault and not the hatchery's.
As for it being hot, it might be good to wait until the weather cools down. If anything happens to slow down or delay the truck, it could be a disaster. Last year, dozens of baby waterfowl died when a truck was delayed for inspection and couldn't leave because of a brake problem. They're not allowed to remove the seal on the cargo area and remove the birds and they could overheat and die. But, such mishaps are rare,

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Oops, i've allready ordered them without the grow gel. I live in oklahoma, do you think they will be ok? I sent Metzer an email asking about the heat and they said the bird travel in air conditioned trucks and planes so its not a problem.......

I think you'll be fine as long as there's no delays. They should give you a tracking number to keep track of them. I would suggest calling your closest postal distribution hub to see if you can get notified when they come in and pick them up there. It might be a longer drive, but it would be worth it. Some people give their ducklings water or a small amount of food when they pick them up.

What kind did you get?

Also, Metzers has a live hatching cam on Fridays through Sunday. There's a different breed every week. I think this Friday's is the last one for the season. Who knows, you may get to see your duckling actually hatch live on camera.