Boondocker Farms

[ducksinidaho]

PLEASE DO NOT send Boondockers Farm any money!!! It has been six months to the day that my check to Boondockers Farm for over $100 dollars cleared. At this point I have no ducklings and no refund despite many attempts to contact them and confirm that they were indeed going to ship us ducklings before the weather was too warm. I would not recommend that you send this farm any money. They do not follow their own refund policy and the utter lack of communication is nothing short of rude. It is a pity that they possess the breeding stock from Holderread Farm. The stock is not in good hands.

 

[buckbye]

I've heard consistently negative things about Boondocker's. I can't believe this is where Holderread's stock ended up.

Their Web site has said this for a few months:

Quote:
Seems to be a pattern...

 

[learycow]

Not to mention they are using other breeds of ducks (rumored by one of their own people) to help "better" the ancona breed.
This leads me to believe that they are cross breeding and selling crosses as PURE anconas!
ducksinidaho- keep on them and keep leaving reviews. That is extremely POOR business! Why are there so many so called breeders and small farms doing this this year? Taking peoples $ MONTHS in advanced, cashing in, then not sending the birds or eggs and not refunding? Its common courtesy to at least message your awaiting customers and let them know whats going on. I would be RIPPED. A message on the website is not the same as private messaging or calling your PIA customers

 

[learycow]

I also find it interesting how they ask for the comments to be left only in regards to their seeds, not ducks, on the Dave's Garden site.
It's all one company so shouldn't comments about your buying experience be left in regards to ALL products?

 

[buckbye]

Not to mention they are using other breeds of ducks (rumored by one of their own people) to help "better" the ancona breed.
This leads me to believe that they are cross breeding and selling crosses as PURE anconas!

Thanks for the info, learycow. I had heard this as well; is there anything more you can tell about the source of that rumor? Or why? I am new to ducks, but I take it this is not generally accepted as normal practice for something sold as "purebred."

It's really too bad. This was my first year raising ducks, and I was initially very interested in trying some Anconas from Boondocker's, on the knowledge that they had taken on all of Holderread's stock, which I thought to be very good-looking compared to a lot of what's out there. But all the negative chatter I heard about the farm--prior to the 2014 season--gave me pause, and I instead went with some bargain White Appleyards and an assortment of Runners from Holderread, which I am very happy with. I guess you could say Boondocker's history of poor customer service is doing this critically threatened breed a DIService.

But to learycow (may I call you Al?), should I be interested in some Anconas in the future, which I likely will be because this duck thing is addicting, it's good to know you are a (relatively near) New England neighbor! I'm bookmarking your site.

 

[learycow]

The source is the Facebook Ancona page. Me as well as several others post there often. The woman that runs the group is trying to get a group of people together to show this wonderful breed and get it recognized!

This past winter/spring a bunch of us were talking about the "standards" of the breed. Boondockers pitched in their thoughts, then talked about using magpies to breed back to anconas to better the breed, saying it was Dave holderreads idea. They posted a short audio script where Dave did talk about using certain anconas to breed to magpies, but it didn't say whether or not it was needed.

We asked boondockers said that they were going to separate some anconas and do this breeding. But when we asked them if they are going to sell these crosses as pure anconas, they failed to reply.

We brought it up and mentioned them SEVERAL times after and they STILL haven't answered us. And they've posted on the site a few times since so we know they are getting online but simply ingnoring our question.

So as an ancona breeder, again, NOT PROFESSIONAL. And I'll just say that any of us made the decision not to buy from them for that very reason. And there are now tons of Ancona breeders out there. I understand that all or most origianlly came from that flock when at holderreads, but you will likely be better off buying from a newer but more reputable breeder. That way you know exactly what lines they are and what they are "made up as"

 

[ChristineR]

I know this is a really old thread, but does anyone know what happened to Boondockers and all their Anconas? A Google search didn't yield anything recent. It's a shame if Holderread's whole flock of Anconas disappeared...