Efowl....good or bad ordering experience?

[bellah1]

I have been thinking about ordering call ducklings from efowl this month but then I saw someone's post about how she got some call ducklings from efowl and 2 where dead when she picked them up and 2 more died an hour after pickup from the post office. I know it's hard to ship call ducklings now that I've read more but I wanted to know if anyone has had a good or bad experience with getting ducklings shipped from efowl, call ducks or otherwise?

 

[Goose and Fig]

I am pretty sure efowl is just a broker. You don't know for sure where the birds are going to come from, they find the breeders and add their fee, and the breeder sends you the birds.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

run from efowl.............

on another note find a breeder of call ducks as those who are serious about the ducks wont ship them as ducklings. They wont because the ducklings are so fragile they dont ship well and end up dead on arrival. You CAN get them as 3 month olds though and safely shipped to you.

 

[DenverDucky]

I had a bad experience with another broker that wasn't a hatchery... Never again! I haven't ordered from Metzers yet but I have a gift certificate from them. I would recommend checking them out if you haven't already. Good luck!

 

[DenverDucky]

Oh btw Metzers doesn't have call ducks I don't think. Sorry.

 

[duckluck]

I don't know a serious Call breeder who will ship ducklings. When I have them available, I allow pickups at my home, but I never ship them. Call ducklings are fragile and they have a pretty quick metabolism...someone posted awhile back that she had ordered like 30 Call ducklings or so and they all arrived dead. I saw the picture and it will make a believer out of you. I can't see allowing that to happen to my babies that my husband and I work so hard with.

That being said, Call ducklings are tricky to hatch and raise so very few people want to sell them because they would rather grow them out and see what they have when mature, because they can command a good price and can do very well at the open or national level shows. I usually only sell them myself when I don't have room for whatever reason, or like when I am trying to get a few other people stocked with extra "seed stock" to increase the popularity and numbers of a few of the more rare varieties.

 

[jess5254]

When I first got into call ducks a couple of years ago I had a hard time finding them also, but quickly learned why you can't find ducklings. I bought half of my stock from Hollderread, they only ship adult ducks in the fall and you have to get on a waiting list like now. Once you own these ducks and start hatching you will understand just how fragile these little guys are. Hatching calls is another whole ball game throw out everything you know about hatching and start fresh cause these guys are like handling fine china, But I LOVE THEM and they are worth every painstaking step. I would definitely check out Hollderread, they are nice, good people to deal with.

 

[bellah1]

Thanks for all ur info, after looking call ducklings up I had started thinking of just getting hatching eggs but now after reading all ur replies.....hatching eggs it is! Thanks again

 

[DenverDucky]

Good luck hatching! I heard they aren't the easiest to hatch so I hope it works for you. Let us know how it goes