The Buff Orpington Duck Thread

We acquired our Buff Ducks from the following source:

  • Exhibition Breeder

    Votes: 8 7.3%
  • Superior Farms, Oklahoma

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Metzer Farms

    Votes: 39 35.5%
  • Ideal Poultry Farms

    Votes: 13 11.8%
  • Other Hatchery

    Votes: 21 19.1%
  • BYC member

    Votes: 6 5.5%
  • Other

    Votes: 32 29.1%

  • Total voters
    110
Howdy,

I just found this thread tonight looking for information about Buffs. We hatched Easter Egger chicks last year and had great luck with our incubator -- 7 out of 7. This year my wife wanted to try ducks and we liked the appearance of the buffs. We ordered our eggs from Metzer and they shipped quickly to Florida. We hatched two eggs out of the seven eggs placed in the incubator. It is amazing how fast these critters grow. Now they are 8 weeks and look full size. At this point, I am feeding them poultry feed which they devour with relish. Should I wean them off and let them fend for themselves or it is better to keep feeding regularly like a pet. The ducks are certainly more friendly than the chickens. At this age, they will still sit in my 6 year old daughter's lap and put up with petting. It appears that we have one male and one female. They are inseperable. Will two ducks suffice as a "backyard" flock? What do the eggs taste like?

John B.
Pace, Florida
At that age, they still have room to grow, but I'm sure they're certainly getting big! I would definitely keep feeding them the poultry feed. I'd give them a meal in the morning, and at night. It just really depends on how much room they have to forage. If they're in their pen most of the time, I would make sure they have food for most of the day. I cut a large circle into a milk jug and put food in there, that way my duck can stick her head in and eat it, but not spill it everywhere which wastes it. Just keep an eye on how empty their food container is when you feed them again; if the food is entirely gone then I would give them a little more than you did last time.

Two ducks would be "okay" however, if you do end up with one boy, and one girl I would DEFINITELY look into getting another one or two females because the male will breed with your female too much. (there won't be any other females, so your girl won't ever get a break. multiple females reduces the amount of times the male is mating with her.)

And, duck eggs pretty much taste like chicken eggs. Some people even prefer them to chicken eggs. There's a slight difference because the protein is higher I think, but mostly they're good eatin' :) (also very good in baking!)
 
Two ducks is a start! Hope you got a pair - Drake and Duck.

The Buff Duck male will have a small curled tail feather soon, if you have a male. We used our eggs in every way we do chicken eggs except fried eggs. They tend to be a bit "rubbery" when fried. Best baking eggs you will ever have. Especially in a cake. They will lay in a nest, but prefer just dropping their eggs where ever they are.

As for feed: offer feed, but allow them to range for grass, weeds and bugs. They will eat their weight in mosquitos.

If they are in your daughter's lap now, they will look silly in her lap when grown! They are fairly good size ducks and will fill her lap. The Buff Duck are very very friendly.

In Florida you should get eggs at about 5 or 6 months old and have eggs year round. If you only get hens, you should easily find a male at a poultry show. They are a flock bird. You may consider ordering some more eggs to hatch. Double check their tail feathers for the boy's curl.

Remember, always take a Metzer catalog with you to anywhere. Metzer gives gift certificates to youth who take a photo with the catalog and ducks at a poultry show, a national monument etc. http://www.metzerfarms.com/CatalogTravels.cfm?CustID=973689

There is also a thread on BYC for Metzer Farms at https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/542525/metzer-farms

Hope this answered your questions. Feel free to ask many more.

There is a breed club for the Buff Duck. The American Orpington Poultry Fanciers has adopted the Buff (Orpington) Duck, as its original name was the Buff Orpington Duck. Its developer/creator was William Cook of the Orpington fame. Membership is free.

Visit a poultry show or the State Fair to see and meet others with Buff Ducks. The Buff ducks from Metzer's has done well at poultry shows. We showed them for a few years. Currently we do not have any, but are considering getting some more soon. Especially since our kids have over $100 in gift certificates. We were on the Metzer Catalog this year. Front cover!


HallFamily1.jpg
HallFamily2.jpg

The Hall Family
Nicole, Brenae, Danyelle, Jacob and Jim Hall
St. Louis Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO, Summer 2011​
Jacob Hall
Purina Farms, Gray Summit, MO​

Since we live in Southeast Arkansas, we were more than 250 miles from home!

Good luck with your Buff Ducks!


Howdy,

I just found this thread tonight looking for information about Buffs. We hatched Easter Egger chicks last year and had great luck with our incubator -- 7 out of 7. This year my wife wanted to try ducks and we liked the appearance of the buffs. We ordered our eggs from Metzer and they shipped quickly to Florida. We hatched two eggs out of the seven eggs placed in the incubator. It is amazing how fast these critters grow. Now they are 8 weeks and look full size. At this point, I am feeding them poultry feed which they devour with relish. Should I wean them off and let them fend for themselves or it is better to keep feeding regularly like a pet. The ducks are certainly more friendly than the chickens. At this age, they will still sit in my 6 year old daughter's lap and put up with petting. It appears that we have one male and one female. They are inseperable. Will two ducks suffice as a "backyard" flock? What do the eggs taste like?

John B.
Pace, Florida
 
Hi,
I was thinking about getting 2 duck eggs to hatch as a hobby this summer. I wanted to get them from Metzer farms because they seemed to have beautiful ducks there. I don't know if they allow you to order only 2, but I noticed that you can order as few as 2 ducklings. Does anyone know if you can order 2 duck eggs there? Also, I want some advice on what kinds to get. Buff ducks seem great! But I wanted some variety, so what other kind should I get that are available at Metzer Farms? Or should I just stick with all Buffs? I'd be so happy if someone could answer my questions! THANKS!!!
jumpy.gif



From http://www.metzerfarms.com/HatchingEggs.cfm?CustID=973689



Quote:
You can order just two eggs, but it will cost you just as much. May as well order the minimum and get more eggs. A mixed breed flock is colorful, but a flock of just one breed will reproduce itself if you decide to hatch their eggs. I would advise contacting Metzer and asking them. If the ladies can't answer your questions, they will pass the buck to John. If he can't answer your questions, no one will have an answer! John Metzer is a top "quack"! Feel free to tell him I said so!
 
Two ducks is a start! Hope you got a pair - Drake and Duck.

The Buff Duck male will have a small curled tail feather soon, if you have a male. We used our eggs in every way we do chicken eggs except fried eggs. They tend to be a bit "rubbery" when fried. Best baking eggs you will ever have. Especially in a cake. They will lay in a nest, but prefer just dropping their eggs where ever they are.

As for feed: offer feed, but allow them to range for grass, weeds and bugs. They will eat their weight in mosquitos.

If they are in your daughter's lap now, they will look silly in her lap when grown! They are fairly good size ducks and will fill her lap. The Buff Duck are very very friendly.

In Florida you should get eggs at about 5 or 6 months old and have eggs year round. If you only get hens, you should easily find a male at a poultry show. They are a flock bird. You may consider ordering some more eggs to hatch. Double check their tail feathers for the boy's curl.

Remember, always take a Metzer catalog with you to anywhere. Metzer gives gift certificates to youth who take a photo with the catalog and ducks at a poultry show, a national monument etc. http://www.metzerfarms.com/CatalogTravels.cfm?CustID=973689

There is also a thread on BYC for Metzer Farms at https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/542525/metzer-farms

Hope this answered your questions. Feel free to ask many more.

There is a breed club for the Buff Duck. The American Orpington Poultry Fanciers has adopted the Buff (Orpington) Duck, as its original name was the Buff Orpington Duck. Its developer/creator was William Cook of the Orpington fame. Membership is free.

Visit a poultry show or the State Fair to see and meet others with Buff Ducks. The Buff ducks from Metzer's has done well at poultry shows. We showed them for a few years. Currently we do not have any, but are considering getting some more soon. Especially since our kids have over $100 in gift certificates. We were on the Metzer Catalog this year. Front cover!


HallFamily1.jpg
HallFamily2.jpg

The Hall Family
Nicole, Brenae, Danyelle, Jacob and Jim Hall
St. Louis Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO, Summer 2011​
Jacob Hall
Purina Farms, Gray Summit, MO​

Since we live in Southeast Arkansas, we were more than 250 miles from home!

Good luck with your Buff Ducks!
This post was really informative about the Buffs, thank you! Oh, and Congrats about your kids getting lots of fun certificates...lots of choices there. :)
 
My husband and I are contemplating Buffs as a Spring addition to our flock... we are either going to go with Meyer Hatchery, or Metzer. It looks like Metzer we could order 4 for just a couple dollars more than we could order 3 from Meyer. We already have 6 ducks as is, 4 Pekin, a Campbell, and one that is either a Runner or a Runner Scovie cross. There are 2 confirmed drakes, with the Runner still a possibility of a drake (Only 8 weeks old, and still chirping for the most part!) In the evening they all go into a 8x24 run and during the day they free range in the back yard with the chickens. (We live on about .3 of an acre) Do you think that's too many ducks for that amount of space? We want to eventually start letting them hatch their own eggs and then processing them for meat, every once in a while "rotating stock." Would 6 ducks and 3 drakes be too high of a ratio? That's 2 ducks per drake.
 
My husband and I are contemplating Buffs as a Spring addition to our flock... we are either going to go with Meyer Hatchery, or Metzer. It looks like Metzer we could order 4 for just a couple dollars more than we could order 3 from Meyer. We already have 6 ducks as is, 4 Pekin, a Campbell, and one that is either a Runner or a Runner Scovie cross. There are 2 confirmed drakes, with the Runner still a possibility of a drake (Only 8 weeks old, and still chirping for the most part!) In the evening they all go into a 8x24 run and during the day they free range in the back yard with the chickens. (We live on about .3 of an acre) Do you think that's too many ducks for that amount of space? We want to eventually start letting them hatch their own eggs and then processing them for meat, every once in a while "rotating stock." Would 6 ducks and 3 drakes be too high of a ratio? That's 2 ducks per drake.
If you just want ducks that resemble the breed standard, any hatchery will be fine. But Metzer Farms has a team of judges inspect their flocks. The Metzer Buff Duck is "average show quality". That is high praise for a hatchery. The Metzer Buffs will be larger and extremely productive. We started getting eggs at about 5 months of age. They were very gentle. You can't go wrong with anything from Metzer. Look over their duck comparison chart at http://www.metzerfarms.com/DuckBreedComparison.cfm?CustID=1203986

ETA: One male per every 4 or 6 hens is enough. Fertility will be high. They will also do better with a small pond, child's wading pool etc.

As for space. if you have grass, you have plenty of room. If the grass has been destroyed and the ground is bare, you may have too many. Then you will need to supplement with greens, grass clippings etc.
 
Last edited:
In their 8x24 there is no grass, with bare ground, but the back yard has plenty of grass to spare! :) We also feed them an all flock ration as well, they're not exclusively free range. Since it's getting to be winter, the grass is starting to die out, but there ARE still green patches out there. :p

They do have a 6' kiddie pool in their enclosure as well.
 
My buff orpington ducks have just started laying. I got them just before christmas. They where sold for christmas dinner but these 3 (one drake) got lucky. They laid 1 egg two days ago. 1 egg yesterday and 2 eggs today. I am very pleased. I got orpington because I want meat and eggs. But not all are god layers anymore. I had never tasted duckeggs before. And I love them. The best softboiled eggs I haver ever tasted. They are green by the way.

Now I am just looking foreward to an exiting year. I will be having campbell ducks and black copper maran chickens also. I have had black australorp and faverolle chickens since last sommer (yes, it is all dual purpose - at least). This is going to be a great year.
 
Last edited:
These are my Buff Orpington Ducks. Hans (the drake in the first and last picture) and little Gretel, my hen (in the last three). Now, Hans and Gretel have been joined by a rescue duck I named Rosa (I think she is a Rouen or Mallard) and just yesterday I found my first egg in their house!!!!!!!!
woot.gif
Now just to figure out who laid it... Gretel or Rosa?
wink.png









 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom