Well, talking to
@WannaBeHillBilly , I found out Meyer's gets their ducks from Metzer's, which is about 2 hrs from my house! I decided I'd cancel my order for Meyer's and pick them up at the farm. Ideal situation!
I canceled my order and called Mezter's, and I find out they aren't allowing pick ups (COVID strikes again). So it's going to take 2-3 days to go what would take 2 hrs by car.
Since they now have to go through San Francisco, I figured they needed to be really warm.
So I ordered a Pekin, too!
I'll tell DH she was a "packing peanut." Ha!
Oh please tell me you name your Pekin Peanut! I know it doesn't match your fruit name...maybe go with nut names? ;-)
I just got 6 Silver Appleyard ladies from Metzer in early December. They were supposed to arrive before Thanksgiving, but that is a whole other (very sad) story. Because they are APPLEyards I decided to name them after types of apples, or apple-themed anyway. I have Fuji, who is the biggest (big like a mountain...Mt Fuji...), Honey (for Honey Crisp) who had a face as sweet as honey, Pippin (because she almost choked when she was really young, and you might get an apple seed stuck in your throat, and apple seeds are sometimes called pips...and Pippin is also an apple name, so that one was a bit of a stretch but here we are!), Red (like Red Delicious) who is appropriate the reddest of all of them and has more red flecks on her chest than anyone else, Gala (I read Gala as a name used to mean someone who sings, and she is constantly cooing and snore-cooing and making the most adorable sounds, especially when I have music playing), and the last one will either be Goldie (like Golden Delicious), Cider, or Cosmo (for Cosmic Crisp), depending on her personality.
It's too early to say what the Appleyard personalities will ultimately become, but as ducklings I can say they are WAY bossier than my others were as ducklings. They are constantly tussling. Also, those girls already have some very healthy lungs on them! I think they are in their freakout phase of development (at least, I hope it's just a phase) because they seriously spaz over everything and act like any movement is MURDER! I now call the straw "murder straw" because they scream bloody murder and trample over each other any time I try to add some fresh for them (which is frequently, because duck poop). At any rate, I am so excited for my loud little hooligans!
I have adult ducks that I ordered from MPC last June. I actually had a great experience with MPC and it was very sad to hear about the bad experiences with them. I personally had a bad experience with Metzer (goes back to the very sad story), but I know many people have excellent luck with them. I am a little farther away (but not too far) up in the PNW.
My adults are 3 Pekins, 3 white layer hybrids, and 3 Cayugas. Like many have stated, I have already experienced multiple health issues with my Pekins, and zero issues with the others. Maybe I also got "duds" with their personality, but two of them I call "anonymous Pekin #1" and "anonymous Pekin #2" because I can't tell them apart and they are the most generically boring ducks of the group. The third Pekin is Pig Duck and there is something very special about her. She's not a goofball or like a dog, but she's just an old soul, very calm and caring and motherly. Unfortunately, she is also the one dealing with the brunt of the health issues. All three of my girls have had leg issues already. I made sure to give them extra niacin when they were young, continue to supplement, was very careful with feed and nutrition and monitoring feed intake. I knew going into them that they were at risk for leg, foot, and joint issues, so I tried to do everything I could and had heard to help curb those as much as possible. They are not overweight by any means, and I was extra careful to monitor their feed as they were growing so they are not nearly as large as they could have been. At least two of them have also had soft-shelled eggs, and that hasn't been an issue with the layers. All the ladies have oyster shell available free-choice in multiple parts of the yard. Poor Pig has a very gnarly foot injury and infection that I've been treating for about a month now. That could be a whole other thread, but I can tell you that the leg injuries on all three Pekins were not bumblefoot. I'm sure that will come at some point, too. I had a Pekin drake but he was a total man-child (best way I can think to describe him) and a stomach like a bottomless pit. He would literally throw the smaller ladies to the side to steal their food. He also pushed the ladies out between himself and the muscovies to act like a shield while he ran away. He'd push the ladies out of their nests while they were trying to lay at night, then trample their eggs. :-(
It's funny because I got the layers for my roommate who was mostly interested in eggs, and assumed their personalities would be boring. By far they are the favourites of everyone in the house. Very spirited! Also very healthy, and have been consistently laying starting at 4 mos old. By far they have given us the most laughs.
My Cayugas are a mixed bag. My drake, Snoop Dukk, is the most gentlemanly drake anyone could hope for (really lucked out with him!). Yellowbill is very sassy and LOUD. Blackbill is very mellow and I rarely hear so much as a murmer from her. They are all beautiful.
My muscovies were another sad story. Too much sadness for one night. The abridged version is I ended up choosing 3 drakes, and I really want to believe they must have just come from a highly aggressive line because I raised them the same way as my first group and alongside them, and while they were awesome with me and other humans, they were an actual threat to the safety of the rest of the flock. They also destroyed my garden, but I could forgive them for that. So many others have had awesome luck with wonderful scovies.
So, many of my ducks have not fit their breed profiles, and while I do believe how you raise them has a lot to do with it, I raised the first batch all the same way at the same time, and I'm raising the Appleyards all the same way at the same time, and there are VERY clear personality differences - even among the same breed. Each duck is truly an individual.
Sounds like you have some awesome choices coming your way and I'm sure they'll all make excellent ducks with wonderfully unique personalities! From what I can tell you are going to love the heck out of them, no matter what you get and who they turn out to be. I'm so excited for you! Sorry to write so much, but I figured maybe you would want to hear some of the details. Keep us all posted! Cheers!
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