Silver Appleyard Ducks

Some claim that the Appleyards have the most flavorful meat of the ducks and they can often hatch and raise their own ducklings. They are reputedly the best egg layers among the heavy weight ducks. We do not currently recommend our Silver Appleyards for show purposes, as a few females have begun developing darker bills which is outside the ideal show standard. We are actively selecting for the correct traits in our breeding program and expect continued improvement with each generation.

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Customer Reviews of Silver Appleyard Ducks

4.9

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MELANIE M. | Amazing ducks, worth every dollar

These are my first experience with ducks and you will not be disappointed. These ducklings arrived happy and healthy despite being shipped across the country. I have had these ducks now for over a year and the girls lay nearly everyday, not broody and super friendly. They love to forage and are my gardening partners following and helping as I pull weeds or dig, did I say friendly?!!! Amazing ducks!!

Shannon D. | Female is Outstanding

I ordered Miss Callie as a duckling and have been quite pleased with her! Shes a very friendly duck, hardy, and she has wonderful colors!

Manon P. | My 2 girls are so sweet

They are such a joy to watch growing up. My one girl sounds as if she has laryngitis, there is barely any sound coming out. They are the sweetest girls. I pick them up and they sit nice and still and love the petting.

Lauren B. | Sweet, lovely duck

I ordered five different breeds to try out, and the Appleyards seem amazing for anyone looking for a dual purpose breed, ducks for eggs, or for just for pets. Willow is such a sweet girl, and was very playful as a duckling. Now that she is full grown, she is a hefty girl and not as fast and active, but still just as docile. Definitely a top contender if you could only raise a single breed of duck. Very pleased with what a good representation of the breed she is. Hatcheries can be really hit or miss, but Metzer seems to raise quality birds both in health and breed conformation!

Kathleen P. | Wonder, Beautiful, Interactive Ducks!!

We've had our Silver Appleyard ducks since last April. We couldn't be more pleased. We got three females and their personalities are so distinct!! They've been laying since about 5 months old. At the same time, we got 3 Cayugas. They have been giving us 5 - 6 eggs per day (Central Florida). They get along so well. We purchased 3 Saxony and 3 Welsh Harlequin in November and were worried about the big girls picking on the little ones. Quite the opposite. The little ones are terrorists and the big girls steer clear. They are so much fun to interact with. They look out for us in the window and let themselves into their duck house.

Wendy B. | Butter and Dumpling

I just got my princesses home and I am already head over heels with these babies. I'm looking forward to the future.

Katelyn G. | Love these ducks

This is my first time with Silver Appleyard ducks and I ordered 2 males. They are shyer than my Rouens but will come up to me and eat out of my hand. They have the biggest opinions and will be sure and share it with you. I think they are so cool. I ended up with a light one and a dark on and they are beautiful.

Robert C. | Our girls are everything we expected and more

We ordered 4 Silver Appleyard females, and they arrived vital and healthy on 22 May. The packaging for them was top shelf, heater pad, the green gel, we could not have been more impressed. As of today 7 May, they are thriving and growing like crazy. Metzer knows their business. and we are looking forward to ordering more in the near future.

Valerie J. | My Gardening Partners

I ordered 2 hens this January and they arrived in great health despite coming across country. They are part if the family. Great foragers and very curious about everything i do. I joke with my friends that instead of having a service dog I have my ducks.

Amanda L. | beautiful ducks!

Our little ducklings have very, very quickly grown into beautiful ducks. Their feather patterns are lovely, and just different enough to tell them apart. They are happy, healthy, very entertaining and a wonderful addition to our flock

Stacey F. | Wonderful friendly ducks!

We received our 6 ducks back in May. They arrived quickly and very healthy. They have grown very fast are beautiful as their feathers have come in. We love them so much we just placed an order for more and can't wait until they arrive.

BRYAN A. | Year one apple yard ducks!

What a great breed. One year later the ducks are doing great! I use these ducks for meat and in a duck tractor that I move daily in my orchard. These ducks have a lot of personality and tend to their business of fertilizing my trees, eating bugs, slugs and foraging for some of their food. I have decided to keep these heritage ducks and grow an even larger flock for distribution to a local 4-H club. We must save these beautiful heritage ducks!

Heather B. | Silver Appleyard

I love my Flora. She arrived happy and healthy. She started laying a month early and is the best mother! Such a great duck.

Brian T. | Metzer Farms is the Best!

I want to first and foremost thank the team at Metzer for putting forth the effort and work to get us the ducklings we wanted as the season was winding down. By the end of the day, they were able to secure us exactly what we wanted and actually sooner. The service is outstanding! This morning we received the ducklings, and they arrived healthy and in great shape and are perked up eating and drinking like champs. A most welcome addition to the homestead. Looking forward to getting Buff Geese in the spring and probably more Silver Appleyards. Many Thanks again to the Metzer Farms Team!

Kelly H. | Hey There Delilah

We received Miss Delilah in the mail June 29th (my son's birthday). She is absolutely stunning. It took a little treat training and patience but now she is a very friendly duck and typically comes when called. She enjoys foraging and can typically be found in the pool, even when it is in the 30s. She isn't laying yet so I will follow up with an egg production update.

Ruth C. | Willow n Daisy

Arrived in two days, healthy and perky. Thank you Metzer Farms for our beautiful girls! 16 days old, and this first-time duck Mom is shocked how quickly they are growing. Already have different personalities and markings. Willow is mellow and sweet; Daisy likes to bite and can be loud. Will recommend your farm 100%!! Thank you again, from a very happy Duck Mom!!!

Shu L. | tenacious duckling

The ducks are very cute and healthy. They are now close to the age of laying eggs. They are so active that they can dirty the water basin I set in an hour. My little backyard helpers. Really nice ducks!

Stephen F. | Laying way above expectations

I purchased 50 Silver Appleyards in April of '23, they are now 10 months old. They reside in a Houston exurb on a half acre of pasture and a small pond. 27 females reached laying age, they are laying over 20 eggs a day, which is on pace to handily beat the range Metzer advertises. 18 males reached butchering age, I selected the biggest and prettiest 6 to be the surviving studs, the rest were delicious. The eggs are very big, I use two duck eggs to substitute for three jumbo chicken eggs, and it's still a bit more egg from the duck eggs. They were slow to mature, but that's probably because we had a really hot summer, even by Texas standards. They all survived, but they spent a lot of time sitting in the shade panting next to the water instead of foraging, so it's not too surprising that first eggs came late. They are voracious foragers, they cleaned out all the water plants in the pond and will mow the grass. I am working on expanding their pasture to take full advantage. I have not observed broodiness yet.

Arvie & Lynn P. | Healthy and Growing

This being our first order from Mezter, we could not be more pleased. We wanted a specific type of duck and read their handy duck review page and proceeded to place our order. Shortly thereafter we Received 10 lady ducklings and 2 gentlemen ducklings across the country within 2 days from shipment. They arrived happy and in great condition and have continued on that way, never missing a beat So happy with Metzer!!! They do what they say they are going to do!!! Most highly recommend them.

Savannah F. | Sweetest duck but very sadly passed away

My Silver Appleyard, Beatrix (also lovingly known as Teeny Bea), was a great duck and so beautiful. She was the smallest of my order when she arrived on February 8th but with some TLC caught up in size. Unfortunately, my runner duck from the same order fell ill around February 15th. She has been receiving treatment but Teeny Bea began showing signs of the illness on February 21st and passed away within 48 hours last night (February 22nd). She'll be so missed even after just being with us for two weeks. Such loving and beautiful ducks. We're doing our best to help our runner duck recover and keep the third duck from our order stay healthy. Not sure if this has just been bad luck or what but keep an eye on your babies if they start looking squinty eyed/hunched down rather than upright/decreased eating or drinking.

Belinda C. | Happy and healthy

My 3 Appleyards with 3 mixed came in today. They are all healthy and happy. Can't wait to watch them grow.

Diane C. | Six healthy, happy, and very vocal babies!

I'm impressed with how good of shape these guys arrived in, full of spunk and energy! Looking forward to watching them grow up!

Courtney R. | Gorgeous!

We ordered three sexed females. Shipping was seamless and they are beautiful young ladies.

Karen A. | All happy and healthy

We received our Silver Appleyards and Welsh Harlequins together. Tthey made it all the way from the Tennessee hatchery to Interior Alaska with no issues! Would absolutely purchase again if we were in need of more.

Tabitha H. | Amazing!

I bought 1 silver appleyard duck and she is amazing, happy, and healthy. I showed her at my county fair where she got Reserve Champion Heavy Weight, there were 17 birds in her weight class.

Crystal N. | Perfect

We received our two Silver Appleyard ducks in February and they have been the most social stocks we have ever raised. Our Elsa silver appleyard duck is perfect she will follow our toddler boys around, our Shepherds and us. Elsa and Anna are very social with amazing goofy personalities.

Bradley B. | Sweet but get the duck insurance!

While I'll admit I can't attest to how these guys are doing long term, (they are still ducklings) I can say they are quite sweet and curious! If you don't want a sad or hard to read reviews then stop here. I will admit there have been some hard times with these little guys though. Honestly through no real fault of there own. The first problem came at week 3. One duckling suffered a leg injury and no longer could use her left leg. After trying splints, wrapping, stretching etc. We finally had to put her down as she had no quality of life. That was rather hard considering we are keeping these for pets. Getting closer to week 6 they started to feather out. Due to a limited size brooder we decided to try and integrate the 5 ducklings with the one adult female Pekin duck we already had. This did not go well sadly. She plucked and drowned one and plucked two others. She was perfect with them any time we where around and or when they were on land but when they were left alone in the pond not so much. Those ducklings are now recovering quite well however it was rather disheartening and extremely frustrating to have happen. That all being said I think might be worth adding is that the ducklings didn't have the instincts to determine that the other duck was hurting them and to get away. That may turn out to be the trade off of there friendliness. So I would keep that in mind while choosing these ducks. I also would very much encourage getting the duck insurance. As we have found out the hard way only usually 60% of ducklings make it to adult hood. So $5 of duck insurance really isn't a bad idea. I will update this review as they reach adulthood but I felt this was all good information to share.

Emilia N. | Gorgeous Baby Grils

I hatched a flock of Appleyards this summer, and needed a couple of girls to balance the ratio. Ordering was straightforward, and the communication was excellent. But most important, my girls arrived at my PO within 24 hours of shipping, and the babies were healthy and strong. A day later, they are eating, drinking, and getting the zoomies, and they are just amazing. Thank you for the care with which you packed them, making it safe to travel in November to Colorado, where it's quite cold right now. I am so happy with them.

Becca C. | LOVE them!!!

They've been so sweet and have let me hold them all the time! Shipping was amazing!

Ashly D. | Healthy Drake

Healthy Drake Silver Appleyard!

Loveline K. | very sweet birds

I purchased three silver appleyard ducklings for my birthday. It is my first time ordering with Metzer and I am very pleased with their services! My ducklings arrived on time, and they were all healthy and happy in the box. they came with a heat pad and some green gel in a cup, which I assume is for hydration. My only concern is their bills, which are a bit dark so I hope they lighten up when they grow. Otherwise, ordering from Metzer is excellent, way too easy, and I love my ducks. Threy are already quite tame.:)

Tara W. | All the zoomies

I was a little worried having them shipped but our 6 sweet ducklings arrived on 3/26 and all were healthy and making all kinds of noise for the postal workers! They are a lively bunch. Once they got their first were and put into the brooding box then the zoomies began. They have been eating, drinking, talking and sleeping just fine.

ava F. | Loved them!

They are extremely friendly and arrived in perfect condition!

Mallory T. | Very entertaining

I ordered four appleyard girls- Quackhead, Invader Zim, Hannibal (the vicious destroyer of crickets) , and Quin- back in February and they are just delightful. Spunky and full of personality, all except one have correct coloration too (Quackhead has a dark bill). They have decided they love to lay in the corner of the run and sun themselves in the morning before going about their day. They are also little busybodies who WILL get into anything they can reach if you leave it laying around long enough and will come running if they see I have treats. They are fairly calm and will let me walk right up to them for the most part to pick them up. They've been great foragers and have been decimating the weeds in my yard (along with the local cricket population). They have also displayed an impressive growth rate that I am happy with for my breeding birds (next year I want to start raising meat birds from their eggs). Overall great birds (and in my opinion much prettier than pekins would have been).

Daniel Y. | GOOD DUAL PURPOSE

Can easily take a chance with getting them straight run, get a lot of drakes not a problem they get huge, get a lot of hens they lay plenty of eggd

skye B. | Love my ducks!

I am so happy with my duck purchase. I bought 3 ducks, silver appleyard is the friendliest of the 3. They arrived healthy and happy. I will definitely buy more in the future. They are so fun to watch.

Eva S. | Good ducks

I ordered 5 of these ducks to change out our existing flock of 5 and 4 year old Metzer golden 300s. We ordered 1 drake and 4 hens, all are still well a year later. Two of my hens went broody in the coop this spring and I allowed them to sit, as we'll welcome the ducklings. They are doing a good job on the nest so far. The ducks have been good foragers, we free range them by day, and are friendly, they eat out of our hands. We haven't butchered any to date, as we'll wait until we hatch a sizeable flock and keep a number for eggs and breeding. Beautiful ducks, we like them. We also had jumbo pekins from Metzer in the past but phased them out. While jumbo pekins are good meat ducks, the Appleyard suits us better as the jumbo pekins are rather too large in my opinion for a free-ranging lifestyle, a bit much weight. Appleyards are big but not overly large, so they run around just fine.

Jessica M. | Perfect Ducklings

I am thrilled. When I picked them up at the post office, I could hear them through my the box. When I started to open the box at home, a head popped out and the duckling was ready to get out the box. I put them straight in the brooder. They immediately went to drinking and eating. They are adorable and perfect!

William G. | Ducks

Arrived in great shape and are doing well

Jessica B. | I love my ducklings!!!

I received my ducklings a little less than a week ago and I love them so much!! They arrived in perfect condition. The way they are shipped is honestly so cool to me as someone that has never ordered ducks. My husband and I recently went through a miscarriage after our first round of IVF and these ducks have been the best little babies for me. I am truly grateful for a place like Metzer that not only does all this work but make sure you have all the recourses and information you need when receiving your babies!!

Sheila B. | My Beautiful Silver Appleyards!

I LOVE my Silver Appleyards! They arrived yesterday healthy and cute as can be! Wallen(male) and Reba (female) will be a great addition to our flock! Thank you so much Metzer Farms!

Madelyn W. | Healthy and Happy

Received my girl this morning and she was a super happy, healthy, energetic little duckling. Can not wait to watch her grow!

Julie R. | 2nd order

Love the appleyards. Great ducks, beautiful, just ordered more