Cypress Duck Farm

Cypress Duck Farm looks quaint on their website– little duckies floating in picturesque ponds and fluffy chicks cuddled with their mother hens. According to their website, they sell ducklings, chicks, and other birds as pets, egg layers, and breeding birds. They also ship ducklings & hatching eggs all over the country.
I’ve been looking for a couple of ducklings to keep as pets & egg layers, so I was delighted when I found Cypress Farms. I called them up and asked which breeds of ducks they had available and the owner (Dan) said he had Welsh Harlequins, Mallards, & Khaki Campbells. I replied that the Campbells would be perfect and that I’d be out that afternoon. So I drove on out to Thibodaux at the appointed time and that’s where it all went sour.
First off, there’s not even a sign on the gravel road turn-​off leading to the «farm.» It took us crawling along reading numbers off mailboxes to find the right turn. Then we pull up and meet Dan. He takes us to see the ducklings. As in, he walks over to a plywood box on his porch, opens the lid, and lowers a broken lamp upside down to illuminate it. First thing we see is two dead ducklings which have obviously been there a while. The rest of the dozen-​ish ducklings are scrambling over each other on a filthy newspaper to hide in the corner. There was no food or water in the box.
We asked Dan which were the Campbells and he replied– none of them. He said he thought a few of the lighter ones might have been Harlequins and the rest were presumably Mallards. I didn’t really want Harlequins due to their rather noisy nature and my rather close proximity to my neighbors, but I was willing to try them. I asked if he could point out the hens v. drakes for me since I wanted egg laying ducks. He said he didn’t know how to tell. So Dan knew we were coming and still didn’t know what type of ducks he had, didn’t water or feed them, couldn’t sex them, and didn’t even throw out the dead ones before we got there. What if I’d been a mother bringing my kids out for a pet duck– how traumatizing to find that mess!
At this point, I was so thoroughly turned off by the experience that I just wanted outa there. I grew up around farms and I know that farm animals aren’t always coddled and some don’t make it, but come on Cypress Farm, at least feed and water your animals! I felt bad leaving those ducklings in that environment. Cypress Duck Farm is not at all what it claims to be and I will never be going back there. I advise people to find other sources for pet birds and to not support irresponsible breeders.