I READ once that every millionaire has more than one avenue of income. Not putting all her eggs in one basket so to speak. Making a little money from a farm is not too hard but making a PROFIT is near impossible. And laughable if the farmer were to pay herself hourly wages! But, I have developed a market and, ever an optimist, I have a new idea. A new string to my bow!
DUCKS! Or more specifically Duck EGGS.
Yes, I know what you are about to say. You tried ducks before Celi and Boo carried their dead bodies back to you after he found them ‘escaping’! But BooBoo has developed a very healthy respect for the electric fence so I can keep him away from them while they are little. And he is better trained now. Plus he is OK with adult birds it is just the babies that are at risk from him.
I sell my pork and have orders for beef but not every week. I need a weekly income.
I sell fifteen dozen eggs every week for 2.50 a pound. Duck eggs sell for SIX dollars a dozen to the chefs in Chicago. And Jake tells me they sell out on The List every week. So developing the duck egg market would increase my weekly sales.
Of course, this is not millionaire money. Scoff. Who wants that? said Nobody EVER. But with the right numbers it could join with the small profit I make on chickens eggs and become grocery money.
And speaking of this weeks grocery money I have spent it all on pasture seeds for the pig fields. (Lucky I have greens in the glasshouse and a freezer full of meat). Here is the first bag of seed. This clover likes it cool so it is will be sown with the first wave of pasture. Crimson And Clover! If it does get to maturity it has vibrant crimson flowers that the bees will love too. Though I so seldom see a bee here.
Half of this seed will be held over for a fall planting (this is a good cover crop) mixed with rye or wheat – you never know, we may have a mild winter then it will all pop up again in early spring. The pigs clear their plates every year! And I MUST get these cover crops in this autumn. But let’s get to spring first.
If this does grow for this season it is a lovely dense plant for the hogs to graze on and you know how I love flowering fields for pigs. I have more seed coming, whatever was cheap frankly! This time of year is financially tough on a little farm and the spring this year is SO LONG in coming I am having to buy extra hay. You will have seen in yesterdays line up of pages from this month going back over the years of TheKitchensGarden, that we often have green grass by now.
Anyway – I wandered off the subject there. So, I am investing in ducklings, specifically Khaki Campbells. They do well in our winters and are easy to house and are regular layers. The ducklings were $7.63c each. I have ordered twenty to start – well you can do the maths. And it will take 6 or 7 months before they start laying. More maths that I don’t want to do. They will arrive in the second week of April (I hope we have warmed up by then) along with this years replacement layers. Khaki Campbells are reported to lay for three years nonstop. I am told they are tough, friendly and reliable.
Ducks are pretty cute too! And think of the CAKES! And icecream! Oh my.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
WEATHER:
Wednesday 03/21 0% / 0 in
Partly cloudy. High 44F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
Wednesday Night 03/21 10% / 0 in
Clear skies. Low 24F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Sun
6:54 am 7:06 pm
Moon
Waxing Crescent, 17% visible 9:31 am 11:42 pm
The Kitchen's Garden 
62 responses to “MORE BIRDS”
Sigh. I’ve always wanted to add ducks to our “mix” but alas, it’s all I can do to keep our chickens safe from the hawks. I’ve heard sad tales from our neighbors of finding the decapitated body of a beloved duck or two from birds of prey. And I’ve watched helplessly from my kitchen window as an immature eagle scooped up an adolescent hen right from our coop run! They are so daring when they are hungry!!! So no ducks for me until I can figure out a better system. I will watch on with envy!
Ducks are at least 10 times messier than chickens, lots and lots of cleanup to keep the eggs clean. But you already have pigs, with all their mess, so maybe that isn’t so much of a deterrent for you.
Yes – I have had ducks before and they were awful – but I have to say badly managed on my part. I am working on a plan. Still need more research though.
Go for it…worth the risk, you’ll make it work if that’s the right thing for you!
Thank you – yes – I think if they lay I will do ok.
Quail eggs have a good market and come to point of lay at a young age.
But they require indoor housing.
I love quail eggs!
When I was a child, my father raised quail and he would bring their eggs into the house and we would scramble them up with other eggs. Now I laugh nearly hysterically when I see them for sale in the stores. Perhaps you should think of quail…
I really like the idea of ducks out on pasture – the quail are much harder to raise I have read though i do love the eggs.
They WERE in little houses, but I din’t think Dad spent inordinate time on them. Now the chickens…he brought a sick one into the house to nurse once.
I have coturnix quail, and they are completely man-made. Like French Bulldogs. They would die without intervention. They lay well, but they do not remember to actually brood. They just pop the eggs out in the hay and go about their business. Incubators are a MUST with them.
Looking forward to seeing ducks added to the Farmy crew! I guess it will make it doubly important now to make sure the mink is gone?
Yes you are right- I will also grow them
As far from the creek as possible
My one lonely Rouen duck has started laying again this spring, probably 5 days out of 7 and she is coming on 8 years old. I know her age because my stepson had a big 30th bday bash and one of his goofy friends gave him ducklings. He spent most of his time travelling for work so naturally we got the call to take the ducks. I actually give her eggs to a niece who is a vegetarian, she likes them because they have more protein. Interestingly, my neighbor has runner ducks and says it’s almost impossible to whip the duck egg whites into a meringue. When I do use the duck eggs for baking I sometimes have to adjust the rest of the liquid in the recipe.
Hi Celi, Late to comment, but I did want to mention I raised Indian Runners for several years and I consider them dual purpose: great buggers in the garden (easy on plants) and prolific egg layers. I still have one, she is 6 now and still lays every day during the warmer months. They are flightless, so no clipping wings and pretty quiet. Only the females have a little chatter to them. Also great at foraging. I haven’t had any other breed, but the research I did, led me to them, and I never regretted it. Good luck with your new venture! Sue
I love that they help out in the garden – I am working on that idea – The flightless part interest me.
And now I have Tommy James and the Shondells in my head. Crimson and Clover and “I Think We’re Alone Now.”
My father had Kahki Campbell ducks from eggs and they did really well. The eggs are excellent for baking and omelettes.
I have never had a duck egg but I hear they are delicious. Maybe that is what we will add at Kanuga Creek farm next!
Good luck with the new venture Celi … 🙂
My khaki campbells are a year old now. I have two ducks and a drake. Before one went into a molt this winter and stopped laying I got 2 eggs every single day. Now she’s back to laying and 2 eggs like clockwork.
As you probably know from your research KCs are a mix of breeds. They are not cuddly ducks so a lot of people who have them in their backyard don’t like that they are so skittish and suspicious. They don’t like to be touched but I know you don’t care about that. Still, they are kind of fun companion ducks. Mine love to walk around the yard with me especially when I turn over rocks or dig so they can look for bugs and worms. If you have any slug infested areas or any bug issue for that matter, they will eat them up! We had a hatch of Japanese beetles in my neighbor’s yard last summer. I caught 15 dozen and fed them to the ducks as they floated in their kiddie pool. They loved it.My drake would also jump in the air to catch them. They will also fight over small snakes. One of my females ate 4 garter snakes last summer and she had to run to keep the others from snatching them from her. They are voracious foragers and love to eat constantly, so if you can assign them a tractor and let them have access to a yard or something they will really go to town. Mine kept the grass clipped in the backyard. And they aren’t that messy, either. I use their pool water for my garden – it’s great fertilizer!
An excellent market for duck eggs would also be Asian food stores and restaurants and I believe they are treated like a delicacy. We’ve poached some to go with Asian food here and it’s the best combo for them we’ve found so far.
You also have the possibility of getting a jump on duck egg production if you look around your area, on local farm sites and backyardchickens.com where there happens to be a whole thread devoted to KCs. People often have adult ducks they want to rehome and this is an instant egg laying situation.
I clipped wings last summer when they started to fly a bit. They are actually very low-flying so unless they get a lot of practice going over fences they shouldn’t be a problem. Mine tend to go up a couple of feet and that’s about it. Plus their wings look so ugly chopped and it’s taken forever for them to grow out.
These aren’t meat birds as they are very slight, but I suppose you could use some up that way. But you should get over 300 eggs a year from a single duck when they are laying at top performance.
I would love to have more ducks but I live in town and am pushing it as it is with 3. I would only get more ducks, though. One drake is plenty among a group of ducks as they can be very aggressive and amorous. And you could also incubate! I would love to do that some day.