Ducks for Eggs, Meat or Both?

Ducks are one of the easiest of all poultry to raise. Ducklings are a great animal to start with. Whereas chicks grow into chickens quite quickly, ducklings take their time to mature. Which gives the kids a longer time to play and handle them. They greet you when you come by  and will follow behind you.  Ducks are great at foraging and getting rid of bugs, slugs and other creepy things. Some ducks have been know to eat a snake, mice and small vermin.



Many people feel duck eggs are unbeatable for baking and pastries. And some people that have allergies to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs (or quail eggs)

EGG LAYERS:
Some ducks are very prolific at laying eggs - Khaki-Campbell are strictly an egg-laying duck. They will lay 300 - 325 eggs a year! They continue through the winter. They will be good layers for 3 to 4 years. The females are seal-brown and the males are the same with touches of darker brown. They are excellent forages and withstand cool climates very well. They weigh about 4 1/2 pounds 

The Welsh Harlequin is a fairly new breed, developed by Leslie Bonnett in Wales from two off-colored Khaki Campbell ducklings in 1949. They are excellent egg layers, and will still set on a nest - a trait that has diminished in some breeds. They can also be sexed just after they hatch by the color of their bill: darker is a male and lighter are females. This disappears after a few days. They also have a pretty feather color and are just a nice duck to have around..

Indian Runner ducks are raised for eggs. Because of their size, they are not used for meat.

Under refrigeration (34 to 40 degrees) eggs can be kept safely for up to six weeks. By sealing freshly laid eggs in a plastic bag their refrigeration life can be lengthened to two months, as the bags help prevent moisture loss from the egg. Duck eggs also have a longer shelf life than chicken eggs.

MEAT BREEDS:

White Pekin:  The most popular breed for meat is the Pekin (also called the Long Island duck) and is the major breed raised commercially. They are large white ducks, with the males reaching 9 pounds and females about 8 pounds. They are a bit high strung and are not good setters.

The Pekin dress out nicely because their white skin looks good roasted.

Muscovy (Mus-coh-vee): These ducks have the best tasting meat - some compare the meat to veal, with less fatty taste compared to other ducks.
 The drake weighs about 10 pounds, and the duck about 7. They reach market weight at about 8 - 10 weeks. (Although, if they are kept for breeding, they do get larger)They are great setters, but do not lay a lot of eggs - about 40 - 45 eggs a year).

Some people consider them ugly because of the large red warty caruncles above the beak and around the eyes. 
They are one of the only ducks of the larger breeds that fly very well. Many states require breeders to clip their wings to prevent them from flying away. They do like to roost in trees.

Although the Muscovy is a tropical bird (originally from South America) it adapts well to cooler climates and can thrive in a climate as cold as 10 degrees F

Rouen

Rouen ducks look very similar to the ancestor of most modern duck breeds - the Mallard duck, and, as such, the male has a beautiful green head. Because of this, Rouen ducks are popular for various ornamental reasons, and the fact that they are pretty docile ducks.

 The Rouen is a popular farm flock breed, and is a very good meat breed.  It is slower growing than the Pekin, but it reaches the same weight over the 5 to 6 month period of feeding and foraging under farm flock conditions. 

 They are poor layers, producing only 35-125 eggs yearly. 

Swedish is a medium sized duck that weighs between 6 1/2 to 8 pounds; the male usually weighs more than the female. Blue Swedish ducks are very calm and make good ducks for beginners and will go broody. The Swedish is considered a dual-purpose duck for both meat and eggs.

 Blue is the standard, but there is Black, Silver, Yellows and Splash color patterns.

A good layer, the Swedish will lay about 130 -180 eggs per year, and reaches table weight by about 16 weeks.


The Swedish may also be crested.

So which duck do you choose? For eggs production we prefer the Welsh Harlequin. The ducks lay a lot of eggs, and are a pretty duck that seem relatively calm. The Khaki Campbell is too flighty a bird for me.
For meat, the Muscovy is the best tasting with a less greasy taste (which turns off a lot of people)

My all time favorite duck is the Rouen. I like their calm personality (they come when you call them). They do like the schedule and want to go into the barn at night... which makes it easy for us to keep them safe. Every night they will walk single file from where they were foraging to the barn and patiently wait by the door.
And the males are pretty ducks with the green Mallard colored head..

Why Raise Ducks?

Why would you want ducks?

Ducks are a very hardy bird. They seem to do well in all kinds of weather. They require less attention than a chicken. They don't forage as well as most geese, they do augment their diet by foraging, and lowering your feed bill.
Ducks need very little housing and do not require a pond or creek, but if you have one, they will be very happy birds!

They will rid your garden, yard or orchard of snails, earwigs, slugs or any other bug they can find. They will fertilize your soil and you can collect their flowers to make earrings, feather dream catchers, etc.

Ducks have personalities! They frolic on a pond, waddle mechanically in a line to some distant object. They make very good pets.
As an 8th grader, a friend and I did a science project involving 8 ducks. When the project was over, we found homes for 7... haha. It was my way of keeping the duck. I named him Dandelion for his yellow duckling down, but he turned out to be a very large white Pekin. I would fill a baby pool full of water, and sit outside with him as he splashed and cavorted around. He would follow behind me where ever I walked.

Some ducks are great for egg production, and some are good for meat production. There isn't a dual purpose duck. Duck eggs are wonderful for baking... a little larger than a chicken egg. They can also lay almost as many as a chicken!

Ducklings 101 - Feeding

If you buy your babies from a hatchery, you will need to dip their beaks in water to give them a drink first thing. A good way to to this is as you take them out of the box, and you count them to see if they are all there and healthy, simply dip their beak, and set them in the brooder you have set up waiting.

If you are going to feed a commercial feel, be sure you do not get a feed that has any medication in it. The medication is for coccidia  a common parasite that chicks could get. Ducks are not able to have that medication as it can be deadly.  The protein content may be too high for them also. 20% is all that is needed.
A good duck or turkey starter would be a good choice.


The duckling will eat a little, swish their beaks in water and eat a little more. Water is very important as they can choke on feed without water.

If you would like to feed your ducklings a homemade feed, here is a tried and true formula:
Feed 3x a day:
BREAKFAST: cooked oatmeal, covered with a little water.
LUNCH: scrambled
eggs covered with a little water
DINNER: homemade whole wheat bread covered with a little water, or milk.
Tender young green leaves should be offered at each meal.
They also like chopped green onion,s and dandelion greens. Watercress is also a favorite.

Duckling 101 - water and baths

Many people like to think that their ducklings can just be put near the creek or in the bathtub and will just swim and swim... like you see in the wild.

Mother ducks have an oil gland at the base of  their tail, that they use to grease their feathers to make them water proof. She will also do this to her ducklings. The ducklings oil gland is not developed yet.

If you want your baby to swim, provide a small pan with warm water, and an easy way for them to get in and out and quickly under a heat lamp.

By doing this, their oil gland will develop and they should be swimming by the time they are 6 - 7 weeks old!

If the duckling gets water logged, you may have to dry it with a hair dryer, or it could easily get chilled, and possibly die.

Brooder box for your new chicks

Last Spring, Jim and I hatched out all sorts of eggs. Emu, ducks, chicks, turkeys and quail. It was tough trying to create a good place for those babies to stay warm.
Over the years we have done all sorts of innovative things.

The first year we got chicks in the mail, we were living without electricity. We blocked off an area under our stove and set a pot of hot water wrapped in a blanket on the floor. The chicks discovered how to cozy up to the pot in between folds of the blanket and stayed warm and cozy. However, as they grew feathers, they also discovered they could have run of the house!
We have kept them in the bathtub with a heat lamp, but cleaning the tub afterward was horrendous!


Last year we found plastic bins with lids at the local Walmart. Jim cut the lid to allow the heat lamp to be placed above it.

Then, as needed, we raise the heat lamps and add a screen to keep them from flying out.

Pictured above are day old quail. We move them from this container in the basement at 1 week old,  to a larger 4x5 brooder in the barn, and then into 12x10 pens to grow out. We move then so often because each week we have at least 100 -300 quail hatched.

We use these bins for ducklings, chicks, turkeys for their first week or so depending on how many we have hatched out.