Currently considering going into organic ducks for egg production we Currently have 18000 organic hen layers some of which we market ourselves. Considering adding ducks into the mix thinking between 100-300 for a start to see how we go. Any experience and advice in duck eggs would be appreciated. Thanks.
Duck egg production
- Thread starter N&L Smith
- Start date
Devil's advocate
Member
- Location
- Posh side of Barnsley
Great idea.
Are you going to house them on plastic slats.
Bit mucky, eat more than hens but lay like hybrid chickens for two years at least.
Are you going to house them on plastic slats.
Bit mucky, eat more than hens but lay like hybrid chickens for two years at least.
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Keeping the Ducks and the eggs clean is the biggest problem.
Wilksy
Member
- Location
- East Riding
Am I right in thinking they need to washed is something to guard against salmonella?
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
We had the "kortlang - tonsel " strain of Khaki Campbell ducks when we had them . They really do lay like a production line as regular as clockwork . We had a really good retail round selling them along with hen eggs . However -- one day the news was full of somebody gravely ill from salmonella poisoning , and in the absence of any other indication , they blamed duck eggs -- not ours fortunately . Our trade for them fell through the floor , and I finished up killing the ducks . Never had any since , although I do buy an odd half dozen eggs from a local farm shop if I go that way .
Yeah I think so I've heard you want slatted floor with straw beds in the corners to lay in? I've heard they don't lay in nest boxes.
We have to salmonella swab our poultry shed every 12 weeks I suppose we'd be able to do the same with the ducks?
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
Don't know a thing about intensive production , ours were very extensive , keep them in until 10 a.m. when it was assumed they'd laid , then open the pop- hole and away they'd go down to the dam for the day . They needed training at first to come home at night , but they very quickly got the idea that there was feed waiting .
- Location
- Shropshire
We kept about 100 Aylesbury types for both eggs and meat lay an egg a day every day then there worth killing at the end they laid in boxes on the ground as long as you kept unchopped straw in there if it wasn’t good and long they would just lay anywhere
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
If ever ours were forgotten at night , there would be a lot of eggs visible just under the surface of the dam in the sand .
Ok so did you wash the eggs before you sold them?
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
No, if we kept clean nest boxes , they didn't need it .
Ok so where in the shed did you have the nests and did you use straw in them?
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
Yes , long straw , but the boxes were re- cycled orange boxes - yes there were such things , and just in a row under the wall .
And what age did you get the ducks in at and where did you source them from?
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
Day olds , - in rings , under I.R. lamps . and I have absolutely no idea where they came from . They were very widely advertised in the poultry press as "Kortlang- Tonsel Khaki Campbell 200 egg + strain " might have gone the way of all flesh now though , I've never kept in touch since we gave over keeping poultry .
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Kortlang and Kortlang were the name for Khaki Ducks.
Devil's advocate
Member
- Location
- Posh side of Barnsley
Cherry valley pekins almost as productive as Campbells also.
- Location
- leics/warks border
It helps folks give advice if you put roughly where you're from under your name.
You can get day old Khiki and cherry valley from Mr Welsh egg Caerphilly.
You need to keep them on slats overnight to stand any chance of keeping the eggs clean and don't over stock them. We use wood shavings in the nest boxs and these need to be deep enough to bury the eggs and changed regularly.