Duck egg production

N&L Smith

Member
Livestock Farmer
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.
 
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 .
 

N&L Smith

Member
Livestock Farmer
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 .
We have to salmonella swab our poultry shed every 12 weeks I suppose we'd be able to do the same with the ducks?
 
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 .
 

Cowmansam

Member
Livestock Farmer
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
 

N&L Smith

Member
Livestock Farmer
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 .
Ok so did you wash the eggs before you sold them?
 
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 .
 

britt

Member
BASE UK Member
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.
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.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top