Customer Stories and Helpful Advice About Ducks & Geese

My son (now 13) bought a few Golden 300s in 2007 and they were very steady layers. He bought more this spring because of his success with them last year. We now have 9 Golden 300 ducks and 2 Golden 300 drakes. We collect at least 7 eggs per day, usually about 8. The ducks are fed IFA brand lay pellets and some black oil sunflower seeds along with being out on the pasture during daylight hours. There isn't much good pasture right now because it is winter in Utah, but they still like being able to roam about during the day. In the summer we provide a child's size swimming pool for them to play in. They can be found cleaning once a day in it, but they particularly like the puddles formed by the sprinklers in the pasture. There are no bugs in the pasture, thanks to the ducks! And the since they are on pasture in the summer, they prefer pasture and bugs over lay pellets, cutting down on our feed costs. We have 'spread the word' about ducks and have included other people in our orders. According to what is on your site, duck eggs provide more nutrition per 100 grams of egg than chickens. They do tend to eat a bit more than chickens, but they are easy to maintain in our area, require less maintenance (the housing is much simpler--an old dog crate works well for ours), no heat (chickens sometimes require a small heat source in the coldest part of winter), better production (more eggs and much larger eggs than chickens), no reduction in production during the winter (the chickens have pretty much stopped right now), ducks seem to have a longer laying life than our chickens, and ducks are easier to keep in the pasture and out of the garden. All in all, if we had to choose ducks OR chickens, it would definitely be ducks.