Customer Stories and Helpful Advice About Ducks & Geese

I'm with you on ducks. I've been raising them for five years and we now have 225 of the buggers running about. We get all our ducks from Metzer Farms in CA--a fantastic hatchery. Although ducks, like chickens, need light to lay through winter, by staggering the flocks' ages, when some go out of season, others are always "on" and we're consistently getting 150 or more eggs a day. A lot of work to clean, for sure, but, oh, the flavor of duck eggs!

We've found, too, compared to turkeys and chicken, ducks are much messier on pasture, need a lot more water and require that their coops be cleaned weekly in winter and every 2-3 weeks in summer. From what I know of the frequency with which most folks clean turkey and chicken coops, this is a whole lot more.

All of that work aside, we produce great compost with the girls soiled nesting material and on the fields themselves, their manure, while high in nitrogen, is so wet, it seems not to burn much. We have thoroughly enjoyed going into the duck egg and Quack QuicheTM business. In short, ducks are a great deal of work, but if you have the space and time make their own wonderful contribution to small farms and are highly under-appreciated.