Keeping Ducks For Eggs

[Ciaphas]

The wife in her infinate wisdom has purchased 30 ducks while I was away on business. The reason for buying them apparently is so we can have fresh eggs everyday.

Does anybody have any experience on raising ducks?

What are the basics that I need to be aware of?

We are not intending to start a business, I'm just crurious about raising ducks.

Thanks

C

[ozzydom]

The wife in her infinate wisdom has purchased 30 ducks while I was away on business. The reason for buying them apparently is so we can have fresh eggs everyday.

Does anybody have any experience on raising ducks?

What are the basics that I need to be aware of?

We are not intending to start a business, I'm just crurious about raising ducks.

Thanks

C

Ciaphas, what breed of ducks did your wife buy?

[billd766]

The worst bit of keeping ducks for the eggs is the duckshit. Unless they are in a compound then

a) duckshit will be everywhere and

the eggs will be everywhere also.

The benefits are that duck eggs are low in chloresteol I believe and they are tasty.

On the market stalls locally the price is around 25 to 30 baht per 10 so if your wife wants to sell them the price she gets will not be that much.

[Gary A]

My wife has kept ducks for the past couple of years. I don't remember the last time I ate a chicken egg. They are pretty easy to keep penned in and all it takes is a little roof for shade and that commonly available blue screen supported by some bamboo stakes.

As mentioned before, they are likely to lay eggs anywhere so they normally get penned in a lot of the time and at night. She always keeps a broody duck to sit on eggs and when she has more ducks than she wants, she sells a few. The locals like duck and she gets 100 baht each for the normal ducks and 60 baht per kilo for the Muscovy ducks. She normally has about 15 and they furnish all the eggs we need.

She has a Heinz 57 variety with Peking, mallards and Muscovy and likely a few that I don't know the names of.

[ozzydom]

The reason I asked the OP what breed was that they all have different habits.

Muscovys are ok in a pen but they eat like lumberjacks and go broody as soon as there is enough eggs to sit on (up to 24) ,it pays to keep one wing cut as they take off and fly like swans at the drop of a hat. We get our drakes up to 4kg in about 5 months and art 70bt per kg they are a nice bit of pin money for TW. (guess who buys the tucker).

Khaki Campbells are more of a flock bird ,they wander far and wide grazing in their groups and sometimes forget to come home so you have to seek and drive them back.

Khaki,s are much better layers and do not make good brooders.

We clean out just before Chinese New Year ,just keeping the best drake and half a dozen diucks ,within 6 months we are back to our usual 100 birds.

[Ciaphas]

Thanks for all the advise.

I tried to find out the breed of ducks but after 30 minutes of

'What are the ducks called?'

'They not have names they're ducks'

'No, what is the name of the breed of ducks?'

'Thai people call them bpet'

'I know they're called bpet but what kind of bpet?'

'BPET'

Finally found out they might be bpet gai or bpet choy choy have decided to wait until they are a couple of months old and research on the internet!

[aries27]

duck eggs are best for making salted eggs (and if you into fetus eggs -- Trứng vịt lộn or Hột vịt lộn for Vietnamese, Pong tea khon for Cambodians and balut for PH, yucchy for all the rest... )

Edited May 6, 2008 by aries27

[Crossy]

I really love duck eggs, just not enough to have 30 ducks

Assuming they're not all boys (the Missus did check didn't she, could be why they were cheap) from that lot you'll be getting 20+ eggs a day when they're laying, of course (assuming they're not all girls) 50% of any eggs that you don't find and eat will turn into ducks that will also lay eggs

Ducks are also nice to eat, assuming you or the lady have the heart to kill and eat your pets

Edited May 7, 2008 by Crossy

[fruity]

Khaki's are brown when ducklings, Pekins yellow & Muscoveys usually a mix of black & yellow so telling what breed they are shouldnt be difficult.

We have a hundred or so Khaki's, a total dead loss & waste of time in my opinion, however, the wifes mother takes care & earns herself a few baht from the eggs. They eat a tremendous amount of food, even though day time they have a massive foraging area. Khakis must be penned / housed at night & not let out until around 8am when 99% of them will have laid their eggs.

Someone said in an earlier post Muscoveys eat ship loads of feed; they do, however, not so much as Khaki's,who at half their size have an insatiable appetite. They are also very 'fickle'; after a thunderstorm for instance the egg production will half & will take weeks to get back to speed, all the while they are eating their heads off!

One other factor with Khaki's is they are extremely noisey, unlike Muscoveys who barely utter a sound apart from the odd 'hiss'. Ours are kept 100 metres or so from the house, which is ok.I look forward to the time our ducks stop laying then mother in law will not want to buy their food & will want shot:) .......roll on!

[billd766]

The few my wife has are mostly white with a red beak and are fairly quiet.

The ducklets are yellow.

What breed are they and are they best for eggs or eating?

[ozzydom]

The few my wife has are mostly white with a red beak and are fairly quiet.

The ducklets are yellow.

What breed are they and are they best for eggs or eating?

Sounds like Muskoveys, good eaters and not bad layers, the only thing is they go broody as soon as they have enough eggs to sit on,so if you want to expand your flock just leave the eggs in the nest and soon they will start sitting. They have a 35 day incubation period

[billd766]

The few my wife has are mostly white with a red beak and are fairly quiet.

The ducklets are yellow.

What breed are they and are they best for eggs or eating?

Sounds like Muskoveys, good eaters and not bad layers, the only thing is they go broody as soon as they have enough eggs to sit on,so if you want to expand your flock just leave the eggs in the nest and soon they will start sitting. They have a 35 day incubation period

Thanks ozzydom

The family that works for us look after the ducks but to date after a few months I have yet to see eggs or ducks on the menu or on my plate.

I suspect that I shall have to get my wife to explain the facts of life to them.

Edited for spelling yet again

Edited May 9, 2008 by billd766

[ozzydom]

The few my wife has are mostly white with a red beak and are fairly quiet.

The ducklets are yellow.

What breed are they and are they best for eggs or eating?

Sounds like Muskoveys, good eaters and not bad layers, the only thing is they go broody as soon as they have enough eggs to sit on,so if you want to expand your flock just leave the eggs in the nest and soon they will start sitting. They have a 35 day incubation period

Thanks ozzydom

The family that works for us look after the ducks but to date after a few months I have yet to see eggs or ducks on the menu or on my plate.

I suspect that I shall have to get my wife to explain the facts of life to them.

Edited for spelling yet again

Fringe benefits

[billd766]

The few my wife has are mostly white with a red beak and are fairly quiet.

The ducklets are yellow.

What breed are they and are they best for eggs or eating?

Sounds like Muskoveys, good eaters and not bad layers, the only thing is they go broody as soon as they have enough eggs to sit on,so if you want to expand your flock just leave the eggs in the nest and soon they will start sitting. They have a 35 day incubation period

Thanks ozzydom

The family that works for us look after the ducks but to date after a few months I have yet to see eggs or ducks on the menu or on my plate.

I suspect that I shall have to get my wife to explain the facts of life to them.

Edited for spelling yet again

Fringe benefits

They get paid, have a house to live in, pay no electricity or water, we buy a sack of rice when they run out and they want fringe benefits too?

The son is also in charge of the dam_n chickens and they are everywhere but I am glad to say that my skills with a catapult which havde not been used since I was a boy are now greatly improved.

I just want MY share of MY duck eggs instead of paying 25 to 30 baht for 10 at the market.

Edited May 10, 2008 by billd766

[ozzydom]

The few my wife has are mostly white with a red beak and are fairly quiet.

The ducklets are yellow.

What breed are they and are they best for eggs or eating?

Sounds like Muskoveys, good eaters and not bad layers, the only thing is they go broody as soon as they have enough eggs to sit on,so if you want to expand your flock just leave the eggs in the nest and soon they will start sitting. They have a 35 day incubation period

Thanks ozzydom

The family that works for us look after the ducks but to date after a few months I have yet to see eggs or ducks on the menu or on my plate.

I suspect that I shall have to get my wife to explain the facts of life to them.

Edited for spelling yet again

Fringe benefits

They get paid, have a house to live in, pay no electricity or water, we buy a sack of rice when they run out and they want fringe benefits too?

The son is also in charge of the dam_n chickens and they are everywhere but I am glad to say that my skills with a catapult which havde not been used since I was a boy are now greatly improved.

I just want MY share of MY duck eggs instead of paying 25 to 30 baht for 10 at the market.

Agreed mate, time to show them who the King of the castle is.

[fruity]

We seem to have established yours are Muscovey ducks. Thai people rarely if ever take the eggs from this breed for eating, leaving the eggs for the duck to incubate. Infact, many think of eating these eggs as sacrilage! At a guess your staff do the usual thing & leave the eggs to the duck! Muscoveys are an eating or heavy breed, not prolific layers. If its eggs you want, buy some Khakis, however, if you feed them properly, you won't save much on the price of eggs. Better stick to buying at the market:)

On a personal note, our resident Khaki's have gone on strike following heavy thunder showers; great news as the wifes mother who buys their feed is sick of spending on them & is selling them out @ 50 baht apiece. Approx 50 left to go.....can't wait to see the back of the horrible greedy messy things. Give me my Muscoveys anyday!

They get paid, have a house to live in, pay no electricity or water, we buy a sack of rice when they run out and they want fringe benefits too?

The son is also in charge of the dam_n chickens and they are everywhere but I am glad to say that my skills with a catapult which havde not been used since I was a boy are now greatly improved.

I just want MY share of MY duck eggs instead of paying 25 to 30 baht for 10 at the market.

[appleman]

I kept around 50 ducks for a while. We had a house that boarded on a small stream. The pen we kept them in opened onto the stream. Because of that they either pooped in the stream or in their pen so that kept our place clean. We fed them with unshelled rice and let them forage for most of their food. We collected a few hundred eggs a week. Some we ate, which were the best eggs I ever had, very large, very red yolks, probably because of all the natural food they picked up in the stream. Others we salted. The ones left over we contributed to a local orphanage. An added perk is that after about a year there was about a foot of composted duck poop on the floor of the duck pen. Since it was already composted we could use it right in our garden. BTW, unlike chickens, ducks need a male around to produce eggs. They will return home all by themselves in the evening and the only thing you need to worry about is someone stealing your ducks or the occasional mongoose who can devestate your flock. Enjoy your ducks. They are lots of fun.

[oldgeezer]

'What are the ducks called?'

'They not have names they're ducks'

'No, what is the name of the breed of ducks?'

'Thai people call them bpet'

'I know they're called bpet but what kind of bpet?'

'BPET'

Great story. I have been involved in these kind of conversations for 25 years.

The first five years were unbridled frustration. Now I just smile.

[krading]

I kept around 50 ducks for a while. We had a house that boarded on a small stream. The pen we kept them in opened onto the stream. Because of that they either pooped in the stream or in their pen so that kept our place clean. We fed them with unshelled rice and let them forage for most of their food. We collected a few hundred eggs a week. Some we ate, which were the best eggs I ever had, very large, very red yolks, probably because of all the natural food they picked up in the stream. Others we salted. The ones left over we contributed to a local orphanage. An added perk is that after about a year there was about a foot of composted duck poop on the floor of the duck pen. Since it was already composted we could use it right in our garden. BTW, unlike chickens, ducks need a male around to produce eggs. They will return home all by themselves in the evening and the only thing you need to worry about is someone stealing your ducks or the occasional mongoose who can devestate your flock. Enjoy your ducks. They are lots of fun.

On the subject of ducks pooping in a pond, I see some pretty dirty looking ponds around here. I (we) just bought one rai of rice paddy and dug a dam/bore/pond about 10 x 14 x 2 mts with the intention of building a house etc sometime down the track. My question is how many ducks would it take to foul this amount of water and what can I do to keep it clean enough to support aquatic life, fish, jabbies, frogs whatever.

[jandtaa]

couldn't give you numbers but duck shit is the best fish pond fertiliser about to create an algae bloom which is free food for your pla nin

[krading]

You little beauty, at last something (almost) free in LOS