Art Gallery and Duck Eggs

[MarissaC]

I have been so blessed by an art gallery in Hot Springs, AR. Back in....eh...sometime last year, they featured some of my photography! Nothing sold...
Usually they only feature an artist for two months, but it's been at least 6 months and they're still showcasing some of my work. It's been such an awesome experience (even though I still haven't sold any works, haha). I'm on a LOT of waiting lists for other galleries, but the waiting period is two-years long on average. So, hopefully in two years I wont be such a starving artist

Also, my husband and I just found a gentleman that will be buying 15+ dozen duck eggs from us once a month! The first month (this month) we worked with him, we only had 15 dozen duck eggs available. Normally, we just give away the eggs to people at our church...but not a lot of people like duck eggs. Well! We met this gentleman at a poultry auction and he said he'd like to buy some eggs. Ok. We figured he'd only want a few dozen. He calls and asks how many we have. We have 15 dozen. "That's all? Ok, I'll take them"

BOOYAH! Now I actually have a clear counter and more space in my fridge! I'm so happy! So, we're going to start hatching some more pekin ducks (he wants some of those) and we'll be keeping all of our duck eggs for him (only one person at our church really likes the duck eggs, but she only wants a dozen a month). We get 16 duck eggs every two days, so we'll have a lot by the beginning of April. It's nice to actually make a profit for once, haha.

 

[turney31]

Great news with your Duck egg sales.

Featured artist is a compliment in itself. Congrats!

 

[newfoundland]

MarissaC I hope you don't mind a few questions. We keep ducks and supply a local egg man. So far he has taken nearly all we produce, but we do also sell at the gate now and then, not too often as we are a bit remote and have little passing traffic. Our ducks, mostly Aylesbury type birds, are all in lay at the moment and we are getting between 8 and 12 a day. My main question is, how long do you feel they keep fresh and therefore saleable? We keep ours for a week and then if they are older, we cook them up for the hens. I feel this is a bit wasteful as I do keep them in the fridge and I'm sure they keep for longer than a week but don't know for sure.

What do you feed you ducks on? I use layers pellets with a little wheat mixed in. I also give them cooked vegetable peelings. Duck eggs are quite popular here with the older country folk, and most people say they are brilliant for baking with. I wish you good luck with your breeding programme, we have bred some of our layers and they are beautiful birds. I would certainly do it again.

 

[MarissaC]

Well...I have heard (have not tested) that if you put the eggs in water, they should sink if they're good. If they float, they're bad.
I can keep my duck eggs for up to a month and they still look good and taste good. But I don't usually have eggs for longer than a month.

We feed our ducks "all-stock". We have a LOT of livestock, most of which are mature, and have found that the all-stock works really well and isn't too hard on the wallet. However, for our baby ducks, we feed them Game Bird Starter.

And yes, duck eggs are AMAZING for baking! That's usually what I use them for.