Breeding ducks

[Welshies]

If you seriously want to make money I highly suggest pheasants or quail. Game birds are in high demand, and quail are so easy to feed and look after, plus they mature in 8 weeks.

 

[Ravynscroft]

To make money, you need to know your market, what is in demand where you are... or get NPIP to be able to ship out to reach farther...

If you just want to churn out numbers and be a hatchery, expect to lower your prices per... if you want to provide quality, you'll need to get a good start, breed and grow out offspring to see quality and cull the ones that don't make the cut... even with perfect breeding stock, you will not get all perfect offspring... or any perfect ones... there is no guarantee anyone can give that bird A bred to bird B will be all good quality or any good quality until you test breed...

Building breeding pens and runs will cost $$... as will regular maintenance of the birds themselves... and for serious breeding and selling, deworming, keeping them parasite free/internal and external, vitamin supplements for the breeders leading up to and during breeding season to ensure better hatch rates and healthy babies is a must... feed, housing, treating for injuries, etc, will all factor in as well and those are more costs to add up...

Once you get into selling, you'll be quite a while just to get back what you put in to start... not to mention when it will become profit...

Reputation and word of mouth is huge... if you don't deliver what you advertise, that will turn customers off and away... building that reputation takes more time and more investment...

And it never ends, costs will always be there as will responsibilities... dealing with animals, unless you can afford to hire help, vacations may be few and far between... just more thoughts to think about...

Most breeders breed for the love of the breed, not profit... because in most situations profit is not very likely... unless you have a sizeable savings to invest and keep you afloat for a while, it will be a long, hard uphill battle... it is doable, but it is not easy... nor quick $$...

 

[Pyxis]

Is there any money in breeding ducks? What if you can't find a large local market? Is selling at shows a viable way of selling and still making a profit?

For me, nope. I breed to the standard, and doing that requires a lot of hatching, growing out birds, and then culling the bad ones, picking the ones you want to keep, and then maybe having a few left over to sell. After the expenses, there's really no profit. I have one of the most expensive breeds of chicken and I don't make money selling them.

I'd say your best bet is to go to your local auction/swap/whatever and see if anything is in high demand, then get those. But as always the market can fluctuate and what's hot at the moment won't necessarily be hot a couple months later.

 

[sourland]

To make money, you need to know your market, what is in demand where you are... or get NPIP to be able to ship out to reach farther...

If you just want to churn out numbers and be a hatchery, expect to lower your prices per... if you want to provide quality, you'll need to get a good start, breed and grow out offspring to see quality and cull the ones that don't make the cut... even with perfect breeding stock, you will not get all perfect offspring... or any perfect ones... there is no guarantee anyone can give that bird A bred to bird B will be all good quality or any good quality until you test breed...

Building breeding pens and runs will cost $$... as will regular maintenance of the birds themselves... and for serious breeding and selling, deworming, keeping them parasite free/internal and external, vitamin supplements for the breeders leading up to and during breeding season to ensure better hatch rates and healthy babies is a must... feed, housing, treating for injuries, etc, will all factor in as well and those are more costs to add up...

Once you get into selling, you'll be quite a while just to get back what you put in to start... not to mention when it will become profit...

Reputation and word of mouth is huge... if you don't deliver what you advertise, that will turn customers off and away... building that reputation takes more time and more investment...

And it never ends, costs will always be there as will responsibilities... dealing with animals, unless you can afford to hire help, vacations may be few and far between... just more thoughts to think about...

Most breeders breed for the love of the breed, not profit... because in most situations profit is not very likely... unless you have a sizeable savings to invest and keep you afloat for a while, it will be a long, hard uphill battle... it is doable, but it is not easy... nor quick $$...

Excellent information and advice.

 

[chickens really]

Calls and Heritage Breeds sell quickly..

 

[Krazyquilts]

Most breeders breed for the love of the breed, not profit... because in most situations profit is not very likely... unless you have a sizeable savings to invest and keep you afloat for a while, it will be a long, hard uphill battle... it is doable, but it is not easy... nor quick $$...

Great advice.

I have chosen to raise ducks for a lot a reasons, but the main one is having a Sustainable local food source raised under humane conditions, specifically eggs but of course not all ducks will be good enough to keep for breeding or laying and you only need so many males. I also like the idea of helping to promote rare breeds. Also ducks are sooo cute. Baby ducks are the cutest things I've ever seen in my entire life. But yeah, not planning on making my fortune raising waterfowl lol.

We have chickens too and plan on raising heritage meat birds like Orpingtons or Buckeyes etc that have a nice harvest weight but also lay some eggs because there are some recipes that I still prefer having chicken eggs for. (I just don't like scrambled duck eggs, sorry.) And chickens are awesome at taking care of kitchen scraps!