Duckling business. How do you do things?

[FernbergFarms]

Hi! I have ducks and this spring I want to hatch ducklings and fertile eggs for hatching or eating and have like my own little hatching/egg business! I’ve never done this before and I was wondering how you guys do your hatching businesses? Any tips will be appreciated! I plan to sell at farm swaps and sells, online, and farmers markets. Has anyone done any of these ? Also how do you guys advertise? What cost do you usually put them for? How do y’all manage your businesses?
Thx Alli

 

[Percipen]

This is something I've been thinking about too. I'm interested to see what kind of input you get.

 

[FernbergFarms]

Anyone?

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I've thought about it but the liability is too much for me. I give my extra eggs to the food bank

 

[DukesDucks]

Hopefully someone is going to jump in with some more helpful advice than I can offer. I only have 10 Muscovy ducks and I'm thinking to make this a business you would need to go on a much larger scale. I've bought and sold at swap sales but that is not very reliable. People might want their ducklings sexed which takes way more experience than I have.
I was fortunate to find a buyer for my duck and chicken eggs and she will take all I can provide. Drawback for me is that in my climate there are no duck eggs for several months during the winter.
My daughter has sold fertilized peacock eggs but buyers must understand there is no guaranteed success rate. So much depends on buyers ability to have proper equipment and know how.
Anyway, good luck. Let us know how it goes. I would be most interested in hearing how many ducks versus food/maintenance cost are required to make this profitable.

 

[FernbergFarms]

Yeah. This would be a little side business and since I live in a small town I’d hope the wouldn’t be too picky on whether it’s a boy or girl ( tho all my boy kkakis always have rings around there necks) but I thought since all our feed stores sell out literally the day they get chickens and ducks that I’d maybe have a chance on selling these. Also I only have 2 girls at the moment so it wouldnt be anything huge (I ordered 3 more hens set to come May 24) so if this year works well next year I’ll have 2 more breeds to add to my little business.
Thank you for all your input so far!

 

[threebrookscorner]

I cannot help with hatching but we have sold duck eggs on a small scale for years. We are in northern Maine on a back road in a small town and like you eggs are seasonal. We have 8 females and after my best egg customer moved away last year we put a small a-frame sign out by the mailbox picking up 2 regular customers and several random buyers. I deliver pekin eggs ( my favorite too ) to a doctor for 5 bucks a dozen but sell the rest from our house for $3. As far as i know in Maine there's no regulations or liability for selling from home. Due to interest I'm going to advertise fertilized eggs for $10 a dozen in a local buy/swap flyer for a couple months this year and see what happens. Our ducks free range 8 months a year but still consume about the same amount of feed year round which the egg money pretty much paid for until our first grandchild was born. Now that money goes in an envelope for miss Evelynn and on her 1st birthday last August we had $228 to put into her savings account! Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Patrick Murphy]

I'm new to the duck business, and it is very interesting to read about your experience. I've been reading about the duck business, and it interested me. Moreover, in my main field of activity there is a very difficult period, and I decided to change something. I'd like to use outsourcing services https://wow24-7.io/ and hope that this will help me to establish everything in my company. But during this period I want to distract myself and do something new.