Ducks and pricing

[anthonyjames]

So I have 30 ducks that were given to me. 15 muschovies and 15 swedes. In talking to my local processor they charge $10 per duck to process.

Can anyone out there tell me what is a good price to charge per lb per duck? I have never raised them before. Only chickens, turkeys and rabbits.

I have no idea on what range they should dress out to on avg or if I should keep a couple swedes for eggs. Heard or read they lay like a chicken. Wonder if I could sell duck eggs to few restaurants or at farmers markets.

Thanks

 

[kitchwitch]

well your best bet is to figure out the cost of feeding and housing the ducks, plus your labor costs plus the gas to get them to and from the processor and the cost of processing them. That should give you an idea of how much to charge per pound.

You are obviously going to want to make SOMETHING off of your ducks, but at the same time don't price too high because if you're not in an area where duck is regularly consumed, people won't be buying them. I'd definitely call around to local restaurants to see if they'd be interested in purchasing dome duck eggs or even some ducks.

 

[ducksinarow]

You might be better off just selling live ducks. The processing fee seems high. You would probably make more money selling them alive. By the time you process them they don't weigh that much.

 

[savingdogs]

I did pretty well selling them live. Ducks are popular right now. We did process some muscovy drakes for ourselves though. 10 dollars sounds high but it does take quite a while to complete processing one, I guess it is a matter of what is your time worth?

 

[RavenStorm]

If you can find an area near by with a high population of Asians it will be profitable to raise the females for eggs. Down here in the LA area you can sell duck eggs for $8 per six eggs, but one of the Chinese markets I go to sells them for $12 per six eggs. You can also sell live ducks to the Asian community and they will process it on their own; most prefer it that way because we like to process it a very specific way (bleed them out with the head and feet still attached). The fresher the better is our food mantra, especially around the Lunar New Year (late Jan, early Feb).