I am deciding whether to get ducks or chickens. How do they compare based on general laying age and how long they lay eggs for? Do ducks need more food than chickens? How can can ducks (Khaki Campbells) fly vs chickens? How much can you sell ducklings and chickens for at a market? How much can you sell chicken eggs and duck eggs for and what is the demand?
Thanks for your help I'm really stuck here.
I have both chickens and ducks, but I've only had them for about 18 months now, so there will be others who have more experience than I do. I have Ancona ducks and about 14 different breeds of chickens.
Age of lay: Chickens- depends on breed. I had some start at 19 weeks, others are more like 24 weeks. Ducks - Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 weeks. My oldest chickens are in their second year of laying and they are starting to slow down. Most of them will become chicken soup in the next year or so. My understanding is that ducks maintain their rate of lay for a longer time period - 5 years or so, I think. But my oldest ducks are only 13 months old, so I am just repeating what I have heard.
Food: Hard to say. I think my ducks eat slightly more than my chickens, but definitely less than turkeys. My ducks are very active foragers, too.
Flying: Most domestic breeds of ducks do not fly. My Anconas can get about 3' off the ground and fly for 10' or so. I have chickens that are much better at flying than that (Cream Legbars and Lakenvelders).
Selling Chicks/Ducks: It depends on the breed and the market where you live. I generally sell my prime Ancona ducklings for $6/each. If I am looking to sell them quickly, I price them at $2.50/each and they are gone in a matter of hours. I can sell Cream Legbar chicks for much more than that, but they are very rare.
Selling Eggs: I sell chicken eggs for $2/dozen and duck eggs for $3/dozen. Farm-fresh eggs are cheap here and there isn't much of a market for duck eggs at all. There are some Filipinos who like them and I also sell them to folks who are allergic to chicken eggs. I'm sure if I lived in an urban area, that would be different. I make more money selling hatching eggs than I do fresh eggs.
In my opinion, you have to get into raising ducks for the love of it, not based on profit motives. They are so adorable and mine make me laugh daily, but they are more work than chickens. I spend lots of time cleaning pools and filling water tubs. Brooding ducklings is much more labor intensive than brooding chicks, again, due to the water issue. But I do it all with a smile on my face because they are just so much fun.
I love how my ducks consistently outlay my chickens. I love how unfazed they are by snow and enjoy watching them plow through snowdrifts. I even love it when they soak me with their exuberant water play.
Chickens are great, too. I have a much easier time selling their eggs and they are far less work. But ducks have my heart.
