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duckduck_goose

duckduck_goose

Chirping
Jul 29, 2025
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Hello!

I have a mixed-breed flock of laying ducks and geese. I have 2 Khaki Campbells, 6 Indian Runners, 3 Crested Mallards, 5 Anconas, 2 Black Swedish (1 crested), 2 Golden Welsh Harlequins, a Cayuga drake, a Pekin hen, and 3 Sebastopol geese. I've been keeping them for almost a year now, and I love it. I come from a family of farmers, but it seems like everyone has forgotten about animal husbandry and has moved on from that aspect of life. I keep my animals on the family farm, though I live in the city (yuck). My ducks have been shown in the county fair through 4H, and now that I have a taste of that... I want more. However, I realize that just buying more and more birds, without getting any income from them, isn't really a sustainable way of raising them --- at least for me.

So, I've been wanting to get into meat chickens (and meat rabbits). Probably CX. I am dedicated to my birds and brimming with ideas. I'm really excited about these meat birds as my next summer project, and already have plans on what their brooder will be (been brooding my ducklings in a tote... in my room... in the city... where they'd wake me up at 7 AM in the summertime...) and what their coop will look like. Any information on raising healthy, happy CX for next year's 4H auction would be great! I've been doing tons of research, but I want more than the conflicting information I'm gathering from all those farm blogs.

Some questions I have about CX are:
What do you feed them? (what kind of pellets, do they free-range and gather their own food, any "treats" or substitutes, etc)
Where do you get them? (local, farm stores, online hatcheries)
When do you take them out of the brooder?
What makes for a grand champion meat chicken?
How do you sell them?
Thoughts on seperation of cockerals and pullets?
What does your coop look like?
How do you make them exercise, in order to avoid leg issues?

Any horror stories or some good stories about CX would be appreciated. I'm completely new to meat chickens and have only been raising ducks --- I understand it's a lot different and am excited for the possibilities. I want to know everything there is to know so I can give my birds a great life.

Side note --- anyone know anything about meat rabbits? As I'm already raising poultry and have done tons of researching on poultry, I'm feeling excited and confident about my CX project (but I understand there's still so much to learn; hence why I'm here), but not so much for my meat rabbit project. I'm going to give my CX a good coop (going to build it sometime this summer/fall) and give them a good run, but I don't like the idea of having my rabbits cooped up in cages for their entire 60-day life. I know that free-ranging would probably be stupid, but still... I want meat rabbits but do not want to have them cooped up in cages. That's not how you live a life. I would feel guilty butchering them, knowing their whole lives... were spent in a cage. At least my CX could forage and see the sun. Any tips/reassurance on meat rabbits? I'd probably raise some Californian, as I know a person who will sell them. If I can find a guiltless way to raise them, I'd love to maybe even begin a breeding program. If I can talk to anyone experienced about meat rabbits, that'd be wonderful.

Oh, also (I know I know), how do you sell duck eggs? Just on platforms like Facebook or something? I get about anywhere from 5 to 10 eggs a day; I'm drowning in eggs.

Thank you! Happy quacking!
 
DobieLover said:
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
You could build a roadside stand to try to sell your excess eggs. I would also reach out to local bakers as, I understand it, duck eggs are very rich and superior in baked products.
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Yeah, I was thinking about building a roadside stand, just mostly worried about people stealing since no one lives at the farm the ducks stay at. But, still up there on the list of "how to rid myself of all these eggs".

Reaching out to local bakers was an idea I didn't think of, but definitely sounds smart. I believe I'd have to get some sort of liscence to do that, as I've been researching different selling liscences in regards to livestock.

Thank you!
 
Jener8or said:
Hi! It sounds like you have some fun projects in the works! There will be a lot of good advice for your CX and rabbits in the Meat Bird and Livestock Forums. Lots of experienced people raising their own meat here. I hope this site is a great resource for you!

Thanks for joining and welcome to BackYard Chickens!
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Thank you! Will check those out.
 
Hi @duckduck_goose :frow

I raise chickens for both their eggs and meat. In regard to the meat birds, we started off with Cornish Cross but prefer Freedom Rangers if we can order them before they sell out.

The Cornish Cross stop being very active around week 4 or 5, meaning they do not do much walking around. They just eat, drink, and poop. We do not allow them to free range the way we allow our layers. Instead, the meat birds are in cages that we move onto fresh grass every 1 or 2 days depending on how many we have. That way they get fresh grass to eat and lay in addition to the high protein organic feed we give them.

Regarding the sale of eggs, we mostly sale our duck eggs. I have a weekly routine where I meet up with a group of people. I take 3 dozen eggs in a cooler with ice with a sign on the front and back encouraging people to help themselves. There are bags in the cooler for anyone who might need it and change is available. So, it is a self-serve thing. By the time I am ready to leave, some or all of the eggs are sold with the money waiting for me in the cooler, lol.

I have no experience with rabbits except the ones I keep out of my gardens with rabbit fencing, lol.

I have YouTube playlist on meat birds if you are interested. Also, please feel free to ask me questions regarding how we manage our meat birds.

Welcome!
 
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Burnt Brass Homestead said:
Hi @duckduck_goose :frow

I raise chickens for both their eggs and meat. In regard to the meat birds, we started off with Cornish Cross but prefer Freedom Rangers if we can order them before they sell out.

The Cornish Cross stop being very active around week 4 or 5, meaning they do not do much walking around. They just eat, drink, and poop. We do not allow them to free range the way we allow our layers. Instead, the meat birds are in cages that we move onto fresh grass every 1 or 2 days depending on how many we have. That way they get fresh grass to eat and lay in addition to the high protein organic feed we give them.

Regarding the sale of eggs, we mostly see our duck eggs. I have a week routine where I meet up with a group of people. I take 3 dozen eggs in a cooler with ice with a sign on the front and back encouraging people to help themselves. There are bags in the cooler for anyone who might need it and change is available. So, it is a self-serve thing. By the time I am ready to leave, some or all of the eggs are sold with the money waiting for me in the cooler, lol.

I have no experience with rabbits except the ones I keep out of my gardens with rabbit fencing, lol.

I have YouTube playlist on meat birds if you are interested in. Also, please feel free to ask me questions regarding how we manage our meat birds.

Welcome!
Click to expand...
I was thinking about doing some sort of "egg route" or a "meet up", just worried about if people would want the eggs, since everyone seems almost scared by duck eggs lol. Now, do you know the people you meet up with, or do you post something somewhere saying "Hey, eggs for sale at (location)"? Is this at a farmer's market or do you set it up yourself?

I was looking into Freedom Rangers too, but just don't know how well they would auction off/do in the 4H project. Unlike most other members, I don't come from a well-known name. I'm starting from scratch, whilst most of these people live on farms and have been doing this their entire lives. I'm learning as I'm going, and it's great. Do you think it would be possible to pen Freedom Rangers and CX together? I have limited space to work with, but maybe toying around with both of them at a time would help me learn which I'd like to raise. Raising both would give me experience and I could auction and show the CX in the county fair (at most, six birds), and sell the Freedom Rangers somewhere else. I'm only allowed to auction my highest-winning bird, so I'm going to have to sell the excess CX anyways.
Side note, when do you cull the Freedom Rangers? How do they compare to CX in terms of feed intake, behavior, and meat? Why do you like the Freedom Rangers more?

Thank you so much!
 

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