So I want to get into the hatching egg business...

[Crazy Duck Lover]

Im not sure if this is the right place to post this or not. So I want to get into the hatching egg business. How do I go about doing that?

1. Should I create my own website to advertise hatching eggs, or should I list on eBay?

2. How do barnyard mixes sell, in comparison to purebred eggs?

3. What’s are the specifics as far as NPIP certification and that kind of stuff? Is it mandatory for all sellers to obtain a certification?

4. Anything else? Tips/Tricks?

A little about my flock:
My flock consists of 2 rouens, 1 welsh harlequin, 1 cayuga, and 2 blue runners. My drake to hen ration is 1:2 which I am working to improve by adding at the minimum 4 female ducks. I have 1 rouen and 1 cayuga drake, the rest being hens. They are still too young to lay eggs (13 wks.). Today though I noticed mating behavior between my rouen drake and blue runner hen.

 

[Parront]

Im not sure if this is the right place to post this or not. So I want to get into the hatching egg business. How do I go about doing that?

1. Should I create my own website to advertise hatching eggs, or should I list on eBay?

2. How do barnyard mixes sell, in comparison to purebred eggs?

3. What’s are the specifics as far as NPIP certification and that kind of stuff? Is it mandatory for all sellers to obtain a certification?

4. Anything else? Tips/Tricks?

A little about my flock:
My flock consists of 2 rouens, 1 welsh harlequin, 1 cayuga, and 2 blue runners. My drake to hen ration is 1:2 which I am working to improve by adding at the minimum 4 female ducks. I have 1 rouen and 1 cayuga drake, the rest being hens. They are still too young to lay eggs (13 wks.). Today though I noticed mating behavior between my rouen drake and blue runner hen.

I think people prefer to get a standard breed when they are paying for shipped eggs. I do not know about NPIP for a small duck flock. You might test the water by running a free ad on Craig's List for both and see which one gets the most orders.

 

[Crazy Duck Lover]

Good idea, thank you!

 

[neo71665]

You'll basically have to give away barnyard mixes to get rid of them. Most people that go to the internet looking are looking for a breed they want. The people that don't care normally don't want to give much of anything for a mutt.

 

[Crazy Duck Lover]

I see what your saying. Makes sense!

 

[NatJ]

3. What’s are the specifics as far as NPIP certification and that kind of stuff? Is it mandatory for all sellers to obtain a certification?

I think NPIP is handled at the state level, so start by researching the requirements of your own state.

 

[Crazy Duck Lover]

Oh ok, I wasn’t sure about that! Looks like I have a lot of research to do before going further!

 

[Tankueray]

Im not sure if this is the right place to post this or not. So I want to get into the hatching egg business. How do I go about doing that?

1. Should I create my own website to advertise hatching eggs, or should I list on eBay?

2. How do barnyard mixes sell, in comparison to purebred eggs?

3. What’s are the specifics as far as NPIP certification and that kind of stuff? Is it mandatory for all sellers to obtain a certification?

4. Anything else? Tips/Tricks?

A little about my flock:
My flock consists of 2 rouens, 1 welsh harlequin, 1 cayuga, and 2 blue runners. My drake to hen ration is 1:2 which I am working to improve by adding at the minimum 4 female ducks. I have 1 rouen and 1 cayuga drake, the rest being hens. They are still too young to lay eggs (13 wks.). Today though I noticed mating behavior between my rouen drake and blue runner hen.

Just a bit of personal experience...I have 4 drakes, 12 mature hens, and hatched out 6 cayugas about 3 months ago. Two of the drakes were injured as ducklings so they don't get as frisky as the other two. The two active drakes are relentless, two of my hens have had nasty eye injuries in the last month, all the mature hens have thin feathers on their necks, and they killed two of the cayugas last week. (I didn't know what killed them until I saw the boys ganging up on another one a few days later; they have nearly an acre to roam around in and stick to their own hatchmates, so it was either purposeful or a severe pheromone reaction.) Of the remaining four cayugas, I'm pretty sure 2 are male, so I have to plan on getting rid of at least 3 males at this point. The 2 bad drakes are now in a separate yard under the very strict supervision of a border collie. If you're going to breed and hatch, you need a drake plan, now.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So, I'm bringing the rain.

Your flock is too small to support commercial breeding efforts - most won't want one bird or two, but four or six or ten at a time. Ducks have moderately low lay rates, long incubation bperiods, lowered hatch rates (compared to chickens), and may demonstrate long periods when they don't lay at all. I have nine Pekins (two drakes, seven hens), have had no eggs in almost a month. Roughly half the flock are from last year, and are now 16 months old - feathers everwhere, slow molt. The other half I hatched in March, haven't started laying yet. AND most people will want either hens for eggs or a number of males they can raise and quickly cull for meat - you can't provide that quantity.

As a general matter, most people (even on Craigslist) want a breed, not a mutt, it gives them the illusion of the idea that they know wht they are buying. You have no reputation locally, making your birds no more valuable than any others. NPIP certification, *if* TX will certify ducks, is critial if you are near a State line. As another poster said, it varies by State in terms of what it costs, what they check for, what birds they certify - but all (or virtually all) States want some kind of health inspection or a 9-3 form showing origination from an NPIP certified flock for birds crossing their State lines.

After that, market research, market research, market research. Who are your competition? what are they selling? How much for them? What are your feed costs? What will you need to provide additional shelter for your growing flock? Do you have a way to partition breeding hens (if you plan to breed pure). How much does it cost? Is there additional State licensing required (NPIP is a Certification the flock is clean at the time of testing of whatever they test for, it is NOT a license to operate comercially). How about local zoning and licensing?

If you then decide to move forward with this, how do you plan to compete? Price can only be pushed so low - all those other things (feed, maintenance, advertising, replacing losses, licensing, your time) have value. Consider your local County Faires, etc - show your best birds, try to develop a reputation locally to separate yourself from your competition.

I'm not trying to dissuade you here, just suggesting a realistic assessment. I do what you propose (see my Sig), and its a break even operation during the best of times.

 

[Crazy Duck Lover]

Thank you too for the great advice! I understand I need to increase my flock size to be able to sell fresh fertile hatching eggs. Right now, all I can ready sell is sets of 8 and less, since eggs will be four days old by the time I ship them, if i try to sell a dozen. Since posting this thread I have done much more research as well as added a few ducks but I also decided it will be virtually impossible to start a successful business, so I will be waiting to kick start this until I have a few more LAYING ducks. Again, thank you two so much!