Which is more profitable: A duck or a chicken?
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Question by тнanĸѕgιvιng: Which is more profitable: A duck or a chicken?
I’m 14 and want to get one or two chickens or ducks. Not fertile ones though, just to sell the eggs/meat if one of them is giant as an adult. Which one could earn me more money? Which is easier to handle and convince my parents to get me it? I am planning on making a ‘mini farm’ and selling fruit/veg and eggs. Plus eat some eggs and fruit/veg myself. So, which one?
Thanks!
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8 Responses to Which is more profitable: A duck or a chicken?
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Chickens. All you do is feed them chicken feed and have a little nest and a little roaming area, and you can use them for eggs or eat them.
Jordan
December 10, 2013 at 3:02 pm
Raising chickens can earn you more profit.
Mar
December 10, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Ducks are a tiny bit harder, but duck eggs are sold more expensive than chicken eggs. And from my experience, ducks are much friendlier when handled, but not saying the chickens aren’t either 🙂 Good luck 🙂 xx
Maria
December 10, 2013 at 3:53 pm
As much as I adore ducks, I’d say chickens are the best for your situation. They lay loads of eggs, and lots of people like chicken eggs whereas not so many like duck eggs, so they’ll be easier to sell. Get some “Red Shavers” hens they lay almost an egg a day, so per hen per week you have half a dozen to sell and one to eat 😉 They’re very hardy, eat table scraps, don’t wander off, don’t fly away (although most farmyard ducks don’t fly away either) and if a predator somehow got into the coop, chickens are able to defend themselves much more effectively than ducks imo. They’re pretty friendly too, cheap and affordable, and don’t make half the mess that ducks make. Go for chickens!
Eika
December 10, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Of course duck.
cashi
December 10, 2013 at 4:50 pm
Well, I think you should get two of both. But I do have to warn you chickens and ducks don’t smell very good. I am 14 myself and I think duck eggs tastes a lot better, but harder to open. Or just get one of each. But it would be easier if you get a female and a male of either one and breed them. That way you don’t have a dead one and have to buy another one. I prefer chicken meat and I also prefer duck eggs. Try asking everyone in your family and them what ever has the most votes win.
Maleena Curwick
December 10, 2013 at 5:37 pm
I’d say chickens are going to lay you more eggs but to be honest unless you have hundreds of them they are never going to be profitable- good chicken feed is expensive, and chickens don’t lay all year round – in commercial farms they are kept under sun lamps to force them to lay longer – the lamps make their bodies think its spring/summer all year, so they keep laying all through winter, which isn’t really good for them.
And if your looking to sell them for meat there’s probably a lot of local regulations you’d have to look up, things like licenses to slaughter animals, and you may need a licence to sell food in your area because of hygiene regulations – thats even if you are just selling eggs from a stall, I know you do in Britain.
Probably easiest overall to keep chickens – a lot less mess, more eggs depending on the breed of chicken, and then just to keep the eggs to eat yourself, or give to friends when you have a lot. I know with the amount of food our chickens eat we’d have to be selling eggs at around £20 a box while they were laying to cover the food they eat for a year!
On the plus side, chickens will eat absolutely ANY left over food, so instant recycling. 🙂
Y
December 10, 2013 at 5:42 pm
One or two birds won’t lay enough eggs to sell. It will take too long to accumulate a dozen. If you want eggs for your own family’s use, plan on 5 eggs per bird each week and figure out how many will be needed to supply enough eggs. The most efficient chicken breed for turning feed into eggs is the white leghorn. They are a small bird that lays large white eggs. If you want brown eggs the most efficient are the various sex-link birds. These are hybrid layers that go by names like Red Star, Golden Comet, Black Star, and others. you can find them in any hatchery catalog. They are bigger birds than leghorns so they eat more.
There are duck breeds that lay as many eggs as chickens. The most common are Khaki Campbell and Indian Runners. You will pay more for baby birds than for chickens and their starter feed will be slightly more expensive. Once they are full grown they can eat the same layer feed as chickens. You can probably sell duck eggs for twice as much as chicken eggs. As for your question, I don’t know which will be more profitable. I have never kept ducks but I will guess that they cost about the same to feed as brown egg chickens. You can do the math yourself. If you get 15 birds you should average one dozen eggs a day to sell.
If you want to raise meat, chickens are the least expensive way to go. There are specialty meat breeds, mostly Cornish crosses that are ready to slaughter in as little as 6 weeks for fryers, 9-10 weeks for roasters. My favorite meat breed is the Kosher King from Clearview Hatchery. They don’t grow as fast as the Cornish roasters but they do better on free range and taste better. At 13 weeks old they dress out at 8 pounds. Because they free range they eat about 1/2 – 2/3 as much grain as birds raised in confinement. When you plan for profits, don’t forget the value of the poultry manure for your vegetable gardens. Fertilizer you don’t have to buy adds to the overall bottom line. Also, don’t ignore the costs of the coop and electricity for the brooder.
winterrules
December 10, 2013 at 5:58 pm