My Duck Laid An Egg — Now What?
A flock of ducks brightens any farmstead. Ducks entertain us with their regimented ways and properly ordered lines. They love to eat weeds and can help out the farm by providing eggs. Instead of waiting till your ducks start laying, plan now for the best way to utilize their eggs.
In the kitchen, duck eggs run somewhat bigger than chicken eggs, have a larger yolk, and both the yolk and albumen are richer as compared to chicken eggs. Egg white recipes like meringues will fluff higher with duck eggs compared to chicken eggs. As stated by UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, baked goods made with duck eggs are going to be richer, fluffier and moister.
If your flock is large enough to generate sellable numbers of eggs, consider that Oliver’s promotion of duck eggs in cooking resulted in a 72% increase in duck egg sales at a single specialty food shop in the United Kingdom, in accordance with a report in the London Daily Mail. While your word may not carry the weight that Oliver’s does, a couple of tasty samples baked with duck eggs will generate sales at the farmer’s market. You might also consider quoting Oliver or playing the segment of his show in your booth. Package duck eggs in half dozens, so customers can give them a try without investing in an entire dozen.
In case you prefer your duck eggs develop into another duck, rather than a meal, you can incubate the eggs. Nonetheless, time of year is important for duck hatching. Ducks should reach sexual maturity at 7 months of age. If they are born between September and January, they’ll react to the longer days of summer by reaching sexual maturity up to 2 months prematurely. The resulting eggs will smaller and have really low hatch rates. Schedule your hatches from April through July to insure that your ducks are reaching sexual maturity as days are growing shorter.
For optimum hatch rates, your flock should have one male 6 females. If you’re selling eggs for hatching, collect the eggs early in the morning, handle carefully, storing with the small end down at a temperature of 55?F. Soiled eggs can be washed thoroughly, with water at 110 – 115ºF . Small, misshapen and cracked eggs should be discarded. Eggs can be held for about 2 weeks without a major loss in hatchability.
For the purpose of natural incubation, provide your ducks with a somewhat elevated nesting area which will stay dry. Nest boxes ought to be approximately 12″ wide x 18″ long x 12″ tall. Line the nests using wood shavings, straw, peanut hulls or peat moss and don’t take it personally once the duck rearranges it to her own style.
An incubator temperature of 99.5ºF and a relative humidity of 55% (84.5ºF wet bulb temperature) is required in artificial incubation. Turn the eggs a minimum of 4 times per day. In case your duck incubators have an automatic turner, set it up for hourly. A lot of duck breeds need 28 days to hatch out. At the 25th day turn the temperature down to 99ºF and the humidity as much as 65% (88ºF wet bulb) and stop turning the eggs. Whenever eggs pip, raise humidity to 80% (93ºF wet bulb). As the hatch progresses, little by little lower the humidity and temperature to ensure that whenever most eggs are hatched the temperature is 97ºF plus humidity is 70% (90º wet bulb).
Find out more information regarding duck egg incubation check out www.duckincubator.org.
