Keeping Ducks For Eggs
Until the 1970s, duck production for eggs was a very lucrative industry in the USA since most breeders have chosen duck eggs over chicken eggs because of its size. Duck eggs as we commonly know are larger than chicken eggs.
However, the rapid industrial growth which began in the 1980s gradually displaced the lucrative industry since most duck farms were sold to commercial and real-estate developers. Presently, only a handful of the country’s original egg farms and hatcheries still engage in the poultry business, many of whom had owed mortgages and loans from banks and financial firms. Also, pollution displaces the once natural and healthy environment for ducks. Some industrial factories near poultry farms eject chemical and toxic wastes, causing serious threat to the local duck poultry.
Presently, while the country still produces duck eggs, the center of duck rising has moved in some agricultural states such as Texas and California.
In the recent duck farming systems, where a farm may confine at least hundreds or thousands of ducks, the drakes (male) and the ducks are maintained at a ratio of about one drake with six to seven ducks. Light rhythms in mating sheds during spring and summer, with artificial lighting for 18 hours out of 24, blocking the duck’s natural copulating patterns. This is performed to stimulate and keep the egg production and fertility in breeder ducks. Therefore, mating is possible throughout the year. This artificial reproduction can lead to diseases of the reproductive organs
Some duck breeds, especially the Mallard (also known as the Campbell), is the best breed for egg production. A mallard duck can lay at least 230-240 eggs during their first 52 weeks.
Some duck farms in California producing eggs have developed a Hybrid called the Golden 300, by crossing and using the characteristics of various different duck breeds. These breeds can produce 290-300 eggs in their first 52 weeks.
The granting of motherly instinct is denied to today’s marketed breeding ducks. Experts suggest that those ducks which were reared by their own mothers have fostered a stronger bond. In the wild, the female mallard normally takes care for her ducklings for about 60 days. In commercial-meat oriented farms, the ducklings are slaughtered before this period ends.
Duck producers collect eggs every day, placing them in egg incubators for hatching. The breeding female meanwhile continues to lay eggs, which are then removed immediately. Through this genetic selection, a modern, breeding female is enervated to lay at least 290 eggs. It will never hatch or tend to take care of a single duckling. In the wild, a female Mallard lays eggs at least twice, or sometimes three times every year.
The total egg production is a maximum of a 30 a year, all of which she will take care of. This significant increase in egg production from 30 to 290 has caused serious animal rights problems, because it carries complications in the female reproductive organ of duck hens.
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