Starting a business for my kids.

You must have a lot of ducks if you are stocking stores.

You could make this a multi purpose business. Stock your duck ponds with muskrats. Eggs and fur. Great combination.

We have 50 female pekin now. Will trippled that this year if I can get this locked in. And double that next year.

Will collect down and butcher all males for multi purpose. Already turned ditch that has rat into a pond! . Don't tell big brother!

Started with 100 ducks last year just to learn on, butcher, and eat. Had to make sure they edible before I jumped in with both feet. Small chain of stores has agreed to buy what I produce. Still to be verified by putting their money where their mouth is. So I'll get the permit and shove whatever these ducks produce down their throats. And I'll run it up till they are choking on duck eggs while telling me no more.

Who knows? These kids could have a pretty good racket going by the time their 18.

think you are starting to see counties state they are "2A sanctuaries" more and more of this will occur, more and more "constitutional carry" states too. We will see where it goes. We got the Dems and the GOP against us these days or maybe always has been.

Scary times no doubt,

Pekins will not lay all year and if they do they will lay at a far lower rate in winter. They are mainly a meat breed. If you are going to raise ducks for commercial egg production you will need a breed or hybrid that will lay well over 250 eggs per hen per year. I've been doing this for awhile. We have Muscovies which are a meat breed but produce the best eggs as far as size and richness goes and they sell for a premium, but they are done by mid summer, and we run a hybrid that lays about an egg a day, every day, even with no additional light in winter. Selling to commercial outlets is not something you just decide to do because when you have a problem (and you will) and production drops or stops and you can't supply them, they will dump you in a heart beat. Good egg laying stock will cost you a good amount of money - but it is worth it if you are in egg production. You will need a ton of feed for that many ducks and they will destroy the land they are on in short order if you don't have a rotation plan in place.

This is what will cause it to hit the fan long before gun confiscation.

I can't imagine selling butchered ducks to a store without a meat inspector and sanitary facility getting involved.
My oldest Son got into laying hens to teach his kids some business sense and responsibility. He's findng that it saves about the same amount of money as buying a bass boat and fishing tackle to provide fish for the table.

My friend says his chickens lay eggs so large that it only takes eleven of them to make a dozen.

That cracks me up. Funny yolk.

Brian, the fee is only for selling wholesale, in other words selling eggs to someone else who resells them. Private egg sales, to the consumer, are no fee.

There are 360 eggs in a case, so you can sell 1800 eggs a week, wholesale, before having to pay more than $50.00 for the year.

Keith

Why should he have to pay anything other than the income tax?

I just wonder who the first person was that said I'm going to eat the next thing that comes out of that chicken's butt?

You set yourself up for all kinds of regulation when you enter the wholesale food market. Most states exempt framers for on premise sales. I can sell sell all my eggs at the location they are produced with no permits or inspections but if I take them to the farmer's market I need a permit and if I wholesale I would need egg washing facilities and inspections as well as permits, business license and tax requirements.
Each state has it's own laws and when you ship interstate there will be federal regulations. These laws are often divided between Agriculture and Health Departments but some states also have special Egg Boards or other regulatory boards.
If I wanted to set up what you are considering, my very first action would be to engage an attorney.

How will you dispose of the extra eggs? As mentioned above the ducks are likely to stop production just about the time you have established a market for the eggs, but the other factor is that because some hens won't lay every single day you will need to maintain a number of hens in excess of your contract sales son that you always have enough eggs to meet your obligations and that will mean that at times you have way to many eggs; if you then sell these at the farm, you will be in competition with your own retailers. The unsold eggs will also need to be removed from the stores after a few days, will that be on you or the store? Will the store be able to stop buying from you at will? If they do, will you have means of then selling all those eggs through another means?

Do you people selling them wash them before selling them or just right out the hen, always wondered if this was a regulation to abide by or not. As far as I know we don't have that for back yard eaters.

Most here rinse them at the least, just to not be bothered by picky people !

Georgia allows most farm products to be sold direct to consumer from the producer, no third party or wholesale without license. In the case of eggs the only requirements are the producer/seller must possess a candling license which is free after an eight hour course on how to candle and grade eggs and eggs sold at a farmers market or other public venue must be refrigerated at all times.
Truth be told those rules were put in by the egg industry in an effort to suppress local sales as the candling license was near about impossible to obtain as no one would teach the class without license fees to pay for the classes. Fortunately a few proactive county agents pushed and most metro extension offices now offer annual classes. Ironically the instructors are usually USDA inspectors from the egg industry.
Honey sales direct to consumer no license, wholesale must be bottled in a licensed and inspected honey house.
Processed poultry, direct to consumer 1500 birds (any combination of species) may be sold without license.
Processed rabbit, no license or limit.
I'm not up to speed on cattle or pork.

Ironically washing eggs reduces their shelf life and opens them up to contamination. Almost impossible to say washing doesn't force some bad things through the porous shells.

What about wiping the poop off with a dry rag? Is that a bad idea?

Thank you.

We do have Muscovy and kaki as well with plans to cross.

So, what is your go to for egg production and/or hybrids cross?

We are just learning and getting into it. So I'm sure we will adapt as we learn.