The Duck Chronicles Episode Three – A Dry Brooder for Me
Watch Us Grow Up on Youtube!
In Episode Three of The Duck Chronicles – A Dry Brooder for Me. The water system is working perfectly as it the ceramic heater. Amazon however jacked up the heaters to 18 bucks from 7. The ducks have an average weight of 1.81 ounces. Each group consumed about a cup of food.
Make sure to ask any questions you have about our ducks and their systems and I will include answers on a future update.
Ebay has the ceramic heater bulbs for $7.95 here if anyone is interested. http://www.ebay.com/itm/75W-100W-150W-200W-Ceramic-Emitter-Heat-Lamp-grow-plant-lamp-Pet-Reptile-heater-/360797200760
have you tried these bulbs? In searching for heaters for my daughter’s lizard I saw some negative comments on cheaper ceramic heaters. They pretty much stated that a few more dollars means a much longer lifetime for the bulb. Maybe Jack could answer this with his extensive reptile experience.
I have never used the ones Matt found. My gut is many times these things are all made in one factory. You can always try and see.
I went with ZooMed because I know you can get them on Amazon and almost all pet stores carry them, Petsmart, Petco, etc.
I used them a long time, got a lot of life out of them.
Though consider for brooding you are going to use them for 3-4 weeks, once a year or may be once every few years.
I’m really glad that you’re doing this series, it’s making me excited to get some ducks myself! Your set-up for them is really cool with that water catching area. Is there somewhere where you describe how you made those brooders?
One issue that I see with the ceramic heaters vs heat lamps is that when a heat lamp gets unplug you can see it is off, where as, a ceramic you might not notice until it is to late. Perhaps a Steven Harris style Led indicator light might be a good addition as a visual indicator that all is well.
What breed are these again? And why such a market for duck vs. Chicken eggs.? We have a small spring fed stream that i am considering fencing off and building a duck pen there. Theywould have a constant supply of fresh running water, even now in winter. Just not sure i want to include ducks in the homestead…
loving these vids though. Nothing cuter than a duckling….
Now let’s say you have a market of 100,000 families and 70,000 use eggs often.
They can buy from the supermarket, the organic supermarket, the farmers market and the local producers. They have eggs here, eggs there, eggs everywhere. So long as they want chicken eggs. There are likely thousands of sources, from convenient stores with small grocery sections to megamarts.
Of that 70,000 perhaps 10% want beyond organic, locally produced, etc. So you compete with the high end organic stores, the farmers markets and other producers for 7,000 people.
Now I am selling duck eggs there are about 12 suppliers in a 100 mile radius with 6.2 million people in it! Say of 100,000 people I can reach out of that 6.2 million, 1% want duck eggs and 1/2 of a percent NEED them, due to chicken egg allergies.
Even in that tiny market I am now competing with 12 SMALL suppliers for what, 500-1000 customers. Of course my market is much bigger to tap. Vs competing with thousands or sources. I mean you can get “cage free” which doesn’t mean shit by the way eggs in any super market along with organic eggs in any market.
The truth is we could never capture 5% of our local duck egg demand, we don’t have enough space to even get that big. In time I MIGHT work to create a local coop.
Oh and they are white hybrid layers from Metzer farms. I actually wanted half Gold Layers but they would not of had any of them for two more weeks.
Thanks… it is an interesting possibility. Appreciate the feedback.
I grew up in Fort Worth, btw… not very far from your address….