Fresh Duck Egg Survey

We feel there is a tremendous potential for fresh duck egg sales throughout the United States.  Our sales of fresh duck eggs are growing both locally through Farmers Markets and the eggs we ship throughout the country.  In addition, we sell more and more of our egg laying strains of ducklings throughout North America: Golden 300 Hybrid, White Layer and Khaki Campbell.

A Pair of Khaki Campbell ducks

We want to promote these sales but did not know what was most important to our customers.  So we designed a survey.  It was sent to all customers that purchased 10 or more females of one of the breeds listed above within the past two years.

I will describe our questions in this blog and give the results in our next blog. 

The first question was the most important.  It listed twelve services or products we can provide and asked them to rank these in importance to them.

Nutritional Data On Duck Versus Chicken Eggs  This would compare the levels of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, lipids, etc. in chicken and duck eggs.

Duck Layer Management Guide  We would write a management guide describing how to maximize your duck egg production.

Our management guide for raising ducks for meat.

Fresh Duck Egg Brochure  We would design and print a brochure that would be used to promote your eggs - whether you sell at farmers markets, grocery stores, bakeries or restaurants.  It would have pictures, nutritional information and testimonials of chefs and bakers.  These would be provided at our cost.

Recipes Using Duck Eggs  These would be recipes we have collected or have had developed by chefs or cooking schools to use with duck eggs.

Duck Egg Cartons  We would find sources of egg cartons that hold the larger duck eggs.

Jumbo duck eggs in the largest egg carton available.

Medium duck eggs in the same carton.  No cartons are available that hold Large or Jumbo duck eggs.

Improved Genetics So The Ducks Lay More Eggs   We would work with a poultry geneticist to gradually improve egg production.

University Research  We would work with a university to determine how duck eggs are better than chicken eggs for baking and general cooking - facts not just opinions.

Egg Production Forecasting Tool   We would develop an egg production forecasting program for our website that would give you expected weekly egg production if you entered your flock sizes, breeds and starting dates for each flock.  What would your production be if you had a flock starting every six months or smaller flocks every three months?  If you have a peak demand during the summer, when do you start your flocks and how many ducks should be in each flock?

This shows the weekly fresh duck egg and duckling production if you started 1000 White Layer females in production every two months.

Improved Genetics So The Ducks Lay Larger Eggs   We would work with a poultry geneticist to increase the egg size.

Internet Duck Egg Chat Group   This would be set up exclusively for individuals that produce and sell fresh duck eggs.  You would be able to ask questions and share solutions to problems with other fresh duck egg producers.

Duck Egg Washing Machines   We would list sources of duck egg washers and compare their effectiveness and costs.

We also asked where they sold their eggs:
  On the farm
  Farmers Markets
  Bakeries
  Restaurants
  Delivery Route
  Grocery Stores
  Internet
  Wholesalers that buy from me and resell
  Asian Stores (fresh eggs)

In addition we asked how many ducks they had laying this year and how much they expected their sales to increase next year.

The final question was if they also sold balut (partially incubated duck eggs) or salted duck eggs.

Please check our next blog for the results.