I came across an article about some small scale farmers getting $2.00 per
dozen for unfertilized free range, $4 for fertilized and $6 for green
Araucana eggs. I know the $2 price is accurate, but the other two are a
shock.
I have 35 free-range chickens and 11 ducks prowling 4 wooded/pastured acres,
2 of which are an enclosed rhea pen. (Why 35 chickens? I raise rheas which
are very fragile as chicks and didn't expect the chickens all to live. They
did. I also wanted to try pastured poultry but never got the pens built and
then the kids became animal rights activists.)
In the meantime, I have discovered the chickens keep the rhea pasture
immaculate by scratching and probably finding food in the manure piles. I
have two multi-acre rhea pens. The food consumption per pound of animal in
the rhea/chicken pen is about 37% less than the pen with better grazing but
just housing rheas and a guard (another topic-that title is disputable)
llama.
Although conventional wisdom says we should not combine these avian species
on the same farm, it appears to have a symbiotic effect. The rheas in the
chicken/rhea pen have grown faster and neither chickens nor rheas have
feather lice, which are considered ubiquitous in ratites. The noisy ducks
seem to be serving as a predator alarm system because this is the first year
I have had no loss to predators in that pen. Maybe we just got lucky, but
so far this looks like it could be a good sustainable ag model.
It didn't take much math to figure out that I could have healthier birds,
cleaner pastures, and a source of income from eggs to pay for everyone's
feed bill from the free-range chicken eggs.
So, other than the knowledge that the eggs are from a natural clean
environment and taste better, what other justification is there to support
the price?
Is there a market and price for edible duck eggs?
Donna Fezler
GCR
Jacksonville, IL
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