Recently we were challenged to figure out the true costs of having backyard ducks. For the purposes of this calculation we will negate the cost of buying the baby ducks and the 4 months of growing that they did before they started laying eggs, and the fact that they forgot to lay eggs between November and January… and we will skip right down how many eggs per bag of feed.
One bag of layer feed costs about $20 and for the sake of simplicity we will use that as the cost basis for the costs. In the timeframe of the two ducks eating an entire $20 bag of feed, the total number of eggs pooped out daily was recorded. Due to user error and time constraints, this total could be off by about 5 but is mostly correct.
According to the tally the ducks managed to create 105 eggs in the time it took for them to eat that bag of food. They also eat water hyacinth and all the bugs and lizards they can catch in their enclosure.
According to Doctor Google, duck eggs are worth fifty cents each on low end of the sale price. That works out to $6 a dozen if you are wondering, they are much larger than store bought chicken eggs.
So if you sold the eggs instead of eating them, 105 eggs is worth about $52. Which is more than double the price of the bag of feed.
There are intangible costs to keeping backyard beyond those already mentioned. The initial cost of their enclosure and pools. The time we spend daily ensuring they have clean water, and the time spent using the dirty water to water the gardens. The time spent using their bedding as garden mulch and pot filler. And more.