Funny thing about the Khaki Campbell, is that it was developed as a meat bird that was highly reproductive. Since high reproductivity involves a lot of eggs, that meant that it ended up being an excellent layer. The focus on them has been purely eggs for a long time, as most meat producers want a heavier duck for meat production.

If you don't need a large duck though, the Khaki Campbell is a great dual purpose bird. If you get ducks from a good breeding line, it lays more eggs than almost any other duck, and it produces a carcass that is worth the trouble of butchering. All of the broodiness has not been bred out of them, they will sit their own eggs often enough that if you have a reasonable sized flock of ducks, enough of the hens will go broody to keep your flocks sustained if you are butchering or selling livestock regularly.

Khakis are one of the more popular ducks for eggs, and good bloodlines will be prolific layers. High laying capacity is something that is easily lost without careful attention to it in breeding though, so pay attention to both the quality of the birds you buy, and to how you breed them so you don't lose those traits.

They are active foragers, fairly independent on pasture, and they move fast and herd well if you can keep up with them. Some will fly but mature ducks tend not to.

• Type - dual purpose with emphasis on eggs
• Size - Light
• Production Capacity - upwards of 300 eggs per year in good bloodlines, and a small meat carcass
• Special Features - most popular layer duck
• Best for Farms - great for farms needing egg layers or dual purpose with light carcass
• Eggs, Milk, Meat Features - white or lightly tinted eggs
• Other Products - not applicable
• Historic or Contemporary Significance - one of the best layer ducks, very popular among homesteaders
• Housing and Space Requirement - typical, but they are active and like space to move around
• Regional Adaptations - well adapted to a range of conditions
• Feed Requirement - typical but they will benefit from an increase in yellow vegetables for vitamin A
• Other Considerations - Khakis are one of the more available ducks, but not all bloodlines are created equal. Avoid show animals, and if you buy production run animals from a major hatchery, expect to have to select for productivity and health traits.

A NOTE ABOUT DUCKS:

Other than the Pekin, most ducks are struggling to maintain sufficient numbers to keep the breed thriving. Ducks have fallen out of favor in recent years due to analysis of feed consumption to meat production statistics.

Ducks require more feed to produce a pound of meat than chickens do, and since farmers have adopted a consumer attitude about animal feed, every pound of feed translates into a dollar cost - something that was not the case when animals foraged more for themselves, and farmers could feed all poultry the same, and the animals themselves would make up the difference by their own efforts.

Many small farmers now fail to realize the strength of the duck in the barnyard. Ducks are hardy, many are very prolific, and they forage like nobody's business when given something to forage ON - they'll eat grass, weeds, bugs, grubs, and some will even go after small snakes and rodents, and they'll forage on anything in the water. 

Ducks are cautious and suspicious of what is not familiar, but if given the opportunity and encouragement to forage (refrain from overfeeding, so they have a reason to forage and try new things), they will be avidly hunting their own food within a few days of being put out on range. A few ducks in your yard or pastures can reduce fly and mosquito populations to an astonishing degree. They are also great to rotate through pastures to remove parasites for cattle and sheep, since those parasites do not harm ducks, and they'll eat them as quickly as they'll eat bugs.

We love ducks, in part for their ability to be trained and the ability to herd them. Ducks cluster together any time there is a disturbance, so they herd easily if you have a couple of people, and herding poles to extend your reach as you guide them. This makes it easy to move them from area to area. They also train easily, by scattering a little scratch feed where you want them to go out in the morning, and herding them back to a bit of feed in the evening in a pen or duck house. Three days of that, and they'll be waiting for you to let them out in the morning, and to let them in at night!

Good home raised duck meat is excellent, and the butchering scraps from them are helpful for feeding dogs, cats, and pigs. They have especially good livers, and duck fat is a useful fat to have on hand.

Most ducks require only a kiddie pool for water, and can make do with a dishpan of water - they require enough to wet their bills. Some prefer to mate on water, so they'll be more productive if they have sufficient water to swim. If provided with a pond that is not infested with snapping turtles or other water predators, ducks can also get a lot of their food from a pond that has been sown with duckweed, and some fish and freshwater shrimp.

Predation is more of an issue with ducks than with some other poultry because they do not defend themselves well against predators, and the ability to fly has been bred out of most. Putting them on pasture with other poultry may be helpful in reducing predation, and if it is a major problem in your area, choose ducks that can still fly, or which have dark broken colors that help to camouflage them.

Duck breeds have some of the same issues with productivity and loss of utility traits, in part because so many breeds have been corrupted by being relegated to show birds. A few of them have been bred to obscene proportions in the quest for trophies from judges who have a distorted sense of what is worthy of praise. Rouens and Aylesbury, specifically, have been bred with disproportionately large keels so that they have trouble breeding naturally, but some older bloodlines still exist, and these breeds are in need of restoration, and other breeds are in need of utility use and breeding in order to keep them from meeting the same fate.

Ducks natively have a diet very high in meat proteins, a thing which most people do not realize. In the wild, they forage on all kinds of small animal life, in addition to greens, grains and seeds, fruits, vegetables, and aquatic plants and animals. Ducks truly ARE omnivores, and if you are having issues with fertility or health, increasing their access to natural forms of animal protein and fat is a primary method of improving both.

When you work WITH the strengths of the duck, instead of trying to turn him into a production line chicken, he produces excellent meat, terrific eggs, and does so with surprisingly little input from you!

Duck eggs are great for baking, and range in size from small chicken egg size, up to extra large and bigger. The egg whites are clearer, and have more, oh, I don't know what it is called, but more elasticity, I guess. So they whip up stiffer, and hold cakes and muffins higher. They boil up a little rubberier than chicken eggs.

Rare duck breeds listed here are generally available from Dave Holderread, a Conservation Breeder who produces good quality stock. It is not cheap, but it is bred to retain utility traits, and to APA standards. He is a consciencious breeder who is trusted throughout the US to produce high quality stock.