BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Beer can]

Yup, there is mule ducks, weird!
I agree with misfitmorgan, I raised a bunch of pekins once, they were huge, until I got all the feathers off, then they were no bigger then a chickens!

 

[MidwestChickens]

Because I didn't know that!

 

[hellbender]

Did you just find this out?

 

[MidwestChickens]

Haha

 

[bramblefir]

@hellbender - It looks like this hatchery has White Muscovy ducks.

 

[gjensen]

Yup, there is mule ducks, weird!
I agree with misfitmorgan, I raised a bunch of pekins once, they were huge, until I got all the feathers off, then they were no bigger then a chickens!

Pekins are like a lot of other things. Strain matters. There are smaller and larger lines of Pekins.

The commercial meat strains of Pekins are large and meaty, and get there fast. Then there is the run of the mill Pekins that are the most common.

There is some information about the different strains online.

 

[Beer can]

@hellbender
 - It looks like this hatchery has White Muscovy ducks.

I saw French white hatching eggs on ebay.

 

[gjensen]

Maybe I'm the stupid one! The Muscovy apparently feeds more people, especially throughout South America but the the breeds you mentioned are used more in American and Chinese cuisine.

One can find whatever they want on the internet!

Pekins are more feed efficient producers of flesh, and more developed commercially. That is why we see it available more commercially. They are used more in East Asia where the larger commercial producers of duck are. The feed to lbs. of flesh ratio is pretty good.

Much of the world does not eat a lot of duck.

Raising them on a homestead is a different matter, and the same comparison could not be made. Not unless you were feeding them a commercial ration for 100% of their diet, which I do not picture you doing. This is where I can imagine the Muscovey fitting in quite well given the right setting.

 

[gjensen]

But ain't moscovy females small? I think this is why pekins are used, closer in size?
I read something about 'mule ducks' once. Moscovy bred with another duck artificially to make them all the same size I think, and I think the males have no testes, already capons, 'mules'. Do you call castrated ducks capons?
Boy, now I'm going to have to look this all up.

I believe moscovy's have lean meat and pekins are definitely fatty, which I like. Duck fat is used often in 'fancy' cooking.

I just looked at the Metzer site to see if they sold any commercial Pekins. They sell three different strains. Two of which are commercial meat strains. One is not. The weights and gains are listed on their site, and you can actually trust what they claim.

 

[Our Roost]

Yes and no on your feed question. Yes, there is a feed made for meat birds that is high in protein, like 20% specifically for meat birds and weight gain. I just started using it on my new born meat birds (7 weeks) but haven't weighed them to compare differences with the 16% feed I used last season. I didn't see a huge price difference to reflect any cost savings using the 16% so we went with the good stuff! We mix scratch in with that also.