Ducks butcher date around the corner

[rick54]

Well, I have to say that you folks have really put a slope on the old learning curve! In all the reading here, there wasn't one mention of using a plucking machine, you all decided to hand pluck? No one tried an EZ-Plucker????

I'm also as curious as Lady Isadora in regards to "Can you be more specific on exactly what was the cause/ effect of the mess in your experience of this holy hot mess? or is it jsut the lingering impression left of the nightmareish experience?


Now LadyIsadora, you wrote "One of the things I have read about was the scheduled dates upon which you should do the deed, specifically with Pekins, but I would guess the information translates to all ducks. 7 weeks; 12.5 weeks and 18 weeks I believe was the advice I wrote down. Most other sources said 8 weeks. 8 weeks worked for my schedule."

I don't quite understand the intervals. What's going on during weeks 8,9,10,11, 12 and 13.thru 17?

 

[caesargirl]

I'm old school....?!?!no machine pluckers. These animals are all hand plucked. Much of it boils down to $$$$. Providing a reliable source of food with no outside cost. I've gotten all my ducks and their "stuff" free. Their food and bedding is paid for by their eggs, my first 2 ducks were dumped in my pond one night and my others have been ones nobody wanted. The rest are offsprings. Mother Nature provided the pond! Also, no incubator! Gasp! It's been a learning process and only in the last two days have I encountered a stumbling block.

 

[LadyIsadora]

I wanted to say what a sweet bird you have in that first post. It's hard to send these lovlies to freezer camp. They are so sweet, and so beautiful to me. They bring me so much joy on a daily basis.
Im glad I had planned on keeping a few layers as I agree it would be weird not to have the smelly buggers in the back yard all of the sudden. I will be keeping 3-5 of my current flock for eggs and possibly breeding. I dont have an incubator and I dont know how to just let nature take its course yet. yeah sounds funny, guess im more of a control freak than I thought.

Im with caesargirl, old school & CASH. Those machines that are supposed to pluck your bird for you are expensive. For the Backyard farmer (me) that is just a silly thing to invest in. BUT in addition to the financial feasibility folly, I will also mention here that in my research I found that people that had used them, ----for plucking duck specifically----did so with mixed results at best. Most commented on torn-up carcass and incomplete plucking.
It does not take long to pluck your own bird. The more you do the better you get at it.--if they dont have the pins like mine did. and I think it promotes a bond with the farmer and her food. It sounds kind of weird I guess but It works for me.

Between those slaughter times I mentioned, the feathers are supposed to have grown out long enough to pluck easily, but before a new underlying batch start growing.

Caesargirl, what stumbling block?

 

[caesargirl]

Peeps nest attacked mid hatch... One egg survived....no incubator...I did start a thread about it, asking for advice, but I don't know how to tell you where it is....