2 drake's and 3 ducks... which drake goes to the freezer?

[BReeder!]

I have 5 ducks in total. Two of them are drakes now and they are happily breeding the ducks. One drake is a Pekin and the other is a Rouen. All three of the female ducks are Rouens. The replacement ofthe ducks is all OK. Nobody is super mean and everybody is a bit skittish around people.

Now I you have some info, I have decided once of the drake's must go to freezer camp. I am debating which one though. The Pekin is a bit now mature in age and is much larger. The Rouen would produce Rouen offspring if we'r decide to hatch ducklings from our own eggs in the future (that's a limited possibility since we have limited space). Both ducks are beautifully colored and postured. Which would you keep? And why?

 

[HuffleClaw]

I’d keep the Rouen. That way if you ever wanted to hatch out ducklings, they’d be purebred.

Plus, Pekins are good meat birds, and are usually prone to leg problems, if not butchered.

 

[Pyxis]

Which you keep is totally up to you. If everyone seems happy and the ducks aren't being overmated, you may be fine to keep both. But if you want to eat one, which one you pick should be based entirely on what you want.

For example, are you wanting to breed and sell the ducklings? If so, then keeping the rouen drake is the best way to go, since you would have purebred ducklings to sell.

Or would you like a little variety in your flock, and don't care so much about breeding? Then maybe you want to keep the pekin drake, so you can have some more colors in your flock down the road. Pekins are also big, friendly birds, and are good for eating. Their white feathers leave a clean-looking carcass, meaning that if you ever wanted to raise ducks to butcher and sell for meat, he might be the way to go, because if you bred him back to his daughters, you would get white offspring.

Which one you keep should be determined by your goals for your flock.

 

[FluffTheDuck]

I'm with pyxis.

 

[slordaz]

I personally vote for keeping the Rouen, a friend had a pekin that go a couple of her blue and black swede hens when the blue swede drake wasn't watching. then one of them went broody and hatched out, the chicks seemed to have nothing but health problems from perfectly healthy stock and the swedes in the flock kept running them off.

But ultimately it's your choice as it's your flock and you know what your goal is with it, if you don't want chicks both drakes could go as they are only needed for fertilization and protecting the hens.

 

[quackiemama]

Which you keep is totally up to you. If everyone seems happy and the ducks aren't being overmated, you may be fine to keep both. But if you want to eat one, which one you pick should be based entirely on what you want.

For example, are you wanting to breed and sell the ducklings? If so, then keeping the rouen drake is the best way to go, since you would have purebred ducklings to sell.

Or would you like a little variety in your flock, and don't care so much about breeding? Then maybe you want to keep the pekin drake, so you can have some more colors in your flock down the road. Pekins are also big, friendly birds, and are good for eating. Their white feathers leave a clean-looking carcass, meaning that if you ever wanted to raise ducks to butcher and sell for meat, he might be the way to go, because if you bred him back to his daughters, you would get white offspring.

Which one you keep should be determined by your goals for your flock.

 

[BReeder!]

Thank you all for the input. I believe we are going to send the Pekin to the freezer and keep the Rouen drake around in case we do want to hatch eggs in the Spring.