Breeding pekins

[snewman]

I have a male and a female pekin. Will they just breed on their own? Do I need to pen them up alone somewhere? They currently live with the chickens and go in and out of the coop with them. I also have female runner ducks so I assume the pekin male would breed with them too. I'm only interested in keeping the pekin's eggs though. Any chance she would raise a clutch on her own?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Because pekins have been bred for production, the chances of her setting the eggs herself is slim. I have read of people having pekins that would, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

They should breed on their own with no problem, and the drake will breed with the runners as well. You might have a hard time figuring out which eggs are pekins and which are runners though.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Hi Snewman:

I've ordered 7 pekin's from Ideal (2 males and 5 females). I'm also hoping to breed them.

From what I've read, it seems that while Pekins are pretty good layers (not nearly as good as khaki Campbells though), they are poor brooders and likely won't be willing/able to hatch eggs on their own. The one author I read said the eggs would need to be collected and an incubator used.

Maybe you could put the Pekin eggs under the female runner (I don't know how they are as brooders/mothers... maybe better?).

I personally think pekins are very pretty. (I probably will get an incubator next year.).

Bullwinkle

 

[snewman]

Thank you both for the information. I figured I would have to find some other way of hatching the eggs. My ducks are kind of crazy and somewhat wild, although somebody, or a few somebodies were laying like crazy up until winter in the little house that I made for them. Some of those eggs were white and some were greenish...is that breed specific? Who's who?

I have some cochin hens that perhaps could be persuaded to sit on duck eggs.

Or, is there a relatively cheap, decent incubator I could buy?