HEChicken I use a propane burner and it can run for hours with very little fuel. Once it is hot I turn it down substantially and just maintain the temp. Back in the 70's we just built a fire with scrap wood and did all our water heating over it. A fire pit or open barbecue could work the same way.
I always dry pluck my ducks and would never mess with the wet ones. The feathers come out very easily. If you wet them they are nearly impossible. I also use the parafin method. I dry pluck all the feathers then dip in hot parafin water, then a bucket of cold water. You simply just crack the parafin shell and pull all the down out. Piece of cake and is super fast.
I had a friend butcher ducks with me who used to be a butcher. He was so impressed he said he would never wet pluck a duck again.
I also forgot to validate that Sharol said you complete plucking before you start another bird. If you are by yourself that is absolutely correct. If you have an assembly line of people no need to wait. The feathers will "lock" in as the first effects of rigor mortis set in.
Haha - yeah, it sounds like you have a lot more tolerance for "process" than I do. I am all about "no muss, no fuss". Finding all those pots to put water in and dunking in one, then the other, hot water, paraffin, cold water etc, and then having to dispose of them after, would drive me batty. I was the same way about making and canning pasta sauce. For the first batch I followed the accepted, standard "method" that involved putting tomatoes in hot water until the skin splits, then dunking in cold water, removing the skins, dicing, cooking, transferring to food processor to process n batches, then returning to the pot to simmer and reduce and finally loading the jars and running the canner. What a kerfuffle, and it took ALL DAY LONG. I decided I was going to find a better way or I wouldn't be making any more pasta sauce. The method I came up with leaves the skins and seeds in and instead of spending all day transferring from one pot to another, all I do now is throw them whole and raw into the food processor, puree, then put into the pot to simmer and reduce, and then run the canner. The reducing portion of the process still takes hours but during that time I can be doing other things and just stir it now and then when I walk through. The resultant sauce is absolutely delicious and probably more nutritious because it does still have the skins and seeds in. The skins were pureed at the beginning so you aren't aware of them and I haven't really been aware of the seeds either.
When I butcher birds, I put them in the cone that is permanently mounted outside, then bring the bird in and do the rest in my kitchen sink. I put a movie, TV show or book on tape on to listen to while I work, and move the trash can next to the sink. The skin and/or feathers and intestines go into the sink, the innards that will be fed back to the birds go in a bowl, the bird is skinned and then rinsed right there in the sink and from there goes straight in the crock pot. Clean up is as easy as washing out the sink, and grabbing the vacuum to suck up any stray feathers that floated around and landed on the kitchen floor, and in under an hour from the time I grabbed the bird, I am done, kitchen is clean and I'm ready to move onto the next task.
For me, set up and clean up are part of the whole process and also the part I hate the most, so whatever I can do to reduce the time spent on those two things, the happier I am
Been gone awhile I had surgery last Monday am I am recovering.. Luckily I have my mom staying with me to help with my hens and ducks... I am up to 4/10 laying eggs now
) Happy Camper
) My ducks however are getting bigger then my hubby wants.. so I guess how long should I give them before I butcher? and will the hens lay eggs without a drake?
What kind of ducks are they? I raise muscovies and they grow to butcher size by 14 weeks. I have a batch of 15 ducklings that are currently 11-12 weeks old and already plenty big enough to butcher. I don't know about other varieties of ducks though, since muscovies is all I've ever raised.
Do women have eggs and cycle even when they are not in a relationship? Same with birds……Yes, they will lay without a drake around. The problem with not having a drake is that if/when they go broody, the eggs won't be fertile, but they won't know that, and will sit for a really long time (not laying eggs), while waiting for the duds to hatch.
.. I noticed the yard kitty corner has chickens .. a bunch maybe 25 or so and ALL are missing their tail feathers and some patches in different places :/ what would cause that???? poor things 
