Ducks, ready to eat?

[elizabethbinary]

My guess is that the duck is ready to be processed but not the drake. Should I wait a little longer on both, one or the other? Would you agree with my assessment?

 

[duckfat]

Quote:
How old is the female? Neither have their caruncles yet so they are still ducklings. I like to process them at around 12 to 16 weeks of age. For a check, I will rub my hand back and forth across their breast and feel for pin feathers. If there are significant pin feathers, I won't process them because I like to pluck my birds. A female muscovy duckling should dress out at about 4.0 to 4.5 pounds, so you should be looking at a 5.5 to 6.0 pounds live weight.

 

[nivtup]

Looks like they could use some more time to me.


Enjoy!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Greetings! Those are muscovies. Optimal butchering age is 17 weeks. With our muscovies we know they're ready for fatterning and slaughter when when their wing feathers are grown. THosee birds have a good ways to go for optimum enjoyment.

Cheers!

 

[foxhomechickens]

I don't think they are any where near ready for butcher they should both get much larger

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
How old is the female? Neither have their caruncles yet so they are still ducklings. I like to process them at around 12 to 16 weeks of age. For a check, I will rub my hand back and forth across their breast and feel for pin feathers. If there are significant pin feathers, I won't process them because I like to pluck my birds. A female muscovy duckling should dress out at about 4.0 to 4.5 pounds, so you should be looking at a 5.5 to 6.0 pounds live weight.

They're both 12 weeks. So about 4-5 more weeks?

It just seems the female is a bit small in general. She's already getting more colour and looking more mature even though they're the same age.

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
Yes, they are muscovies! I raised their papa from a duckling.

So muscovies, like usual, take a little longer than other ducks?

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
I agree the drake should but it appears to me that the duck isn't going to get much bigger? But I guess it could - it just appears to be getting all it's pretty colours way earlier than the drake.

 

[foxhomechickens]

The muscovys that i have took much longer to mature than my runner ducks did.But now they make the runners look rather puny in comparison.I'd let them go for another month or so.

 

[duckfat]

Quote:
Your call, but Grimaud Farms processes their muscovies at 70 to 85 days.

http://www.grimaudfarms.com/duck.htm