Meat Ducks... They are here.... pics added.

[Brunty_Farms]

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Being a fellow Buckeye I understand. But it is Cayuga. Taken from the lake in NY not the river in OH.

You know you are a Buckeye if Cayahoga, Tuscarawas, Wapakoneta and Scioto never cause a pause in your speach.

Oops... LOL... how did you know? Haha.... ya I live in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park so it kind of like is repetitive! Thanks for the clarification... I didn't really pay much attention.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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I have raised ducks before, (never muscovies or magpies) but with my experience the eggs sell really good. I've only sold about 20 meat ducks though for $12.00 a bird but that was about 5 years ago. I'm looking at getting $4.00 / pound for my ducks so I would say $15.00 - $20.00 / duck. Which isn't a bad price, I've seen it lower and I've seen it higher.

I have Pekins for meat, the rest I'm not sure how they are going to fit the bill for meat ducks. I'm going to process them, and sell them as a special breed. Kinda like a heritage duck in a way.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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I wish I could get off that easy!

 

[biomistake]

From my experience when I recieved four mystery ducks *pekins*in my cackle hatchery surprise and they made horrible messes with the waterer and poops. There are posts on here somewhere *scratches head* on how to make waterers that keep the mess minimal. try to make them drink outside only and roughly trying to describe the waterers. Place it on a wire mesh over a large shallow broad pan so they can play and puddle in it *because they will* and have a ramp up to it for access. and like I said as soon as possible get it outside!!! Ducks and geese dont have a sphincter so they cant control their poo be forewarned. Good Luck and enjoy them.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Ok.... thanks, good info. I'm learning that they can't control their bowel movements! These things are horrible as far as poop goes, for those of you who hat cornish x's manure... try 160 ducks in your freakin' basement!! I went against my own rule and kept them for about a week or so in my basement... bad decision. Bottom line, I was lazy and didn't get the brooder cleaned out in time and then we get aver 16 inches of snow. I have no choice, today I'm going to be working out in the barn to get the brooder set up for them OUTSIDE... but in the meantime my house stinks so bad. NEVER again, I know better...

I like the idea of having the water up on wire... may be a good choice. I know a few years ago, I learned from an old timer to wet their mash before you feed it too them, it creates less mess.... I will be doing this when I get them outside and when they get just a bit bigger to eat out of the pans. He said... feed them twice a day with mash... and leave whole corn free choice for them. So I'm going to try it and see how it goes.

At the moment the Pekins and Cayuga's are growing the fastest... followed by the Magpies... last place are the Khakis and Runners. Hopefully I get all females from those last two as they already look like they are going to make lousy meat ducks!

I will ge updated pics soon, to show you how stinkin' fast they grow....

 

[Bossroo]

When its cold outside, make the mash with some very warm to very hot water. I learned this from my sainted grandmother! The ducklings will thank you profusely for it.

 

[SamG347]

Jeff you ever try any Pekins from Metzers? They have a Hybrid Pekin that sounds pretty good.

 

[dntd]

Oh I can't wait until I can get my muscovy, going to get atleast 4 for butchering, as they don't lay many eggs. I was thinking of getting a pair to raise so I wouldn't have to spend the $$ out on duckings but I'm not to sure yet. If I can butcher them under 8 weeks and have more meat that would be way better then meat chickens, I'm ordering 10 barred rock though will either sell off or eat 1/2 of them as the limit on chickens is 10 and I already have 4 banties.

 

[allquackedup]

When you are speaking of MASH what are you refering to. We have mallards that are being raised for dog training ultimately. We have been feeding chicken layer crumble,cracked corn and picked field corn.Keeping cost down on feed definitly would be helpful since we need to keep them long enough they become flyers.
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[Country Living Farm]

Do anyone have pictures of processing a Pekin duck. I am planning on doing my first two. They are about 7 weeks right now. What is the deal with pin fethures? I read 7 weeks 2 days or 12 weeks why is this important?

Tks

if I use a plucker will it help with the pin? O and my pekin's are just starting to get there normal feathers. Will this mak it harder?