more peking duck questions....

[crazypoultrychx]

so I went thu my first 2 peking ducks that I butchered......first one we skinned second one I plucked.....and since I had never done this before I was rather proud of the end result....I did pretty **** well if I do say so myself......but here is something that I dont understand....this last drake that I plucked....I was sure he was going to be big and juicy and fat....as he was the biggest of the flock.........he was MUCH bigger then the female we skinned......and they are 3 months old.......but what is the deal......they are NO WHERE NEAR what you buy in the store......there is very lil fat on them when I score the skin to cook them......and less meat then what you get when you buy them in the store........what am i doing wrong........?

do the rest of you keep them penned and feed them corn or do you allow them to free range...?

I want the most organic meat I can get but I was really really hoping to get a good yeild of duck fat to use for other cooking....is this possible if they are free range???

I almost feel like my ideas and goals are so far skewed from my end results....and I am getting really discouraged.....

why is there so lil fat under the skin....?

is there any organic alternate...?

and how in the world can you butcher one at 6 weeks......they were so very tiny even thou they were fully peened and fed.....?

 

[jdywntr]

Last weekend I butchered my first Pekin, I've raised Muscovy for meat for almost 2 years but brought in some Pekin to get a faster growing hybrid of the two.

What were you feeding them?

I raise all ages together and don't confine them except at night. The Pekin have a smaller, fenced area within the rest of the bird yard. Overall they have about 1.5 acres and the Pekin have about 1/3 acre. I feed starter to everyone since it's the only thing I can get that every age can eat. I don't finish mine on corn but that is supposed to result in a lot of fat.

I was SHOCKED at the amount of fat on the Pekin. Muscovy are very lean with a fat amount similar to a chicken under the skin. The Pekin had at least a 1/4 layer of fat all over. The Pekin was the same age as the 4 Muscovy I butchered the same day, about 16 weeks (muscovy grow slow). He looked at least the same size, if not a bit bigger but the overall result was I got almost twice as much meat on the Muscovy (though they do have a better bone:meat ratio than other ducks).

Because mine was older, that could have been the cause of the fat layer. I skin mine and part them out. Each breast on the Pekin weighed maybe .75 lb. The muscovy breast were well over a pound if not 1.5 lbs each. The Pekin was a touch more tender but both were delicious. My hubby and I had a duck tasting this week to see if we had a preference.

 

[crazypoultrychx]

I only feed mine to get them in the pen at night....other then that they have over 6 acres to eat from and a rather large pond.....they are a lil over 4 months old and already laying eggs........is that why my roasting pan was dry.....because I am not feeding them.....and when you say you are feeding yours does that mean that you leave food out for them to eat as they wish.....I found it was costing me WAY TOO MUCH to feed them as they were eating everything I gave them.....the peking were very delicious but there was NO DUCK FAT......im not kidding.....when I peirced the skin and cut my cross pattern in the skin there was NO FAT under the skin......is it because they are mostly free range??

 

[jdywntr]

I don't leave feed out all the time. I feed twice a day, its usually gone in 10-15 minutes. Otherwise they eat what they find.

I think they probably had little fat because they ranged. They would have used their fat stores for nuritment. If you want more fat, I'd confine them a bit, still letting them range but over a smaller area or feed them more.

Or look into buying duck fat.

 

[APPA Member]

I only feed mine to get them in the pen at night....other then that they have over 6 acres to eat from and a rather large pond.....they are a lil over 4 months old and already laying eggs........is that why my roasting pan was dry.....because I am not feeding them.....and when you say you are feeding yours does that mean that you leave food out for them to eat as they wish.....I found it was costing me WAY TOO MUCH to feed them as they were eating everything I gave them.....the peking were very delicious but there was NO DUCK FAT......im not kidding.....when I peirced the skin and cut my cross pattern in the skin there was NO FAT under the skin......is it because they are mostly free range??

A commercial pekin duck raised for meat should have a feed conversion of about 3 pounds feed per pound of live weight at about eight weeks of age as shown here: http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd18/11/solo18154.htm

You were basically producing very good layers with the more restricted diet rather than meat birds.