Moulard growth rate

[Jpat]

How long do you guys think it takes for a moulard duckling to reach market size?

 

[casportpony]

How long do you guys think it takes for a moulard duckling to reach market size?

I think it depends. Those that use them in curries like them to be around 1 year old,

 

[casportpony]

http://www.poultryhub.org/species/commercial-poultry/duck/

 

[Jpat]

Good link

Muscovy is quite slow and it generally takes 10-11 weeks to achieve market weight.


Pekin producers generally try to achieve the marketable weight of 2.85 kg in 6 weeks.

Iam going to go with that for moulards

 

[casportpony]

Maybe you could chart their weights? That's something I'd be interested in seeing.

 

[Jpat]

I dont have a scale that would track there weight right but i will follow upwith week to week photos and mabye final weight

 

[casportpony]

I dont have a scale that would track there weight right but i will follow upwith week to week photos and mabye final weight

Get yourself a kitchen scale, that's what I use to start.

 

[The Dapper Duck]

I dont have a scale that would track there weight right but i will follow upwith week to week photos and mabye final weight

Did you end up tracking the growth? I am planning to breed some next year and raise them on pasture, and I'm wondering what to expect so I can rotate several broods through in a season if that's possible.

 

[Jpat]

Did you end up tracking the growth? I am planning to breed some next year and raise them on pasture, and I'm wondering what to expect so I can rotate several broods through in a season if that's possible.

Alrite so if i remember right it was like this

I had a small run so they wouldnt burn off calories

I fed them grower/broiler

I butchered at 9 weeks and there was no meat on them and were tough and stringy... I have no idea what i did wrong. heres what they looked like at 9 weeks

Soo i dont know if youve cleaned ducks before but you pluck the large feathers, Then the down, Then 100938366829 pin feathers... It was exhausting. I plucked one and skinned the rest. ive done some since and decided never again

 

[The Dapper Duck]

I mistakenly did some Rouen and Rouen x mallard birds while they still had pin feathers. I will always check before I butcher from now on. I did the wax dip method, which worked better than I had hoped for the pins, but they still came out kinda gross looking. Not that you notice the pins when you cook it, but they’re unsightly.

I’m assuming you know how to cook duck, so it’s strange they would be tough at that age. Our ducks were 12wk (actually butchered then because I wasn’t going to wake up to hungry, quacking ducks one more day) and they were very tender. They had a good amount of meat too. I hunt ducks too, so maybe I’m just comparing them to wild birds, which are always more tough.

Well that’s discouraging but I’ll give it a try anyway. Was the cross of a drake Muscovy? I’ve read that a drake Pekin (or mallard type) with a hen Muscovy will make a dwarf cross. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I did butcher one at ~8wk just to test and it was pretty lean and not well muscled. Maybe they just needed more time.