Hi all!
Last weekend I sold the rest of my Pekin meat ducks. It certainly has been a learning experience! I ended up raising 45 ducks, lost one to this summer's obscene heat, and selling 44 total. I served about 8 families. It was an overall success, with them wanting me to raise chicken and goats for them next year too!
I raised them out in a "schooner" style tractor with poultry netting surrounding. I paired the ducks up with a Guinea and that helped quite a bit with the hawks. She eventually started to herd them under the trees if they didn't listen to her warning calls.
We started them off with poultry cups for water and a pool to clean their bills in. We then removed the poultry cups and went entirely with a play pool. For feeding, I took a 10' vinyl gutter and screwed it to a 10 foot long piece of decking board. The feet were made of treated scrap 2X4. This provided essentially 20 linear feet of feeding space for about 10 bucks. I would estimate that it would hold about 20 or so pounds of feed. This gave them enough space to eat, eat, and eat some more.
My customers picked up, partially plucked, and drained the blood out on my property as to not have their city neighbors call the police for animal abuse. I provided an area with a fold up table, simple propane scalder (fryer) and plucker for them at no charge. They reimbursed me for the propane and paid the remainder of their balance due and that was it.
My customers typically like to have duck as part of a sunday meal so each family will buy 4 or 5 ducks a month. They would like me to raise them out to have fresh live duck each month.
They hardest part was making sure the brooder was kept clean. The watering cups were place over a masonry mixing tub and a hardware cloth surface. That kept most of the mess to a minimum.
Last weekend I sold the rest of my Pekin meat ducks. It certainly has been a learning experience! I ended up raising 45 ducks, lost one to this summer's obscene heat, and selling 44 total. I served about 8 families. It was an overall success, with them wanting me to raise chicken and goats for them next year too!
I raised them out in a "schooner" style tractor with poultry netting surrounding. I paired the ducks up with a Guinea and that helped quite a bit with the hawks. She eventually started to herd them under the trees if they didn't listen to her warning calls.
We started them off with poultry cups for water and a pool to clean their bills in. We then removed the poultry cups and went entirely with a play pool. For feeding, I took a 10' vinyl gutter and screwed it to a 10 foot long piece of decking board. The feet were made of treated scrap 2X4. This provided essentially 20 linear feet of feeding space for about 10 bucks. I would estimate that it would hold about 20 or so pounds of feed. This gave them enough space to eat, eat, and eat some more.
My customers picked up, partially plucked, and drained the blood out on my property as to not have their city neighbors call the police for animal abuse. I provided an area with a fold up table, simple propane scalder (fryer) and plucker for them at no charge. They reimbursed me for the propane and paid the remainder of their balance due and that was it.
My customers typically like to have duck as part of a sunday meal so each family will buy 4 or 5 ducks a month. They would like me to raise them out to have fresh live duck each month.
They hardest part was making sure the brooder was kept clean. The watering cups were place over a masonry mixing tub and a hardware cloth surface. That kept most of the mess to a minimum.
