Need drake butchering advice & tips

[KikiDeAnime]

I want to first state that none of my current drakes are going to be butchered. I am merely posting this to come back to in the future after I start hatching out a lot of WH ducklings. I plan on selling all females and keeping all males to be butchered later on.

What is a good age to butcher a drake?
What is your recommended method of butchering?

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Anyone?

 

[Mrs Fryzzle]

Anyone?

Well, ... I have 2 drakes that have just turned into horney monsters and are drawing blood from the girls' heads, not even mating just gnawing on their heads.... so, they may be in line for a block. I love them, but, don't need the chaos....
I am thinking of a sharp hatchet and a wooden stump/block. I want the cleanest, quickest end, and as painless as possible. I do love my boys, and they are beautiful. But there is no one who wants more drakes, so I can offer them this.
The drakes I have are a year and 2 years old. At 1 year the cayuga/Honey is crazy, but at 2 years my Khaki/Cricket is now crazy... because of Honey. He is totally obsessed on keeping ahead of Honey. So I plan on doing Honey 1st, and see if Cricket calms down.
- So as for age- at 1 year, or later, to see their full character, or growth.

 

[gooseapplefarms]

For ducks, people typically process them in between molts to minimize pin feathers. For some breeds this is 7-9 weeks depending on conditions.

I dry plucked most of mine with an imported machine. It takes about 10 minutes per bird, then I wax. Getting the wax temperature right is difficult, and usually my wax breaks into a million little pieces and I spend a bunch of time getting every little piece off. I have ordered some new wax to try, TBD if it works better.

I also tried scalding and hand plucking, that worked okay on some, not as good on others. I now have a barrel plucker, so I'll give that another go.

If you have any specific questions, let me know!

 

[Mrs Fryzzle]

For ducks, people typically process them in between molts to minimize pin feathers. For some breeds this is 7-9 weeks depending on conditions.

I dry plucked most of mine with an imported machine. It takes about 10 minutes per bird, then I wax. Getting the wax temperature right is difficult, and usually my wax breaks into a million little pieces and I spend a bunch of time getting every little piece off. I have ordered some new wax to try, TBD if it works better.

I also tried scalding and hand plucking, that worked okay on some, not as good on others. I now have a barrel plucker, so I'll give that another go.

If you have any specific questions, let me know!

how do you 'process your bird initially? do you have a cone? hatchet?

 

[gooseapplefarms]

I have used a variety of methods. I have stainless steel kill cones. Cut the arteries on either side of the neck, right where it attaches to the head. Ducks are tougher than chickens, they take longer to die this way. Like, a lot longer.

Cutting off the head is also effective, but it creates problems of it's own. First, the artery retracts back into the neck and kinda pinches itself off, so you don't get as much blood out. Second, if you're waxing, this allows the skin to move down off the neck like a bunched up sock, and the hot wax water turns the neck gray and makes it not useful.

A 22lr to the head is the quickest method, and then I cut the roof of the mouth, but they don't bleed out as well.

I'm sticking with the kill cone for now.

 

[sheenersb]

Well, ... I have 2 drakes that have just turned into horney monsters and are drawing blood from the girls' heads, not even mating just gnawing on their heads.... so, they may be in line for a block. I love them, but, don't need the chaos....
I am thinking of a sharp hatchet and a wooden stump/block. I want the cleanest, quickest end, and as painless as possible. I do love my boys, and they are beautiful. But there is no one who wants more drakes, so I can offer them this.
The drakes I have are a year and 2 years old. At 1 year the cayuga/Honey is crazy, but at 2 years my Khaki/Cricket is now crazy... because of Honey. He is totally obsessed on keeping ahead of Honey. So I plan on doing Honey 1st, and see if Cricket calms down.
- So as for age- at 1 year, or later, to see their full character, or growth.

I have two 21 week old Cayuga drakes. Anthony and Stanford. They are so sweet to me and adore my dog… but Anthony is insane with the need to breed constantly. Only 2 Cayuga girls, but 6 welsh harlequins that are 3 weeks younger and half the size. Anthony is breeding them on land because the WH won’t enter the water with the drakes. But the breeding is almost constant. We have separated them and try to keep them separated all day, but it’s not working well and I think we’re going to X Anthony. He is gorgeous, I will make my husband keep the wings when he processes him. But he’s using the 22 method. Away from the others.

Hopefully with Anthony gone, Standford will remain his sweet self and not try breeding all the time. He usually only joins in or competes with Anthony every once in a while. If he does go crazy breeding, he’ll have the same fate. So grateful to only have the two boys, but after hand raising them and loving on them all the time it’s a little hard to have to do this. But they can’t harm or kill my girls because of breeding.