Pekin Ducks vs Ancona Ducks

[Kitty_stuber]

I have always had chickens, but a few months ago I took over 6 Pekin ducks for a friend who got them for Easter (I did not think people were still irresponsible enough to do that) and didn't know what to do with them once they grew substantially in just 3 weeks. Turns out I have 3 hens and 3 drakes. ANOTHER friend wants to gift me 2 Ancona ducks. One hen and one drake. She loves them but the drake is trying to mate her chickens and she is worried(for good reason). I only plan on keeping 1 of the drakes and am trying to decide which breed I should focus on.... any recommendations? I hear the Anconas are endangered so I would love to help their population, but I want my small farm to be some sort of income for my family.. I plan to hatch eggs in the Spring. We butcher the drakes when we have too many. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[ronott1]

@Miss Lydia ?

 

[Isaac 0]

An Ancona Drake, In my opinion, would be better for two reasons, main reason, is that Ancona's are lighter than Pekins substantially, so the drake will be a lot easier on the hens than a twelve-pound Pekin per se when they're mating. They are on the livestock conservancy "watch" list as well.

 

[Small Town Chic Farms]

I have always had chickens, but a few months ago I took over 6 Pekin ducks for a friend who got them for Easter (I did not think people were still irresponsible enough to do that) and didn't know what to do with them once they grew substantially in just 3 weeks. Turns out I have 3 hens and 3 drakes. ANOTHER friend wants to gift me 2 Ancona ducks. One hen and one drake. She loves them but the drake is trying to mate her chickens and she is worried(for good reason). I only plan on keeping 1 of the drakes and am trying to decide which breed I should focus on.... any recommendations? I hear the Anconas are endangered so I would love to help their population, but I want my small farm to be some sort of income for my family.. I plan to hatch eggs in the Spring. We butcher the drakes when we have too many. Thank you in advance for your help!

Anconas for sure!! After lots of research I went with them due to their sweet nature, good egg laying, excellent foragers... and their coloring/patterns!! Pekins are good to eat though.

 

[TomCahalan]

Keep all of the females, that will give you 3 pekins and 1 ancona, that's enough for 1 drake.

If you want to focus on raising ducks for meat, keep the pekin for sure. If you want to focus on selling ducklings then you should determine which will bring you more money: ancona/pekin mixes + a few pure anconas, or pure pekins + a few pekin/ancona mixes.

Your efforts aren't going to make much of a difference in the survival of the ancona breed, so I wouldn't worry about that. Only keep the ancona drake if you think that you can sell ancona ducklings for a premium.