Pekin or Jumbo Pekin?

[PotatoWaffles]

Just curious as to whether you guys think Waffles is a regular pekin or a jumbo pekin. She's the only pekin I have, so I have no idea. Here she is next to her mallard mate for size comparison.

Thoughts?

 

[Tevyes Dad]

This is information that I have gleaned from other sources so I am in no way authoritative but so far I believe this is correct. People who actually know, please feel free to correct me.

According to Metzer's Breed comparison chart, a Pekin can be from 7-13.5 pounds where a Jumbo Pekin can be 9-13.5 pounds (these are weight controlled female weights - naturally a drake can be somewhat bigger.) Apparently there is an inverse ratio between the size of the Pekin and its egg production, so "normal" Pekins are bred with a large drake to a medium hen to keep the large size (for a duck) while making it a good all around duck for eggs and appearance. Jumbo Pekins are bred large drake to large duck. This isn't a very good mix as this pushes the extreme and they tend to have leg problems, don't make good show ducks and aren't really good egg layers. The only advantage (and the reason they are bred) is they should make 11 lbs for males and 9.5 lbs for females in 3 months this means they will make a nice large duck for the table (where you don't worry about their legs or other problems.) My "regular" Pekin hen is currently 11 lbs, but she is just over a year old now, at 3 months, she was somewhere between 7 and 8 lbs.

I don't think Jumbo Pekin is a separate breed, rather it is a specialization of how the ducks are bred for a special purpose (kind of like those poor square fish they breed for McDonalds

).

So I would say unless you bought a Jumbo Pekin specially, you probably have a "normal" Pekin and it may be really big

)

So if I were buying them, I would get a normal Pekin for every possible purpose except if I bought it strictly for slaughter. (Which I wouldn't do... I will pay Wal*mart for an already prepared duck with an orange sauce packet inside once every 5 years or so when I have a hankering for duck.)

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Oh, and another thought... She is beautiful. She is larger compared to Potato vs my Snow (11 lbs) compared to Kaine (5.5lbs) but Potato is a Mallard so he is only about half the weight of Kaine who is a Rouen and Snow is a "normal*" Pekin.

edit: Here is as good of picture of them right together as I could find quickly. It is a background out of a larger picture, but note that Snow is farther from the camera which would make her seem smaller. Ettie to the left is also a Rouen so should be quite a bit bigger than Potato.





* Normal applies to breed size only and does not include mental state, opinionated outbursts, failure to navigate AROUND obstacles, or horribly poor parenting instincts.

 

[PotatoWaffles]

Thank you so much for all your great input, you got all sorts of knowledge! You're right, she is waaaaay bigger than her mallard boyfriend. She's so much bigger than I don't think he can, ahem, get up there and do his thing. That's one of the reasons we got some smaller breed ducklings that he can hopefully breed with eventually.

I don't really care what she is. I was just curious. Either way, she's my big, clumsy, fluffy, pigeon-toed, loud mouthed Waffles, lol. M