Processing Ducks

[Mylied]

I have three young Drake's that I got on Dec 18th but I'm not sure of their exact age. I figure could be between 7-9 weeks. I want to process them. Is there a way of examining them to see if they have too many pinfeathers to pluck? I'd really like to keep the skin on.

Also, I've never processed ducks. Is it about the same as chickens? Any special considerations when dispatching? I use the killing cone and bleed out chickens.

Thanks!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi. I also use a cone for my chickens.

When I was looking at ducks... I know they did have VERY specific ages that were recommended for processing in order to avoid all those pin feathers you are talking about that make it almost impossible to get a nice clean carcass.

I will also note that the duck feathers will repel the scalding water like crazy... and have read about using some kind of wax maybe.

Wish I could be more helpful, but figured I would share what little I did gather. Plus now I get to learn by seeing your other responses.

Good luck!

 

[Mylied]

I'm thinking of doing it this weekend and seeing how it goes. They are pretty decent sized and eating me out of house and home. Worst case scenario, I have to skin.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I am new to ducks. We have butchered 4 drakes, but I was not Sure that they were drakes till they were older..... of course we had mallard cross and magpie ducks so even at 20 weeks the amount of meat was less than I expected. Alive they looked so much bigger than my roos but yielded much less meat??? We defiantly enjoyed the taste of duck and will butcher most of the drakes from our next hatch but I think we will wait till they are closer to the 20 week mark. I do have 2 mature drakes that we will be butchering this weekend, I will post our findings.

 

[Gray Farms]

I've butchered a ton of ducks. Best method I've found is using the cones and bleeding out. Then pluck all the outer feathers leaving the short fluffy down. I always cut the wings totally off at this point as well. They just get in the way, are hard to pluck, and don't have much meat on them anyhow. Then dip in a pot of warm water with paraffin wax melted in it. The wax will stay on top of the water at coat the duck when you dip it. Then straight into cold/iced water, this will harden the wax. Then you peal off the wax and the down feathers come off with it. Your left with a nice, clean, totally featherless duck. Then gut, remove legs and neck then into the ice water to cool down.

 

[Mosey2003]

I can't lend any wisdom on physically being able to tell when those pinfeathers are there, but I can say I did not like killing ducks. There's something about those thick necks that really creeped me out.

If you don't use wax, make sure you put some Dawn dish soap in your scalding water, that will help some.

 

[SunshineMary]

I prefer to dispatch them using a stump and hatchet. You can take a long length of paracord, form a slip knot around the neck, and secure the end of the paracord under your boot in order to keep the drake's neck stretched out over the stump and your hand safely out of the way of the hatchet.

I use Metzer Farm's recommendations for the best ages to process ducks and geese.

 

[jake and pippa]

I've butchered a ton of ducks. Best method I've found is using the cones and bleeding out. Then pluck all the outer feathers leaving the short fluffy down. I always cut the wings totally off at this point as well. They just get in the way, are hard to pluck, and don't have much meat on them anyhow. Then dip in a pot of warm water with paraffin wax melted in it. The wax will stay on top of the water at coat the duck when you dip it. Then straight into cold/iced water, this will harden the wax. Then you peal off the wax and the down feathers come off with it. Your left with a nice, clean, totally featherless duck. Then gut, remove legs and neck then into the ice water to cool down.

I agree with this method, it is what we have used successfully. I have also used a dry plucking machine with some success.