Questions about meat ducks

[YakLady]

A chef at a local restaurant asked me about my Cayugas. My husband had already bought me an incubator so that I could start hatching duck eggs for meat ducks for our family. I have some Pekins that are being bred by my Cayuga drake. I collected the eggs for a week and put them in the incubator today. From what I've read, Cayugas are ready to be processed at 20 weeks, and Pekins are ready at 6 weeks. Is this correct? Does anyone know when a Cayuga/Pekin X might be ready? We also ordered some Cayuga eggs, and hopefully my Cayuga ducks will start laying soon. So I will have some FB Cayugas to hatch out, too. Does anyone else sell Cayuga duck meat to restaurants? If so, what do you charge?

 

[Soccer Mom]

Not sure about the crosses, but Pekins are ready at 7 weeks and 2 days. I know that sounds ridiculously precise, but it's not just about the meat, it's about the feathering. Past that age they are much more difficult to pluck. You can skin them and it saves the hassle, or if you like the skin (and I prefer them with skin) you can use Duck wax to remove the feathers. It is sooooooo much easier than hand plucking them. Trust me.

 

[pringle]

You should try making a cross with a pekin and a muscovy much more efficent and better tasting meat.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I may be wrong but I beleive the pekin still has the best feed to meat conversion ratio. I mean they have been prooducing Long Island STYLE ducklings for about 100 years now. I think the Mullard (the accepted name for the muscovy-Peking cross) tastes better myself but many conplain that it doesn't taste like Real duck. BTW your cross is not the most efficient usually only about 60% fertile eggs. many of the breed are being done by AI like broad breasted turkeys have to be bred.

 

[pringle]

Yeah,but I dont like the taste of extremly fatty duck like the pekin and with the cross it has much better foraging abilities then the pekin alone and thats a plus when you have a big yard like me.