Raising Mule Ducks for Meat - My Journal

[Mylied]

The one that had the largest gain might also be male. The girl mules can lay eggs FYI but they will be infertil.

From what I've read if the muscovy is the drake, the offspring will be similar size male and female, and the females won't lay. If the muscovy is the hen there will be a sex size difference and the females will lay. I won't be keeping any of this batch long enough to test it but I might keep a few with the next round just to see.

 

[Jpat]

This week the ducklings gained an average of 5.35 oz so I guess it's starting to level out. I took pics of each duck. They aren't tamed so they didn't like it. Lol. They hatched over a period of 3 days so I'm assuming that's accounts for the size difference.
1lb 6.4oz
View attachment 2051778
1lb 9.4oz
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1lb 6oz
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1lb 4.2oz
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1lb 2.2oz
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1lb 6oz
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Very interesting colors! they are gonna be bigguns. Mine were 12 pounds at 14 weeks

 

[Mylied]

Very interesting colors! they are gonna be bigguns. Mine were 12 pounds at 14 weeksView attachment 2051799

Nice! That's a really good size. I the the biggest was going to end up more white because he started out pretty yellow but he's growing in dark feathers.

 

[Mylied]

I just put 30 eggs in collected from the 4th of March until today. I wrote the dates on them so I can see if more of the older eggs don't develop or hatch. Hoping for a good fertility and hatchability rate.

 

[Mylied]

I put the ducks outside because it's been so nice and warm. I thought they'd overheat in the garage. They are just about the size of my young showgirl pullet who's laying eggs. 5 weeks old tomorrow. It was kinda funny because the chickens were terrified of the ducks and the ducks were terrified of the chickens, so they were running in circles for a while. They're fine now.

 

[Mylied]

Also, on day 4 I see 17 definitely developing. I'm going to give the others a few more days. And I can't count. I put 38 eggs in. So around 45% fertility if I didn't miss anything. Age didn't affect the fertility. It's an even mix from the 2nd to the 15th. Hopefully I just missed some embryos. It's possible he's only breeding 2 of the ducks since I have no more than 2 fertile on each day.

 

[Mylied]

I forgot to weigh them today. I'll weigh them tomorrow.

As for the eggs, out of 38 eggs, 17 are going strong, 2 are early quiters. So 50% fertility.

 

[Mylied]

Here's a pic. They are getting big! The one guy has such a cool feather pattern. My husband keeps reminding me they are for food. I've fallen behind on weighing them but I'm going to do it sunday before processing the biggest 2. I put them in with 2 chicken nuggets so all the meaties are together.

 

[Jpat]

ide wait, you can process now but you may be dissapointed in the meat yeild this soon

They are the cutest supper ive ever seen!

 

[Mylied]

ide wait, you can process now but you may be dissapointed in the meat yeild this soon

They are the cutest supper ive ever seen!

I'm just doing 2. I wanted to see how each of the 3 recommended times compare. I'm sure they'll be single serve at 7 weeks.