Raising Mule Ducks for Meat - My Journal

[nicalandia]

The only ones I know of is jumbo pekin. I got one from someone recently and she's bigger than my full grown regular pekins. I believe she's 3 months old or under.

Muscovy Jumbo Pekin cross would make for a fine meat bird.

 

[Mylied]

Muscovy Jumbo Pekin cross would make for a fine meat bird.

I'm hoping so. My muscovy was being a bit too aggressive with her when I tried to add her to the flock so I'm waiting until she matures a bit.

 

[nicalandia]

I'm hoping so. My muscovy was being a bit too aggressive with her when I tried to add her to the flock so I'm waiting until she matures a bit.

The older the Muscovy drakes get the more aggressive they get, I had one that was like 5 years old and was beating up anything that came his way, roosters hens turkeys..

 

[Mylied]

The older the Muscovy drakes get the more aggressive they get, I had one that was like 5 years old and was beating up anything that came his way, roosters hens turkeys..

Interesting. I'll keep an eye on him and replace him if I need to. I think he's around a year and a half to 2 years old. He 'yells' at me when I go in the pen but doesn't try to attack me.

 

[Mylied]

I processed two of the 18 week olds. They were approximately 3 lbs each, one male and one female. Funnily the female was a couple ounces bigger. The male had teeny fingernail sized testicles but he did hiss and display a mohawk like my muscovy drake when my husband caught him. They were still a pain to pluck. I'm borrowing a big homemade plucker tomorrow to see if that goes better.

3 ducklings hatched with 1 more dieing in the hatching process. I think 3 quit along the way. Not great fertility and hatchabilty but not surprising either.

I've decided 7 weeks produces enough meat for our purposes and it got plucked perfect in our machine. I might do the 14 1/2 weeks if someone else wants a duck. I don't think there is enough difference to justify the extra feed. We've been using meat bird.