Raising Mule Ducks for Meat - My Journal

[Mylied]

My hatch went terrible. I forgot to turn off the turner and didn't up the humidity thanks to starting a new night shift job. 16 made it to the end, 3 hatched, 2 with major intervention. 1 was weak and ended up passing at 2 days old. The 2 survivors are healthy and active. I'm taking a month break from setting more duck eggs.

 

[Mylied]

I thought you'd like to see a pic of the ducks at 10 weeks old. They are a good sized. I can't tell which are male or female. They all sound the same and about the same size. They are really pretty birds. I'll be processing 3 in a couple more weeks and weigh them then.

 

[Mylied]

So things have been a little chaotic. I started a job working 12 hr shifts overnight. I lost track of the costs. And we were about a week behind in processing for the 12 1/2 week. We processed one today. It started raining in the middle of it. And the plucker refused to remove the breast and back feathers. Not sure why. I ended up skinning it because it was full of pin feathers. Let me tell you, duck skin is like glued on. Chicken skin pulls right off. I had to use my knife to skin it. I ended up cutting off half the wing because I was being rained on and it was frustrating. So I cleaned it. I found the penis, no discernable testicles. It was 5 1/2 pounds before processing. Almost 3 lbs after my butchering job. :-/ We'll try again at 18 weeks and hopefully figure out the plucker. We did a chicken that ended up being 6 lbs cleaned and it plucked it perfect. Oh and the shrink bag was being a pain too... Life.

 

[Jpat]

Nice looking ducks!

 

[nicalandia]

I've seen a few studies on Muscocy vs Pekin vs Mulard ducks, basically Mulards are the average of both parents(did not put more meat than the Muscovy parent) but interestingly enough their liver was larger than both parents and that is why they are used as Foi Gras ducks..

Here is the recent study:

https://www.slovetres.si/index.php/VMHE/article/download/663/149

At 12 weeks: Muscovy 2.36% Liver Weight, Pekin: 2.26 and Mulard 3.34% that is quite the difference and it shows why it's used for Foi Gras production

 

[Mylied]

I've seen a few studies on Muscocy vs Pekin vs Mulard ducks, basically Mulards are the average of both parents(did not put more meat than the Muscovy parent) but interestingly enough their liver was larger than both parents and that is why they are used as Foi Gras ducks..

They're pretty calm and quiet so I like them. They don't fuss when I have added in a meat chicken or a younger duck. And they make a good sized dinner.

 

[nicalandia]

They're pretty calm and quiet so I like them. They don't fuss when I have added in a meat chicken or a younger duck. And they make a good sized dinner.

From their look they seem to take more of the Muscovy side right? Are they quite as Muscovy? Not bad for a Meat project as on Muscovy ducks the females are rather small.

 

[Mylied]

From their look they seem to take more of the Muscovy side right? Are they quite as Muscovy? Not bad for a Meat project as on Muscovy ducks the females are rather small.

They are quiet like muscovies now that they stopped peeping. They were noisy as any other duckling when they were young. No quacking or hissing. Just quiet sounds. I think they are a good mix between them. And they all are about the same size as each other.

 

[nicalandia]

I think Ducks have so much potential for meat production, heck neither Pekin nor Muscovy have been bred as extensively as CornisX and they have very similar feed conversion ratio. Ducks put dual purpose breeds to shame. Are there any breed of ducks being bred to put on meat fast as CornishX?

 

[Mylied]

I think Ducks have so much potential for meat production, heck neither Pekin nor Muscovy have been bred as extensively as CornisX and they have very similar feed conversion ratio. Ducks put dual purpose breeds to shame. Are there any breed of ducks being bred to put on meat fast as CornishX?

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.