Raising & Processing Muskovy Ducks

[chickincoop]

Our older bird was not tough at all! I cut half of the breast up into 1 1/2 inch pieces, shook them in a plastic bag with Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and baked them for about 20 minutes at 350degrees. The kids gobbled them up! The other half, we ground up and mixed with a little sausage and grilled like hamburgers. Delicious! And Steve, you need to publish a book on your recipes! YUM!

 

[jeb251]

what time is dinner steve

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

And Steve, you need to publish a book on your recipes!

LOL if I ever wrote them down. It always comes out just a little different.

Steve​

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

Quote:
shoot your recipes sound pretty good too! you guys are talking me into muscovies. are they like chickens in that one male is too much for just one female? or is it better that way?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

The drake could use couple hens to keep him "company"

In my opinion as far as waterfowl you can't beat a Muscovy, they are quiet, very prolific, they aren't as much of a water duck so the mess is less. They only downside is if you incubate the eggs are hard to hatch. The RH has to be just right of they die in the shell right at the end. However they are such good sitters you don't really need to incubate.

Steve

 

[chickincoop]

Steve, we looked at your web site. Love your pics! We also are raising rabbits. Californian and Californian/New Zealand cross. Just starting with the rabbits for meat. We are trying to be as sustainable as possible, here, too. The ducks are great but we thought it would be nice to have a little variety. I bet you've got some good rabbit recipes too? How long do you raise out your female Muscovies before butchering? Our breeding stock females (of course they've been raising babies since May) only weigh 3-4 pounds each. The 10 week old females were about the same. Since my sister is also raising Muscovies, so far she has taken any extra females, but I'm pretty sure she is about to the point she will have her fill. We have only butchered males so far. I can tell you our flock of almost 30 Muscovies made less mess in their yard than my sister's one goose did on her whole 15 acres! LOL They are much less messy than any other duck I've ever seen. And certainly tastier!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
Hi Steve,

I have been watching and reading this thread. Thank you for all the great info and recipes! How late is too late to let a hen sit on her eggs.

Mine keep laying and I have them in the incubator but I would love to let her hatch some out. Is it too late in the year?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We just had a nest hatch last week. Ducklings are pretty tough and handle weather well but our winters here are much much milder than yours. I would think if they would be fully feathered by frost they would be ok. What is your winter set up like. If there are any northern Muscovy peeps reading this hopefully they will jump in.

Steve

 

[Germaine_11.20]

The weather has been odd here. I would say that it seems winter really kicks in by January with Oct-Dec getting lows of 40 down to 30 at night depending on the month. Days range from 50-60's in October down to 30's near December during the day.

Hey Katythechickenlady--Do you think that is the right temps?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

If they set today you are looking at 35 days to hatch-ish, that puts you well into Sept. They would be on the young side for winter i'm thinking.

chickincoop, rabbit is probably Sharon's favorite. We grill them, cook in the dutch oven, rabbit ala king is always good to me. Another thing I like is a "rabbit roll". When you process and remove the front and back legs, then remove/fillet off the mid section all in one piece. You end up with about a foot square piece of rabbit meat. You can roll that around stuffing, mushrooms or other veggies, clams or seafood then bake the rolls. That always comes out good.

When we process anything I go by feel more than time, if you are going thru all the trouble to process I would rather have them filled out good.

Steve