I'm wanting to try a couple out to process. We 'ended up' with ducks this year and although I'm not happy with the mess and extra cleaning (or the fact that they are in a pen I could add more chickens to, lol) we really liked how they processed out. After pricing duck at the store we've thought about expanding our pallets and raising a few different birds for meat. We have a few turkey this year too. We bought an extra chest freezer we need to fill up at some point.
We had a pair of African geese growing up and the gander was EVIL. I'm not sure what age we would process a gander and if we would do it early enough to avoid the hormones kicking in.
Do you feel like your Ideal birds are growing out slow? Our first 2 ducks were from Privett, bought at local TSC, and they grew quickly. I haven't had any issue with our Ideal chickens but that's all I've gotten from them. Our other 2 ducks were from Cackle and grow well too.
I need to break down and just order some to try.
My geese grew amazingly fast. At 16 weeks, my oldest pair are pretty big, not sure if they are full grown, but big enough to make a meal out of. My Africans are more docile than my Chinese, by a lot. The Africans also grow bigger, so make a larger table bird. But the Africans from Ideal are crossed with Chinese to increase their egg laying, so they won't get as large are true full bred Africans, they don't really get dewlaps either, which is a shame. I know someone that has rare white Africans that are huge and gorgeous. I may try and get a few hatching eggs from him 1 year to breed up my geese' size.
My Cayuga ducklings are growing very fast too. They are 2 weeks old and are triple the size they were when I purchased them as day olds. I heard Cayugas make excellent table birds, good flavor. The Pekin has a larger carcass, but they are louder than the Cayuga are suppose to be. I will post pics when everyone is full grown.
The pic I posted of my geese earlier today was taken a few days ago, to give you an idea of size. The largest white Chinese is 16 weeks, the 2 Africans are 12 weeks, and the 2 smaller white Chinese are 11 weeks old. It's getting harder to tell the Chinese apart, lol. Getting so close in size. Chinese are not generally kept as table birds. But they lay the most eggs of any goose breed, are great foragers and weed control, and make excellent alarm systems being very loud and territorial. They recognize strangers or animals/things that don't belong in their turf and call out reall loud. They are also referred to a swan geese for their grace and beauty.
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