What age/ weight to process Rouens & Cayugas?

[Duckiiess]

I got 20 ducklings in this year, they're currently at 10 weeks and was going to seperate the meat birds/ most of the drakes and the ducks that I'm keeping for eggs, hoping to fatten up the meat birds towards the end with milk, corn, and peas..
Weighed them today and most of the ducks/ drakes were just around the 5 lb mark, was hoping they'd be closer to 7 by now.. how quickly can they pack on a couple lbs? Would it still be good to seperate and feed those more now to process at 12 weeks? Have seen some older posts about people processing at 18 weeks, but that's a lot of feed between now and then..

 

[iwltfum]

Awesome. I have 20 muscovies that I'm going to do the same with. Gping to butcher two this week to see how they butcher out relative to a chicken as I have never butchered a duck before. But i would look up your specific breed and see when the optimal age is for butchering. From what I understand, with ducks, it's all about catching them between pin feather growth. With muscovies, its 12 weeks and 24 weeks or something like that. I'm not sure if it's the same with other types of ducks.

Btw, I would not feed them milk. That works to fatten mammals, but not good for poultry.

 

[Isadora]

@U_Stormcrow can you help?

 

[iwltfum]

here are a few of mine this morning. As you can see, they will be very easy to catch

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@U_Stormcrow can you help?

Wish I could, but my only duck experience is Pekins, and I've not made deep study of their feed management. Timing at cull is critical to an easy clean carcasess (and a date, due to the vagaries of life, I often miss), but I don't know if dates differ for any breeds other than my Pekins.

Nor do i know what "expected" weights are for those birds. I'm usually processing a 5-5.5# live weight Pekin who has free ranged on my pasture plus once daily feeding - its not a management practice designed for bulky birds at early age. Nor does my stock (Hoover Hatchery) seem to be anything but sub-par examples of the breed. My birds weigh maybe 60% of what's claimed as target for the age, though their insides appear quite health when I get my hand in there, and the flavor is good.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

There's an OLD feed recipe in this (also OLD) reference, on page three for fattening up Pekins.

I've not looked at the nutrition at all, but the weights they reported were good, and the sample sizes not small. For "meat scraps", I'd likely substitute blood meal for the convenience of storing it dried. Nor do I know a source for Red Dog Flour, but farina/cream of wheat seems a close substitute.

 

[Duckiiess]

Thank you all!
I'm not giving straight milk, but cooking the cracked corn in it to soften it up, they like it much better that way and will devour a bowl in no time.. haven't seen any bad effects from it yet? What would be the problem to look out for, excess diarrhea/ is the lactose a problem for their guts?

They've free ranged their entire lives so far, well since they were a few weeks old..

Regarding weeks, I've read that 8 (mostly pekins), 12, 15, and 18 are good times.. was hoping to shoot for 12, but I guess I might let a couple go longer to see if it's worth it?

Are your Muscovies 12 weeks? What are they weighing?

Stormcrow: what does the 5.5# live weight come out to after they're all cleaned up?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I get a yield consistently right at 63% off my ducks, 67% off my DP chickens (including heart, liver, gizzard, neck). So its a 3.15 to 3.45# processed carcass.

/edit for my wife and I, that makes two good meals. The first is usually the breast, which comes off in flat plates and is best prepared like a steak - medium rare and barely touched - simple preparation to let the duck be the star - salt, pepper, garlic. Legs and thighs become a second meal, usually with a sweet sticky sauce of some sort, favoring citrus notes and a rice of some sort (Sweet & Sour, w/ Orange Sauce, even Bar B Q [molasses, sugar and ACV types, NOT Mustard or katsup based recipes]). We keep the bones, wings, neck for making soup/stock/stew - usually combine with the remnants of a chicken or two.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I should also admit we don't eat many meals. Coffee for breakfast, usually some egg or egg & bread thing for brunch, skip lunch, big dinner - so our meals are protein heavy and the dinner portions aren't small.

I know that's not how most people eat, and likely isn't very healthy as a practice, but its probably best i provide that as a reference. Last night I had three bowls (3 cups, 2x 1/2 cup ladle each bowl) of ham and 15 bean soup mix made with two ham bones from shoulders I've sliced up, one bag of the mix per package directions, plus extra garlic, a lg onion, two good sized carrots and a celery rib or two. Oh, and two slices of sourdough garlic bread.

Hope it helps put that duck into perspective.

 

[Isadora]

It's ironic that this topic came up because my husband just called me and said a neighbor down the street is selling Cayuga /Rouen mixes. Hatched in early May, supposedly three hens and one drake, $10 each. I'm raising pekins right now for meat, but I don't know that it would be worth it to raise the mixes.