What is a good duck breed for meat?

[TheMayor14]

Wanted to start raising my own duck meat and was curious

 

[Rock Ranch]

I would imagine Pekin would be a good breed however I don't know what kind of egg layers they are. How many ducks are you looking to produce a year? Are you hoping they will hatch themselves or are you going to incubate?

 

[poppymajor]

Hi mayor14,

We've just started the same process, some knowledge came from my partner who's kept ducks before, but also shoots. We're trying the Cayuga breed and Welsh Harlequin. We used the omlet site to look at the different breeds, then found a fairly local breeder who recommended these breeds as good all round meat/laying birds.
Our first lot of eggs through the incubator have gone ok-ish, we lost 2 Welsh, but as it's hatch day and we have pipping I'm not tempting fate at what may/ may not hatch out! The breeder also said that they were fairly reliable parents too, if you don't use an incubator.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I raised my first ducks this spring, Pekins that happened to be at Tractor Supply the week before Easter. Be warned that ducks are much messier than chickens...I know you didn't think that was possible. If I decide to do this again I will come up with some sort of special brooder with a drain at one end that I can hose down every few days. They splash their water everywhere and it is difficult to keep their bedding dry.

They are also a royal pain to pluck (see my thread asking for plucking advice). Pekins do grow fast, ready to harvest in 7 weeks, but don't let them go to 8 weeks or you'll be sorry (2 hours of plucking on one bird!!!!!)

 

[Rock Ranch]

If you put the feed and water outside of the pen would it cut the mess down? I'm very interested in trying raising some for personal consumption.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Ducks, from my understanding, need to be able to put their whole bill in the water and wash their nostrils on a regular basis. They also seem to need to moisten their food because there is always a ton of food in their waterer. I saw a nifty duck waterer where someone had cut holes in the side of a big bucket so that their ducks could get their heads into the water without actually standing and splashing around in it.

I put a chicken waterer and big dog dish inside a larger rubbermaid storage box (the kind you buy to store wrapping paper) so that when the ducks splashed around in their water the majority of the water stayed in the storage box and I could dump it out regularly. I also used these "Depends" type seat covers that a friend gave my husband as a gag 60th birthday gift because they soaked up a lot of moisture and I could change them out daily when the ducks were in the garage brooder. They were still a messy, smelly bunch because their bedding still got considerably wetter than chicken bedding got.

It was better when I moved them outside, muddy but since I could move the tractor every few days, I wasn't having to muck out and clean up the same way. However with 7 ducks in my mini-van tractor, I had to move it as often as I do with three times as many chickens or the grass is solid mat of poop.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

This comment is not just for TheMayor14 but everyone else here:

Ducks are physically unable to swallow without water. You cannot remove it, even with their food, because they will end up eating dirt/grit and choking to death. They need water at all times.
Just stay away from waterfowl if you don't like mud.

You can consider: chickens, turkeys, quail, pigeon. Pigeons make hardly any mess at all if you free-range and they will feed themselves partly.
Also, consider rabbits. There are so many people who get into meat rabbits and wish they had started with the rabbits instead of chickens! Rabbits are quieter and cleaner than any bird plus you get manure which you can sell for profit.

If you are set on ducks, do you know what kind? Muscovy meat is entirely different from mallard meat. Make sure you don't get the wrong kind.

Hope this helps.