What should I feed meat ducklings?

[gatrapper]

I like Tucker because it's the only non-medicated starter feed that I can find.

I am feeding my meat geese their show flock developer. It's a mini pellet. I would feed my ducks that too after 3 weeks, but its an extra $3/bag, so I'll just stick with the starter.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

IMO the fermented wheat is good for their gut and it keeps them full so they don't gorge and waste any of their main feed. I load up a 5 gallon bucket a little over half way with wheat. Then I fill it with water until its 2 inches over the top of the wheat. Add in a splash of natural apple cider vinegar and let it sit for 3-4 days. I feed the fermented wheat in the morning and their main starter feed in the evenings.

Thanks. I do like using fermented food for meat chickens, so I'll probably end up doing ferment for the ducks later.

 

[AA Maple]

I did a couple dozen Pekins last year and just gave them the "grower" feed I got in bulk from the local feed mill. Let them out to forage as soon as they were trained to go back into their house at night and they were all healthy and happy. Sent 14 of them to the freezer and kept a drake and his harem of 7 for laying. They got onto standard layer pellets whenever the rest of my birds started laying and wintered well. The snow didn't seem to bother them at all and they would roll and splash around it it like they were in a puddle or pond.

The meat was fantastic and the hens I kept are surprisingly good performers by way of egg laying.

I'm also trying the Grimaud hybrids this year, hoping to process them quickly and save enough feathers to make a pillow or two.

 

[gatrapper]

Have you started hatching any from your bunch? I have a few pekins that are a year old and put 25 of their eggs in the incubator.

Over the next week, I will go through my current flock of 75 and separate my males and females and start banding the males and females I will keep for this falls breeding stock.

 

[AA Maple]

Have you started hatching any from your bunch? I have a few pekins that are a year old and put 25 of their eggs in the incubator.

Over the next week, I will go through my current flock of 75 and separate my males and females and start banding the males and females I will keep for this falls breeding stock.

None of them seem to be even slightly interested in setting on their eggs, though I may try tossing a few eggs under a Buff Orpington that is trying to set.

I've been considering buying into an incubator but I really don't want to have to deal with ducklings in a brooder so if I can't get a girl to play mamma I don't think I'll be hatching any of their eggs this year. Also depending on how the hybrids go I may decide it's just worth the extra cost to have the quicker turnaround into the freezer as opposed to the slower growing regular Pekin.

What on Earth are you doing with all the other eggs from 25 hens?!?

 

[gatrapper]

I eat 8 eggs a day or so. My wife may eat a few and the in laws get them too. Any extra eggs, by the end of the week, go in the incubator.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Have you started hatching any from your bunch? I have a few pekins that are a year old and put 25 of their eggs in the incubator.

Over the next week, I will go through my current flock of 75 and separate my males and females and start banding the males and females I will keep for this falls breeding stock.

I hatch a couple times yearly with my Pekins to replace what I eat. I find them doubly disappointing - first in that they take a week longer than chickens to incubate, so I can do fewer batches each year, and second that I've never bettered a 50% success rate. About to cull my oldest drake and replace him with a newer hatch. Do you find the 7 hen/1 drake ratio works for you? I've been growing my hen number from the original straight run and culling out the males along the way, seeking the largest and fastest growing.

...and to the other comment, yes, remarkably consistent layers. I've been very pleased with the breed for its egg laying. Apart from the late start of onset, my Pekins perform better as layers than some of my chicken breeds did, and there are NO complaints about the size of the eggs.

 

[gatrapper]

The pekin eggs are HUGE. I have 3 incubators. Two hovabator 1588s and one smaller one. The two 1588s are used until lockdown. When lockdown day arrives, the eggs are switched to the smaller incubator until they hatch. This allows me to have staggered hatches so I can have a small flock to raise and process year round.