When and where to order Ducks..?

[secuono]

I am wanting to buy a few ducklings to raise for meat. All the breeds we got last year from TSC grew super fast and could be out for Fall in no time and I really wondered "why bother with dang on slow chickens that need care for so freaking long!?"

So, where is the cheapest shipped duck hatchery? Are there certain breeds I should lean towards for good feed to meat ratio? Also, when should I order them/schedule the shipment day?

I would also love to add to our quad of pet ducks, something a bit more colorful and interesting. We have Khaki, Pekin and Mallard.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I bought hatchery ducks for meat and they were a waste of space. Slow growing, poor feed conversion ratio, and they never got as big as they are supposed to. It ended up very expensive meat.

Spend a couple of extra dollars and order the Grimauld Pekins from Metzers. They are purpose bred meat ducks. They should be ready to butcher at about 8 weeks of age.

My Appleyards are excellent meat ducks, but the breeding stock is too expensive to eat. If you want to buy breeding stock and then hatch out your own ducks for the table, then Appleyards would work well for you. They are very pretty as well as being large, fast growing table ducks and good egg layers.

 

[thekid]

http://www.metzerfarms.com/GrimaudHybridPekinDucks.cfm?Breed=Grimaud Hybrid Pekin&BirdType=Duck&ID=GRH&CustID=560803

 

[secuono]

That's the hatchery that advertises they don't do chicks but they do ducks, etc, no?
I've got a bunch of birds bookmarked from McMurray. Going to check individual price, how many of what I have to get and lastly shipping.
I wanted to add a few geese as well.
I really rather just get 10-15 ducks and 5 geese. Any place can do that and ship all together??

 

[secuono]

Arg! No geese available at all...none...

 

[hdowden]

try emailing them and asking when they will have geese and ask if they will ship the geese and ducks together and go from there

 

[secuono]

Guess I will have to pass on geese. They only have ducks[no geese until too late] for next month and I can't/don't want to wait until late in the year to grow them.
Ah well.
Here are the breeds I'm picking from. I want a Mallard[$6.80] & Khaki[$6.60] hen to add to our pet flock.
Pekin & Grimaud Hybrid Pekin for just meat.
Grimaud Hybrid Pekin $4.65
Pekin $4.65

One glitch, dates have either all but Mallard or all but Khaki....what...


Which of these is the best meat bird, Pekin or Grimaud Hybrid Pekin??

 

[thekid]

Grimaud Hybrid Pekin they are bigger so more meat

 

[secuono]

I have a soft spot for the Pekin..lol.
This is what I got, if any of the Pekin are female, I will keep one for the pet flock.
Grimaud Hybrid Pekin SR $4.65 4 $18.60 January 09, 2012
Pekin SR $4.65 4 $18.60 January 09, 2012
Khaki Campbell F $6.60 2 $13.20 January 09, 2012

Can't wait til they arrive!
I'm getting a bigger fish tank Thursday, will have two 40g breeder tanks for the ducklings to grow out inside a little in. Gotta make a little pen for them outside, but they will live with my flock when they get big enough.
Need to find a way to mark my pets from the new ones...hmm.

Thanks for the help!

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
Is is the ones that are listed just as Pekins that are the hybrids, they are hybrids because they are the commercial cross of a large, meaty male line ( which are the jumbos that they also sell), on a smaller ,more feed efficient and better laying female line. So the "Pekins", are the hybrids and the "Jumbos" are the male line used to make the hybrids. So the Jumbos would be your best choice to if you want to buy some just to eat, but if you want some more sustainable that you could keep to breed, then the hybrids would be better, They import both the male and the female lines for the hybrids from the Grimaud Freres company in France. You can read more about their program here. http://metzerfarms.blogspot.com/2011/03/our-pekin-duck-breeding-program.html