Which sells the best? Geese, ducks, or turkeys?

[Crandox]

Pekin are unlikely to hatch out their own ducklings. You are more likely going to have to incubate the eggs or get your Muscovy to hatch the eggs. Also you can potentially end up with hinnies or mule ducks.

Ducks are usually really loud. An individual duck can be quiet, but their is usually someone who will quack loudly. I live in a rural area and all of my neighbors on my street know I have ducks.

What about Aylesbury ducks will they go broody and hatch their own eggs? I’m wanting a type of poultry that can be used for meat.

 

[raingarden]

If they are meat birds then you want to turn them over as quickly as possible. Right?

Pekin are best at 7 to 8 weeks. They are ready to butcher by the time they learn to quack. Scovy 12+ weeks. Turkey 16 weeks. Chninese goose 9 to 20 weeks.

If I'm not mistaken, pekin will give you the best feed conversion ratio too.

 

[Quatie]

What about Aylesbury ducks will they go broody and hatch their own eggs? I’m wanting a type of poultry that can be used for meat.

All the mallard derived breeds are not known for going broody. Individual ducks can potentially. I have 17 Mallard derived ducks and only 3 went broody enough to possibly sit on eggs this year. Others have gone partially broody, mostly just hormonal. The most likely to go broody for me is my Saxony and I am not sure if they would actually hatch them out. I don't have silver appleyard, but they can go broody too. But again it is really going to be hit and miss. Some will hatch out eggs and then not bother to care for the ducklings. If you are going to do Mallard derived breeds, expect to need to hatch in an incubator and raise in a brooder. Otherwise, plan on using a broody muscovy for hatching. The mallard derived breeds are just not consistently reliable parents like muscovy, and you always need to be prepared for plan b.

 

[Riverbend Farms]

I sold my reserve grand champion market turkey at fair for $800. The turkey market is incredibly high this year. They are not horribly loud but can be loud. If your neighbors are fine with it, I would say do turkeys. You really should only do broad breasted whites as there meat looks "clean". Spotted turkeys, like the Royal Palm, make the meat look odd because of the black they have. You don't need to fret if your BBW has a tiny black feather or two because that doesn't affect the meat. They are gonna be like $1200 or so when all is said and done, but if you raise 10 you probably could walk away with around $2500 or so. BBW require Artifical insemination because they are too fat to breed. The chicks are pretty cheap though (ONLY get them from a BREEDER)

 

[0range]

What about turkeys? Are they quiet enough for a neighborhood area? I would assume they are quieter than ducks and geese.

I personally find turkeys to be very loud. I kept turkeys for about a year before selling them because they were so noisy. The gobbling isn't toooo bad (although my expensive noise cancelling headphones couldn't keep it out) but the hens are like chihuahuas and constantly yapping loudly. They were very protective of the property which can be good or bad. Our poor FedEx guy used to run back to his truck after dropping off packages