Ducks!

[Wishin']

We use the cone and slit the throat here, it is just like doing the chickens, their is no difference. Also our first time the ducks grew longer then we meant to let them so they had their pinfeathers in. In my opinion WAY harder to pluck than chickens, I will NEVER hand pluck a duck again.

 

[baymule]

Thanks for all the encouragement @Wishin'

 

[Wishin']

 

[baymule]

I butchered 2 Pekins today. They are 7 weeks old and dressed out to 3 pounds each. I have read a lot about Pekins lately and I think they should have weighed more. I have been feeding a 20% crumble for ducklings. I guess I should have waited a few more weeks, but they are supposed to be ready to butcher 7-12 weeks. I guess I'll have to put up with them a little while longer.

Has anybody kept up with age/weight for slaughter? What is the average weight of Pekins?

I put them in my rolled up, duct taped cardboard redneck killing cone. I cut their heads off and let them bleed out. I dry picked them over an open paper feed sack. The feathers came out fairly easy. When I got to the point that the feathers weren't coming out so easy anymore, I dunked them in scalding water with a squirt of dishwashing liquid in it. I swished them around and got them saturated. Then I dropped them each in a paper feed sack, rolled it up and let them set for about 15 minutes. I read about wrapping ducks in newspapers after scalding to make them easier to pick, I think on BYC.

I unrolled one and started picking. I have nothing to compare this to, but it seemed to go fairly easy. Even the long flight feathers came out easily. It is just time consuming. I got them pretty clean, then I cut the oil gland off. Our dog Parker was delighted to help with the disposal of them. I cut around the anus, then cut up to the breast bone. I drew out the intestines, liver, gizzard and heart. I cut the green bile sack off the liver, cut the gizzard open and cleaned it out and and put them, along with the heart, aside. I cut off the feet and tossed them to Parker. I know I could make broth with them, but I didn't want to this time.

When I unrolled the second one, it had set longer and it was easier to pick. I repeated the above steps, then took them inside. I cleaned up my mess and put everything away. Then I spent another hour picking down and pinfeathers off the ducks. I tried the burning them off with a torch, the down/pinfeathers fizzled, smelled and made the duck look like it had blackheads. Yuck. I rubbed off the blackheads and continued to pick. I think I got them pretty clean.

Would someone please give me some feedback on slaughter weights?

 

[ninnymary]

Bay, altogether how long did the process take?

Mary

 

[baymule]

@ninnymary it took about 2 hours from cutting their heads off to bringing them in the house to clean the down and pinfeathers off some more. That 2 hours includes me leaving them to steam in the feedsacks for 15 or 20 minutes while I fixed lunch for my mother, sooooo 1 hour and 40 minutes. I spent another hour in the kitchen cleaning them some more.

 

[baymule]

I know there are some duck slaughter geniuses on here, can somebody tell me a little more about age/slaughter weight? I am ready to git 'er done with these ducks. If I wait a few more weeks, will they go through another growth spurt or will they continue to eat their heads off and grow more S-L-O-W-L-Y?

 

[Wishin']

We slaughtered ours WAY late and I don't remember how much they weighed. Sorry. Maybe @TheSeedObsesser will know.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Err, I don't pay a great amount of attention to the weight vs. age thing. We haven't had ducklings for a while. I think that they might grow through another growth spurt. I know the last time we had ducklings we butchered the males and kept some females as layers. In their second year the grew larger (not sure how much larger?) than they were their second year. So basically... I'm not really sure.

Glad that you didn't have too much trouble plucking them. I think that my problem is that I'm impatient and not very good with my fingers.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Looking at your picture that duck looks pretty small compared to some of the ones we get. Maybe butcher half and keep the other half for another month or so?

EDIT: Another thing that I just though of. My climate is quite a bit colder than yours. My cold climate may encourage the ducks to pile on more fat, resulting in bigger ducks.