I sold most of our Pekins yesterday. The only ones left are a female with leg problems and an extra male. Duck soup!
We just didn't have time to be dealing with meat ducks with everything else we're doing. They're pretty unforgiving, because if you don't slaughter at seven weeks then you have to wait until after the molt or deal with thousands of pin feathers. Plus, the males were really aggressive to the runner ducks, and had killed several. I'm down to only two runner ducks at this point.
The Pekins went to a small farm up in Jewett. The people that bought them were very nice. I would have liked to spend more time talking with them, but it was getting late and we all had kids that needed to get home to bed.
solstice letter
6 days ago
2 comments:
So you still have some other ducks (runners) just not Pekins?
We learned after the first time we tried to butcher/pluck a duck, that after that now, we always skin then. They have WAY too many feathers to make it worth it any other way :)
Yes, I have two runners left, and the two Pekins that I intend to make into soup. I think if we get more ducks at some point, they will probably be an egg breed, maybe Khaki Campbell. We need some ducks around to eat the slugs and snails that transmit brain worm to the goats.
The few times that I tried to dry pick a duck I ended up skinning them. Last time I scalded first, and it wasn't much more difficult than picking a chicken. I prefer to keep the skin on for roasting, since much of the fat is in the skin. I'll most likely skin the two soup ducks, though.
Post a Comment