Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Chicks and Ducklings coming May 15th!


We are planning on purchasing our day old chicks and ducklings soon.  We are ordering them from a local supply store.  We really wanted to get some heritage breeds but they are not readily available locally.  To get heritage breeds of chickens and ducks we would have to go to Ottawa to pick them up which is way too far or pay $75 per breed to have them shipped with papers from the US which is just silly!  So, we are limited to the typical breeds that are offered.  

For chicks we are planning to get 2 of each breed of Black Sex Link, Columbian Rock X, Rhode Island Red and of course Barred Plymouth Rocks.  The birds will be coming from here:  Frey's Hatchery and there you can find a bit of info on each breed.  I would love to get some white egg layers but the only breed available from Frey's is Leghorns which are known to be a bit sketchy and nervous.  We could call around and order from elsewhere which may have another white egg laying breeds but we really wanted to support the local supply store which orders from Frey's.  If we get Pekin ducks, which I think we will, they will give us our white eggs so we will have a nice colour assortment.

As for our 4 Barred Rock ladies, we have decided not to bring them home form the CSA coop since we will be getting new birds and ducks.  I don't want to have to worry about fights between the older hens and the young pullets and ducklings.  Plus, our birds have their place in the pecking order and are "friends" with some of the other birds.  I don't want to cause them stress removing them from their home, again, and throwing them in with new birds.  

Duck breeds have been the big question.  We have only 3 options being: Pekin, Muscovy and Rouen.  Based on my research they all have benefits and negatives.  Lets have a look at the pros and cons of each breed:

Rouen:
Pros:  docile, good meat, social, usually too heavy for flight, descent foragers
Cons: 35-125eggs/yr, slow grower 6-8mo for table, 1.5yr for full growth, poor egg setters, poor forager 
General:  look like large mallards, production bred 6-8lbs, standard bred 9-12lbs, lifespan approx 7yrs

Pekin:
Pros: 200+ eggs/yr, 6-8wk for table, usually too heavy to flight, loyal, friendly
Cons: loud, poor egg setters
General: 8-11lbs, lifespan 9-12yrs, white plumage with yellow feet and bills

Muscovy:
Pros: brood 8-16 eggs up to 3x/yr, strong tasting meat (taste similar to beef, tender like veal), silent, fast growing, great foragers of bugs and weeds
Cons: perching duck, flighty, drakes can be aggressive and may mount chickens
General: male-10-15lbs, female 5-7lbs, lifespan approx 8years (can live up to 20 in optimum conditions)

If we get a mating pair of 2 breeds I just can't decide which 2 breeds are best.  I think we will definitely get Pekin since they make great pets, are excellent egg layers and are also fast growing and tasty meat birds (they are the most common meat duck).  Deciding on the other breed is the tricky part.  Now, looking at the pros and cons I think Rouen may be the better choice.  They are good foragers and not typically flighty.  They are average egg layers and very tasty meat birds.  I had placed being broody as a positive and not sitting on eggs as a negative but maybe I have that wrong.  We likely will need to incubate eggs from both Pekin and Rouen but at least we have control over their reproduction.  It is more work for us to have to incubate but we certainly don't need 8-16 eggs 3x per year from Muscovies.  It also may be better for the ducks since we won't be taking their babies away when ready for harvest.  

Once in a while a blog post can really shine some light on a topic... even for the writer.  I had been so torn about what breed of ducks to get but now I am confident that Pekin and Rouen are best suited for our family needs.  Muscovy ducks would be a great choice if we weren't planning on keeping the chickens and ducks in the same area and if we had older children.  The aggressive drakes are just too big of a risk factor for us.



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