Pekins!!!

[Pauly]

Hi all, much excitement at our house at the moment, especially from the kids - we have just picked up 3 Pekin (not to be confused with 'peking' ) ducklings, our first ducks.

We chose this breed as they are apparently a good all-rounder, for meat and some eggs (though not heaps, we're told). Mainly flightless, and grow to a decent size fairly quickly.

Does anyone know any tips for telling baby drakes from females? Thanks!

[ellistattoo]

Hello Pauly, and congrats on your newest additions! As I haven't raised ducks(yet) I have no firsthand information for you, however I found this information about pekins on wikipedia and copied it for ya verbatim...

Sexing

It can be difficult to determine the sex of the young ducklings due to the lack of external genitalia or other differences. Venting is one common method. This entails gently squeezing the duckling to cause feces to be expelled, which forces the cloaca to open slightly, permitting the sexer to view the sexual organs. However, these are almost undifferentiated in hatchlings.

As a male duck matures it acquires a curled tail feather called a drake feather, and their vocalisations become much weaker. Conversely, the female develops a loud quack. Venting is also easier when the ducks' genitals are fully mature but is not necessary because of the readily apparent external differences between males and females.

A female may be missing feathers on the back of her neck. This is due to the male grabbing and holding the back of the female's neck during mating.

[GaryD]

Hi Pauly,

Pekins (which actually becomes Peking duck eventually in most parts of China) are good meat ducks. In the past, they were crossed with the Aylesbury.....a British breed......for a good meat cross.

While I prefer Muscovies as backyard ducks (they make less noise and graze more), Pekins are good, too.

Gary

[Pauly]

Yes, I would have been happy with either Pekins or Muscovies, at the end of the day it just came down to what was available at the time!

I'm not worried so much about the noise that they'll make, with no close neighbours and a couple of rowdy roosters here anyways!!! But, we'll see...

I'm interested to see how they interact with our chooks, and how the bossy rooster goes with them too. He's a big sook, all red feathers and bluff (Rhode Island Red).

We do have a dam a bit further down from the house, but I was thinking of yarding them off in about 1/2 an acre, and giving them a bathtub to swim in just to keep them away from the wood ducks which frequent the dam (wasn't sure whether they might 'mix' and I'd end up with wood duck/pekin crosses??!).

Progress has slowed right up on the A/P project, like everyone at the mo I'm very busy at work. They say you either have time or money but I dunno cos I don't have either!!!? Lol

[GaryD]

Hi Pauly,

Yep.....both of them pull up pretty well on the dinner table.

We do have a dam a bit further down from the house, but I was thinking of yarding them off in about 1/2 an acre, and giving them a bathtub to swim in just to keep them away from the wood ducks which frequent the dam (wasn't sure whether they might 'mix' and I'd end up with wood duck/pekin crosses??!).

Best of luck with keeping the pekins around a bathtub if they get wind that there's a dam around.

Since both wood ducks and pekins are derived of the mallard (if I recall correctly), there's probably no biological reason why they couldn't mate. My guess is that the wood ducks probably wouldn't stick around long enough for the foreplay to commence.

Bill Mollison's Permaculture books contain some good duck housing ideas. I particularly like one that has the duck house right on the edge of the dam.....with the fences on either side of the little shed extending into the water......so that the ducks can swim out of a protected area on land and return to their housing in safety.

Gary

[Pauly]

Hi, thanks for that ellistattoo. Gary, that does sound like a great idea!!! The particular dam we are talking about is only about 10m across, so I think it would get dirty and rancid pretty quickly. I'll post some photos' of the new additions shortly if I can work out how to....

[GaryD]

Hi Pauly,

To see how to post photos.......see here.

Gary