When I set out to raise our Pekin ducks, I did some reading. Somewhere I read a recommendation to butcher them at 8-9 weeks because of how their feathers come in. I made a note, and our ducks were “due” somewhere between December 18 and December 25. We processed a few practice birds a week or so ago, and all went well. Sure, they took longer to pluck than a chicken, but they were faster than a goose. We processed 6 in about 90 minutes and as we are generally pretty slow, we thought that was a fine start.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I thought another batch of ducks would be a good idea. I talked to a different hatchery, one I found that is closer to us. Right now, we are not quite big enough to hatch all of our birds. On the phone with the hatchery, they mentioned that they recommend butchering at 7 weeks. I filed that information away and didn’t think much more about it. The next batch of baby ducks arrived a couple weeks ago and they are happily making a mess of my greenhouse.
Yesterday, we found out why there are timelines. Ducks start to grow new feathers. Last week, the downy feathers on the breast were there (for the larger ducks–not the babies), and they were difficult enough. Yesterday, they had a new set coming in, and those feathers were about a quarter inch long. That is it. Once all the feathers came out, there were these little feather nubs all over. In a week or two, they will be real feathers, but for now, they were just impossible to pluck cleanly. Brian made a run to the store for wax and that didn’t fare much better.
The first couple birds, I thought maybe we had made a mistake–scald water too hot or too cold or too long in the plucker or not enough time in the plucker. Nope. Just bad, bad timing. So now we wait another couple weeks and try again. And you can bet that the next batch of ducks will be processed right on schedule at 7 weeks. Lesson learned.
The upside is that I have six ducks in the fridge. Well, I have 3 whole ducks and 3 partial ducks. We sauteed some duck breast for dinner last night to go on top of a bed of greens in a mustard vinaigrette with parmesan, cranberries, pecans and mandarins. It was quite lovely. I was wishing for some purple onion, it seemed like that would have been a good fit, but alas, I had to be content with what I had. And content I was.
I will be making duck confit from the legs, and maybe trying some duck prosciutto. Oh, and I will be rendering the fat. So, not a complete disaster.
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