# Best age to butcher ducks



## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

Our mallard hen successfully hatched 9 ducklings. They hatched right around May 5th. How many weeks old should they be before they are considered old enough to slaughter?


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

With my larger ducks, I sometimes slaughter at 8 weeks - as soon as they complete their juvenile feathers and before they start their adult feathers. Your Mallards will be pretty little though at that age and there is only a few days before they have new feathers coming in and plucking is terrible. (You can skin them though.) The next age I'd use is 3 months - once they get their adult feathers you can butcher any time and they'd be a bit bigger. 

I'm pretty spoiled by having meat birds, at 8 weeks I get a 4 - 5 lb carcass. At 12 weeks they are larger and meatier (at 8 weeks their frame is basically adult size, but they haven't finished filling in). Your Mallards won't get nearly that big anyway. I have a cute little Mallard drake I hatched this spring. He's 9 weeks or so and half the size of my layer ducks! He does fly pretty well, I'll be clipping a wing soon.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

I slaughter between 6 and 8 weeks. Any longer, and you'll have a bear of a time plucking the skin clean.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Yeah, once they are done feathering in at about 12 weeks though, you have a while before they are molting again, so if you miss 8 weeks, you have another window later.


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