# Welsh Harlequins butcher age??



## OJ Rallye (Aug 4, 2005)

I got day old Welsh Harlequins in August. How many weeks to butcher age/size??
I'd like plenty of meat on them as the processor charges $10 to butcher ducks. On the other hand, the frequency of cleaning the brooder house where they spend the night is getting painful. 25 ducks should be able to play games or something instead of just pooping all night long.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Well, at their age they should be out of a brooder situation and pooping somewhere you don't have to clean up after them at least part of the time! (Of course I don't know what you mean when you say "brooder pen".)

I wouldn't expect "plenty of meat" on a WH, they are a layer breed and never will be all that large when you've had Saxonys or Silver Appleyards! 

If I'm going to butcher duckling though, I do it about 12 weeks - AFTER they are done molting into their adult feathers. They hit a few days pause in feather growing about 8 weeks, but they will fill out quite a bit in that next month. After that, they won't get much more substantial. 

I've butchered excess WH drakes, if I remember right they were 3 lbs or so (I think carcass weight). Saxonys at the same age were 4 - 5 lbs and Silver Appleyards were 5 - 6 lbs. You get a lot more meat for your time and trouble with a larger breed. I raise Saxonys because, for me, they were more vigorous, lay better and brood and raise ducklings for me. Good trade off in my book.

Welsh Harlequins are good layers, long lived, sweet and pretty and mine would also brood eggs and raise babies - sometimes. Not sure why one year she would brood and the next didn't. If you like eggs, I'd keep a few of the girls for eggs, or try to sell them, they are very popular and you might get back more for your effort than the meat would give you.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

If they're 4 weeks or older, get 'em out of that brooder! I HATE cleaning brooders when they're ducks in it. I raise mine as naturally as possible (with their dams), and if they're brooded I do it for the absolute most minimal time period. I boot 'em out at 4 weeks. I have a higher incidence of angel wing in artificially brooded waterfowl, especially the longer they're in the brooder (actually, I've never had angel wing in a naturally raised baby waterfowl).

I butcher all ducks at 12 weeks. Don't expect a ton of meat on the WH's though. They will butcher out to be 3lbs carcasses or so. We sell ours at 3.00/lb butchered weight, so if we used your processor we'd be loosing money drastically fast. We do our own. More work, but more cost effective. It's not that your processor is asking too much - ducks are a TON of work - but it's not worth it to us to have it done.


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## OJ Rallye (Aug 4, 2005)

The processor is licensed and inspected. We use them so we can sell processed birds to anyone including restaurants.

ONly 2-3 #s bagged for sale?
I still have the original 5 WH that Andrew had gotten from Holderreads.
I have a pair I hatched last summer from them.

I also have some Stanbridge whites.

They're all good layers and I have found a market for organic duck eggs. That's why I got the 25 ducklings. I intend to keep all the girls. I may keep a couple of drakes to add diversity to the stock.

The brooder house is the coop they sleep in. It has an attached yard that they went out into for a while. Now the gate to that yard is opened in the am and they mill around the courtyard with the other ducks, Scovies and geese.

This bunch of 25 rarely separate. They run around silly and make lots of noise when they move as a herd. My wife thought it was obnoxious and I told her to think she was watching Monty Python and laugh at them.:banana:


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## OJ Rallye (Aug 4, 2005)

mygoat said:


> I have a higher incidence of angel wing in artificially brooded waterfowl, especially the longer they're in the brooder (actually, I've never had angel wing in a naturally raised baby waterfowl).
> 
> Never had angel wing here!
> 
> I butcher all ducks at 12 weeks. Don't expect a ton of meat on the WH's though. They will butcher out to be 3lbs carcasses or so. .


We try to have the Scovies butchered @ 16-20 weeks. We recently had some done that were over a year. They weren't good sitters/ hatched almost nothing. The one I'm eating on now was slowed cooked and is great eating.

The WH that hatched 7/5 are noticeably larger and I assume have more meat than the hatchlings that arrived here in Aug.

Why do you do them at 12 weeks?


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Pin feathers are mostly in at that age, and their growth isn't fast enough to justify the feed past about 12 weeks. Does that mean we get to them at 12 weeks? Hardly ever.  We have approximately a bazillion muscovies - some older, some younger - that we'll be doing this coming weekend. I want to do everything I'm not keeping that's 12+ weeks.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

My butchering schedule is largely determined by feathering - you really don't want to butcher a duck that is growing new feathers, they are hard enough to pluck between molts. The next thing is size and how much they eat. After 12 weeks the feathers usually are ok until spring and they won't grow much, certainly not nearly as fast on the feed you give them. By twelve weeks, I have a good idea which ones I might want to keep for eggs or breeding next year, they have their first adult feathers and color and I can see size, build, etc. 

Also, I want to have extra ducklings out of the way before cold weather sets in here and feed and work increase.


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## OJ Rallye (Aug 4, 2005)

Not my favorite time but I had 14 more Scovies hatch last week.


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