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The 104 Homestead

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By Jessica Lane | Last updated on January 18, 2017

Choosing the Right Duck Breed for Your Homestead

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Over the years ducks have been bred for different purposes, primarily meat production and egg production. If you plan to raise ducks on your homestead, it is important to choose a duck breed that best suits your particular needs. All domesticated duck breeds originated from the mallard. The male mallard has a couple of curled tail feathers, called sex feathers. No other non-domesticated ducks have these sex feathers.

If you plan to raise ducks on your homestead, it is important to choose a duck breed that best suits your particular needs.

Duck Breeds for Meat Production

Heavy and medium weight ducks typically are raised for meat production. The main breeds are the Pekin and the Muscovy.

Pekins

Most of duck meat produced in the United States is from the Pekin. A Pekin usually reaches six to seven pounds in around two month’s time. They are popular because of their fast growth rate and yellow skin. They are considered a general purpose breed because the hens lay fairly large numbers of white-shelled eggs.

If you plan to raise ducks on your homestead, it is important to choose a duck breed that best suits your particular needs.

Muscovies

Muscovies are a wonderful choice because they free-range well. Their meat is leaner than meat from ducks, which tends to be fatty. Wait, Muscovies aren’t ducks? Well, maybe not. Skip to the end for more details. Male Muscovy can become very large at ten to twelve pounds. Females tend to be much smaller at five to six pounds.

Duck Breeds for Egg Production

Runner and Campbells are excellent egg laying duck breeds, often laying more eggs than most chickens over the course of the year. Both tend to be nervous and flighty and they will stampede when startled. Both duck breeds are good foragers, but also do well in confinement if they are provided with a good layer feed.

Runners

Runner ducks cannot fly, are lightweight, and stand upright like skinny little penguins. They run rather than waddle, which is how they get their name. Typically, a runner duck lays four eggs per week for about eight months, but specialty bred ones can produce more than 300 eggs in a year. Darker varieties of runner ducks lay a blue-tinted egg. Runner ducks don’t make nests and often drop their eggs wherever they happen to be. Because of their small size, runners eat less feed than meat ducks.

If you plan to raise ducks on your homestead, it is important to choose a duck breed that best suits your particular needs.

Campbells

Campbells were developed by Adele Campbell in the late 1800’s. They are a cross of a runner and a rouen in an attempt to create a breed of ducks that would lay well but have bigger bodies. The offspring were crossed with mallards to increase their hardiness. There is only one variety of Campbell ducks—khaki. We have khakis and have been very happy with them. They seldom become broody, but we have a couple that have brooded in the past. They lay an off-white egg. As long as you provide supplemental lighting, Campbells will continue to lay through the winter months.

Dual Purpose Duck Breeds

If you have a small homestead and you want to raise a bird that can be used for meat and eggs, you’ll want a dual purpose duck breed. These birds are heavy enough to make processing worthwhile, but also have high productivity.

Welsh Harlequins

Another stellar layer is the Welsh Harlequin duck. This colorful breed can serve as a meat duck and as a prolific producer of white or tinted eggs, producing 240-330 white shelled eggs yearly. They are highly adaptable, active foragers, excellent producers of lean meat, and beautifully colored.

If you plan to raise ducks on your homestead, it is important to choose a duck breed that best suits your particular needs.

Swedish

Swedish ducks come in two colors which are actually considered different breeds. Blue and black. Swedish are similar in size to the Rouen and are very hardy ducks. They are heavy enough to be used for meat, weighing in at 5-6 1/2 pounds, and they lay approximately 180 eggs per year. We have Blue Swedish and have fallen in love with this flightless duck. 

A Note on Muscovies

Another bird widely kept in domestication is the Muscovy. Unlike all other domesticated ducks, the Muscovy isn’t derived from mallards. In fact, it’s been called into question whether Muscovies are actually ducks or a separate perching waterfowl classification of it’s own. Only in body shape are they like ducks. They nest, attack predators, and hiss like a goose and they roost like a chicken. Their plump breast is similar to the breast of a turkey. Muscovies are still found in the wild in the warm regions of South America and are raised domestically throughout the world.

If you plan to raise ducks on your homestead, it is important to choose a duck breed that best suits your particular needs.

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Jessica Lane

I am a non-traditional homesteader. What is a non-traditional homesteader? I'd like to think we are the people who don't fit the mold. I am a busy mom on a small bit of property with not a lot of financial resources, but I am figuring out how to live the life I want. A homesteader's life.
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Filed Under: Homestead Animals Tagged With: Ducks

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Comments

  1. Kimberly L Kirby says

    April 1, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    I have 8 female and 5 male khakis. I am adding 10 more females. I was thinking 9 Welsh Harlequin and 1 khaki. I want birds around the same size and good layers. Is this good or do you have recommendation of different females?

    Reply
  2. Missy binger says

    October 27, 2019 at 12:24 pm

    I have raised muscovy for 4 years and each year I’ve had one that always dies. They either eat something they arent supposed to or wont go into the warm shelter I provide them during the winter and am currently getting out of them because I’m always losing them. That’s what led me to this post. I’m now on a desicion between welsh harlies or swedes because I feel like they might be better suited for my homestead. But I wont be starting that up until my fiance and I have a place of our own so I can make sure my duck pen area is cleared of anything harmful and that I can build the type of warm shelter that will better suit the ducks and myself lol I own ancona ducks right now and they are the best they can gain up to 4 or 41/2 pounds of meat and are a dual purpose bird. I love them so much and will be keeping them I have two males and 3 females

    Reply
  3. Tammie says

    December 25, 2017 at 7:01 am

    IM just curious why you mentioned that only the Mallard have Drake feathers, that’s not accurate at all. Most domestic male ducks have the curled feather. I would advise you to amend your information as it is inaccurate.

    Reply
    • Jessica Lane says

      December 26, 2017 at 10:05 am

      Hi Tammie,

      The sentence right before that states that all domestic breeds of ducks come from mallards. All domesticated ducks (true mallards and mallard hybrids) have a drake feather. Most wild ducks do not.

      Reply
  4. Charity says

    July 10, 2017 at 12:22 pm

    I started with Muscovies, but the females flew off at different times and in a woodland, I’m sure they ended up bobcat food. I ended up with a mixed dual purpose flock. Buff Orpington hen ducks and drakes, and Cayuga hen ducks. Buff Orpington drakes over Cayuga hen ducks result in sexlink ducklings, which is useful if you want to keep and/or sell hen ducklings (charcoal drakes and chocolate hen ducks.) While the literature says they are about the same weights, I found the Cayuga to dress out just a little bit heavier. Great winter layers, good broodies (particularly the Buff Orpington), and great dual purpose naturally reproducing flock.

    Reply
    • Darren says

      March 24, 2019 at 10:54 pm

      From what I know there are no hen ducks. A female is a duck and. The male is a drake.

      Reply
  5. Kaden says

    October 4, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    I love Muscovies ours are very smart and seemed to have a sense of humor. Ours also do some tricks and got along well with the chickens. They do all kind of bunch up away from the other ducks and chickens when they go in for the night so they might be a little stuck up :). We have females who fly and look gorgeous in the air but they only fly when they are young ( under a year or so ) and no males every flew. Not sure maybe weight is a factor. We didn’t eat ours they were pets and we called it duck TV because they were so fun to watch.

    Reply

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My name is Jessica Lane. I live a nearly self-sufficient lifestyle with my three beautiful children on 5 1/2 acres in Maine. We raise Nigerian Dwarf goats, ducks, and chickens, and we grow as much food as we can. What we can’t grow or produce ourselves we barter for. If we can homestead where we live, what’s stopping you?

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