Abattoir prices

wow when you see those bodies going flying around in there for that long makes you wonder they dont come out all bruised and beat up!  maybe it tenderizes them at same time.

For processing ducks you can buy "Duck wax" It's some sort of wax that you melt and mix with the water I believe. It clings to the feathers and then you can just peel the wax off.

sounds like a slick and tidy way to do it callducks.  I wonder if a paraffin wax you use for jam sealing would be the right stuff?  wonder if you have to do a rough job first and then do the wax for the cleanup job?

mirycreek wrote:sounds like a slick and tidy way to do it callducks.  I wonder if a paraffin wax you use for jam sealing would be the right stuff?  wonder if you have to do a rough job first and then do the wax for the cleanup job?

Not sure- Heres the cheapest place I have found [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I have no clue about wax haha

Miry here is a video showing with the wax


and here is one using the paraffin wax

and here is the 'before and after' waxing picture:

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LOL
So have to ask is that you being the Model KathyS LOL

  
Haha! I will have to just let everyone wonder about that!

Even with the duck wax, that still seems like a very time consuming process. It would be fine for a few of ones own personal ducks, but not on any decent scale for resale.
Oh and the grammatical error of "than" instead of "then" several times in that duck wax video....sorta ticked me off.

Fuzzy's ducks got the hot wax treatment and are beautiful!

Holy I missed a lot today.

I ordered the wax from the states. 20lbs. Its defiantly a different process. They double scald double pluck then dipped them in the wax. It was 25% wax to 75% water.

So the story goes. Mine came out beautifully. I have a pic on my phone I will have to down load 1st. Even the 3 black runners turned out not bad.

There was another producer who had 28ish 22 week old pekings. They were horrible. I heard lots of cursing from the trailer. Even with the wax they were awful and the last dozen were skinned to speed up the process.

I have researched and it appears true that the ducks need to be in a particular feather growth cycle to make it work well.

I sent mine all close to 16weeks old. They had fully completed their 12 week feathering. If you miss that and do them around 6 months they are getting another set of feathers and the plucking will be horrible even with the wax.

Farmchick they are closed for the season now but I am not sure how jaded they are  

I did my ducks with the wax method and it worked fine. You go through a lot of wax. I melted the wax in a pot of water. You have to dry pluck them a bit first, I do find it much better than trying to scald them. The skin seems to be much more tender than chicken.

we do our own ducks and use the " feather off " that is for chickens and our plucker.. we have to pull a few large feathers sometimes and a bit of pin feathers but nothing to write home about. I did some research and saw that Baking Soda can be used in the water also to loosen feathers. Going to try that next time. we tried the dish soap but hubby wasn't impressed...... there are some colonies around here that do birds, but only the white ones, only on the days they are doing their own birds, and only in large lots........ this is what I have heard so haven't gone looking myself.

fuzzylittlefriend wrote:Farmchick they are closed for the season now but I am not sure how jaded they are  

I'm going to say "Very jaded".  This in response to my request for info on duck processing in future:

Hello,

We have done 4 batches of ducks to date and 3 of the batches have been a
money losing disaster.  At this point, we are unable to offer duck
processing at a reasonable cost (we lose money at $15/duck) and will likely
have a staff revolt if we take duck processing bookings again.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Andrea Gunner, P.Ag.
North Okanagan Poultry Processing Inc.

Great............

I did call the one in Enderby and asked the question, which was going to be relayed to the owner, but haven't heard back, which I guess is the answer.

I guess I'm not going to be processing any ducks in future, unless it's one just for myself now and then if I have to. If my current pair (ha ha "IF") of Muscovies hatch ducklings next year, I'll have ducklings for sale (although they may be hard to sell if one cannot get them processed anywhere). *sigh* Too bad!!

I guess there will be road trips to fraservalley duck and goose farm

I'll have to look into that. Or "Trevor", also in the Fraser Valley. I spoke with him last year but it got too late in the year to drive down there.

Boy, ducks. Back on the coast I would say we had raised over the years more than 100 ducks of the Muscovy breed. Had them processed and ate them. Two families on a farm that love duck, well, say no more. The lines that we had at our place were enormous birds when returned from the abattoir, still trying to remember the weights, I always weigh my processed birds, but I think the average weight was 2,800 grams. My scale only weighed in the metric, so got used to that, I should do a conversion, so others that know and use imperial will know what this average was. Yes, approximately 6.1 pounds. That is a fair sized carcass. I know the muscovy breed can get much bigger. We used Trevor in Langley, for our muscovy ducks, turkeys and chickens. Back then, about 4 years ago, the price to process chickens was 2.50, ducks $4.00 and turkeys $4.50. There was NEVER, EVER, EVER, any of our ducks waxed, they were treated exactly as the chickens and turkeys and there was rarely any little pin feathers to remove. If there was a mere few, easily pulled out with eyebrow pluckers. I ignored any tiny feathers and would just cook them if they were there, my Sister was a little more particular, she used the tweezers. Also, having the ducks processed between I think it was 12-16 weeks old, the feathers were more easily removed. I wonder if he still is doing this, he had a most beautiful and clean place, outside, and I was always impressed and would stay until birds were done. About half an hour from start to end, smiling. Too bad that waxing ducks seems to be the normal, I don't get it. And this comes from one that has seen probably no less than 100 duck processing. Oh well. It is what it is I guess. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Has anyone used Farmcrest Foods Ltd in Salmon Arm, BC?

farmchiq wrote:I'll have to look into that.  Or "Trevor", also in the Fraser Valley.  I spoke with him last year but it got too late in the year to drive down there.

Do we have contact info for "Trevor", I'd much rather have someone else do my ducks. I didn't enjoy doing those 6 last saturday at all. Waay harder and more time consuming than a chicken. I also didn't like the fact that I had to wack the wings off em due to the feathers just not coming out.

I have also had Trevor do Muscovy ducks. Once there were some small feathers left in and he told me if they were a couple of weeks older that wouldn't have happened. Could Muscovies pluck easier than mallard types? Yes, Trevor still does it. I have his tel# somewhere.